I'll preface this review by saying that while the skiing at Copper is very good, and the mountain is relatively uncrowded and easy to ski for a family of mixed abilities, the experience my extended family had at one particular rental condo was so poor that we've requested a partial refund. The fact that I haven't heard even a hint of a response from Copper management only reinforces my negative feelings about the whole experience.

PLEASE NOTE: This review applies to a Copper Mountain-owned property, not privately owned condos or homes. Bottom line: Avoid Copper-owned properties if at all possible; choose one of the many wonderful privately owned alternatives for around the same price without the tremendous disappointment.

We just returned from a 5-day vacation at Copper, staying at the 3-bedroom Woods #4 in the Fairway neighborhood. While the skiing was excellent, the walk to Super Bee was short, and the front desk and housekeeping/maintenance crew were all outstanding, the actual condo we were given was a disgrace.

The Woods #4, in case you aren't familiar with it, is actually pictured in shot #3 in the online slide show for the "Gold" Fairway neighborhood accommodations. Little did we know - Gold doesn't mean very good. It means something quite different.

When we first entered the condo, we were greeted by an overpowering smell of cigarette smoke - though the condo is clearly advertised and marked as no smoking. And this wasn't just a faint odor - this was as if 10 fraternity brothers had camped out in the condo for a week doing nothing but chain smoking.

We came to Copper for a family reunion, and with our 1-year-old and several cousins with severe allergies, this was not only unacceptable, but dangerous.

Needless to say, I immediately returned to the check-in desk, where I was told there were no equivalent accommodations available, but a housekeeping/maintenance person would be sent asap to address the situation.

I returned to the condo very disappointed, but found a maintenance person waiting with an ozone air cleaner, which he said was what was normally used to remove the smell of cigarette smoke. In retrospect, that was a major red flag - you plainly assert that your lodgings are non-smoking, yet here I was with a condo that smelled like a dive bar. Clearly I had not received what I paid a great deal of money for. (Hence the refund request.)

In any event, it turned out we needed to vacate the condo for at least an hour to allow the ozone machine to run, since its output is considered poisonous, the maintenance person told us. Great! Arrive, and then be forced to leave immediately.

We did so, and had a nice dinner in Frisco, but of course when we returned the cigarette smell was only slightly better, as we expected.

We ran the ozone machine three times over the next several days in an effort to get rid of the cigarette smell. When that didn't have much of an effect, we began boiling herbs on the stove in an attempt to counteract the smell. By the end of our vacation, we were in a relatively normal-smelling condo.

So, to sum up, we spent virtually the entire length of our stay attempting to remove an offensive and potentially dangerous particulate cloud that never should have been there in the first place.

The horrible smell in the condo was problem #1. Problem #2 was the state of the condo itself. My entire family is absolutely certain almost nothing in this condo has been updated since the late 1980s. This was simply unacceptable.

I paid nearly $4,000 to rent this condo for six days, yet the decor and condition of the condo was roughly equivalent to that of a cheap motel I would instantly leave. No - in fact, I've been in cheap motels that are better decorated and in better condition.

The wall to wall carpet was stained everywhere; the blinds were semi-functioning; the two televisions were both cast-offs that haven't been seen in any respectable rental accommodations in 20 years; the windows were only occasionally functioning and their paint was peeling; the furniture was roughly equivalent to what you'd find left out on the curb for free; the thermostat in the living room was broken - a fact printed in a friendly notice on the wall - "just use the fireplace," the notice said; and the entire place was just shoddy and falling apart from top to bottom.

Have I mentioned the lack of heat in one of the bedrooms? Yes - for whatever reason, the homeowner of this property removed the heating ducting from one of the three bedrooms (the front bedroom with twin beds), leaving that room a freezing no-man's land. We had a very competent man from the mechanical maintenance team come over to see if he could fix the issue, but after several hours in the crawl space under the condo, informed us that he couldn't repair the ductwork without major effort that the condo owner didn't approve. Unfortunately, we had counted on using that room during our stay. Oh well!

So in the end, we had a wonderful time skiing, but dreaded coming back to the condo each day because of the outdated, smelly, broken, and generally unacceptable conditions there. We were even more disappointed after we visited our relatives, also at Copper for the family reunion. They were staying in a privately owned condo in the Woods, and amazingly, their condo didn't smell like smoke, had a working thermostat, had been newly redecorated and remodeled within the past few years, contained FOUR flat-screen TVs, and really felt like home, a wonderful experience for both parents and kids. Most importantly - they paid just slightly more than we did.

So we are extremely disappointed, and will never rent with Copper Mountain again unless it's through a third party. What we experienced simply isn't worth the money we paid, and wasn't something that any family should be subjected to on vacation.

