I will echo some of the issues raised by other reviewers.
I stayed her first week of January 2012.
Pros: huge room, thought it was a mistake, I signed upmfornwhatever the lowest price was and had a king bedroom, huge bathroom, living room with kitchenette and another bedroom with bunk beds! The appointments/ decor were excellent. I had a fireplace.
Cons: as others have said, this is a condo building, not a true hotel, which many many ski resorts due now and isn't necessarily an issue, I had a great stay at Hotel Terra in Jackson hole last year, for instance. But a couple of issues I had here were consequences of that. I'll go,in order of most to least irksome. First, as some one else stated, this place is SO HOT! The heat is radiant from the heated floors, there is no way to cool the apartment, you can only shut off the heat and open windows, which is what our porter advised. Well this is obviously a laughable solution and unacceptable - even with the heat off all week if you don't open the windows the temp quickly rises to 77-79 degrees and it is so dry my nose is still bleeding days later and I've never had a nosebleed in my life! Turn the fireplace on for a few minutes and you will be dying, which stinks because a fireplace in the mountains is one of the greatest things about these vacations. Opening the windows is a ridiculous solution not only because it's obviously bitter cold next to the windows and impossible to regulate but most od the rooms, including mine, are on the ground floor, which is the fourth floor here. I realize that crime is not an issue in T ride but I don't feel comfortable with leaving my screen door open all the time. Not only do I have thousands of dollars of ski equipment and clothes that someone could reach in and snag, but I don't really feel like strangers walking to the pool looking in at me and my girlfriend. There isn't security around the building, the gates to the pool have no locks. The room also has NO LIGHTING - I mean none! It's annoying at first and gradually gets maddening and depressing after a few days, it's pitch black in the middle of the afternoon. Specific to my room- which is room 44- the bedroom shares a wall with the kitchen, your head is about six inches from their sinks and stacks of plates. Every morning they start banging plates and glasses at 6 am or a little earlier, and it's not distant, it's impossible to sleep and obnoxious to listen to even If you are awake. This is unique to the condo platform because you couldn't find a hotel in the world that would have a room next to the kitchen. On nights that they serve dinner- wed through sat- the banging goes to a little after 11, so that's six hours of sleep you are paying hundreds of dollars a night for. Also a condo issue- rooms are lockoffs separated from another unit by a door. If you are next to a family thanks entertaining several people at night like we were, you might as well be in their apartment because the sound travels right through that door like it's not there.
If you do stay here and they give you room 44, quickly ask for another room or ask for a cancellation of your reservation.
Some less problematic things- the building is odd, there's no lobby you enter a weird little room and take an elevator to the fourth floor, there's a cramped "lobby" with two desks oddly wedged in like a dorm room, and if you aren't on the fourth floor you have to go to a different elevator. The "lobby" fireplace can never be turned on because it would get as hot as the sun in seconds, see above. The pool is teeny tiny and only for dipping and for those coming in the summer, there is no exposure to sun, it's in a canyon between two close condo buildings. The hottib, which most people like to use in the winter, is also tiny, fits three people comfortably, and is in the same rather ugly fencedin concrete canyon between buildings.
The location is actually not good at all. Yea it's ski in ski out but you have to take an elevator down, then walk up a hill to get to the skis, then ski down to the gondola. More importantly if not skiing it's kind of a long circuitous walk to the gondolas and you will be making that walk A LOT because there is NOTHING to do or eat or shop for in the mountain village and you will have to take the gondola to town for breakfast, for dinner, and for any non-skiing activity.
People should realize that the town is in a deep box canyon that the community and the lack of room will not allow any further development - so to grow, and because the geometry of the ski mountain had to expand up that way- the resort of telluride expanded to themountain village and came with a gondola and a promotional campaign. but believe me, the gondola is cold and dark and not quick- you'll be taking it nearly in the morning and kong after the sun goes down at night and it takes probably twenty minutes, and you'll probably have to ride with people you may or may not want to ride with. WHY BOTHER? stay in hotel Columbia Or an upgraded room in hotel telluride in the town and enjoy your vacation! Now, if it's dumping snow, the mountain village wont be as big a deal cause you'll ski all day anyway.
Hope this was informative. A week in telluride is pretty amazing no matter where you stay and regardless of the snowfall, so if you booked lumber don't sweat it. But I wouldn't recommend this hotel for any price above 200 per night.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