Where do I start. The first few years were great at copper. It has been a slow decline since 2004 when we took the entire family. There are always issues with the hot tubs not working, the phone or humidifier not working in mountain plaza and the removal of snow with the bulldozer at 10:30pm. After a full day of skiing the family would like to sleep. As far as the customer service it is slim to none. If you are on the mountain the ski partol was great. As far as the room service and the ski rentals it was a hassle and some of the young kids working there are just not what you would find at Disney World.
Six years ago my family and I enjoyed this resort but it has continued to decline in service as well as in value. We will not go back. Go to Vail or Breckenridge. Spend a little more and enjoy a week with your family.
Copper

My husband, myself, and two friends stayed in Tucker Mountain Lodge for four nights- a few pros, lots of cons. The cons are enough to prevent me from staying here again.

Pros:
1. the location was excellent, within walking distance of the American Eagle lift. when booking the reservation, we were more concerned with the location than the quality of the room, so in this respect we got what we were looking for.

2. free garage parking. it was nice not having to scrape the windows or pay through the nose for parking.

Cons:
1. It was completely unclear how or where to check in- we arrived around 8pm, following Mapquest directions, and we ended up having to ask in several stores in order to figure out where to go. The "209 Ten Mile Circle" address given by hotels.com was not where we actually checked in, or where we stayed. Not to mention there were almost no visible addresses on any of the buildings. "Center Village at Copper Mountain Resort" refers to a whole group of places rather than one particular hotel, so don't expect a "front desk" of any kind that you can get to without driving. Make sure you get really, really specific directions if you are staying here.

2. The room had absolutely no thermostat, believe me we checked everywhere. Everyone woke up covered in sweat the first night, we had no choice but to crack the door. Of course made the room freezing cold in the morning, and there was no good way to get more blankets since, again, there's no front desk.

3. The beds were probably the worst I have experienced, and I'm not a princess when it comes to sleeping accommodations. Our friends slept on the pull-out couch the first night (you could feel every single spring), but after that elected to sleep on the floor. My husband and I shared the murphy bed, which was awfully hard even for a murphy bed. I woke up to turn over every few hours because my hipbones would get so sore.

4. The housekeeping service is only every three days, which was only a minor inconvenience to me, but I figure its worth mentioning. There's a coffee maker (its dirty though) in the room, but only one packet of coffee so if you're a coffee drinker you'll have to go elsewhere. There is no wireless internet, which I'd imagine would be irritating if you were traveling on business.

5. The "ski lockers" were a joke- ours was in the parking garage (some are on the first floor and are nicer, but those people probably paid more for their room) and had NO TOP to it. We could literally drop our boots in the top without unlocking the locker. My main complaint though is that it took about an hour to figure this out. We found a ski locker key in the room, but it did not unlock the corresponding locker on the first floor. After making several phone calls, we were informed that our set of lockers was in the parking garage.

6. In general, everything seemed run-down and old. I understand that you get what you pay for (our room was about $200 a night) but this place stating that it has a "fitness center" and a "spa" is a bit of an overstatement. Don't stay here if you want a romantic vacation or plush surroundings. Everything is functional at best. The room would have been tiny even if there had only been two of us (i'd say its about 10 x 12, you can just barely walk around the bed when its folded down)

Overall I'd say that if you want a good ski in ski out location and nothing else, then this is about as good of a deal as you're going to get. The deal-breaker for me (as you may have guessed) would be the lack of a front desk is very inconvenient for someone not completely familiar with Copper Village. Even just a sheet in the room explaining where anything was (laundry? hot tub? check-out time? where to rent skis?) would have been nice.

I wouldn't recommend staying in Copper Village if you're looking for any sort of nightlife either- obviously this isn't the fault of the hotel, but I wish I had known how little there is to do in the Village before electing to stay here. There are very few shops, and most of them are the same type of thing- t-shirts with funny sayings and ski gear.

There are a couple bars that attract a decent-sized crowd between 4-7pm, after that the whole village is pretty dead. We went out as a group to several different places on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights and the pace never picked up.

The pizza place is by far the best food for the price, but is definitely not where you'd go for the ambience. The Mexican food place was pretty gross and way overpriced. CB Grille is awesome, but about $35 a plate. I really enjoyed the coffee and waffles place, but they close at 6pm (so do most of the stores) so don't expect to hang out there very long.

Hope that was helpful!

This resort proved to be far below my expectations. The couches were ripped and uncomforatble, the tv and dvd didn't work, the hot tubs are broken until the end of the season, and the fireplace doesn't work properly. The service was not up to par and I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

however, the village itself at copper mountain is great. The workers are very friendly and the slopes are wonderful. Copper has some very nice restaurants and shops. i would recommend coming to coper mountain, but not coming to this specific hotel.