Otter Hotel

“Customer service at its best!”

This is the first leg of our "holiday of a lifetime," and if the rest of the trip lives up to this standard, we will be delighted! This hotel truly knows how to train its employees; without exception, they excel at customer service. From the initial check-in to our final goodbye, we were made to fe… more

This is the first leg of our "holiday of a lifetime," and if the rest of the trip lives up to this standard, we will be delighted! This hotel truly knows how to train its employees; without exception, they excel at customer service. From the initial check-in to our final goodbye, we were made to feel right at home. Everyone we've encountered in Canada has been incredibly friendly, but the team here takes it up a notch. The bar staff are super chill—particularly Lois, who went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. Additionally, the restaurant lives up to its fabulous reputation, with every dish hitting the mark for fine dining. The hotel itself has a genuinely luxurious feel, offering a sense of space and scale you just don't get in budget accommodation. While the rooms are very well-appointed, they don't quite hit a 5-star level. If we had any minor criticism, it’s that for the price, you might expect a bit more finesse in the room's finishings. That said, we would not hesitate to come back!

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“Exceptional hotel, best of our trip!”

Exceptional hotel, best of our trip! First thing to say is what a beautifully designed hotel this is. I am an over-planner and began planning this trip from BC - Alaska - Banff over a year ago. I over research everything, looking for the best quality possible accommodations for our budget. I was … more

Exceptional hotel, best of our trip! First thing to say is what a beautifully designed hotel this is. I am an over-planner and began planning this trip from BC - Alaska - Banff over a year ago. I over research everything, looking for the best quality possible accommodations for our budget. I was looking for a calm and luxurious ending to our trip with views if possible. The newly designed Otter Hotel more than met my expectations! These are the highlights: - Large and spotless room and bathroom (very hard working housekeeping team) with EPIC mountain view - pay the extra and book early / stay a bit longer to take advantage of their longer stay offers. It is worth it! - Free Transit passes were great and I enjoyed the trip into town and back - very frequent, right outside and kind drivers. Just park your car or do what we did and use airport transfers and keep the local area unclogged with traffic. Parking is un-fun in Banff so really appreciated the transit pass. We also walked into town and back one day, it’s doable. - In room coffee making or tea provided (personalised) a nice touch with REAL milk or oat milk in tiny bottles. I detest single use plastics and the powdered or plastic sealed creamers provided in the US and much of Canada so real milk was glorious for a Brit like me that enjoys tea with the cow stuff and coffee with the oat stuff :) - Did I mention the gorgeous Rocky Mountain locally sourced bathroom products? With zero (and I mean REALLY zero) single use plastics - the planet and me thank you. - On site restaurant felt very premium and fine dining - we enjoyed it but ended up using sister property’s restaurant Sudden Sally’s next door. - Hot pools and fire pits wonderful! - Lounge area super welcoming and atmospheric. - We got access to our room earlier than expected which we really valued. My one thought is on AC/ heater unit which was a bit noisy and felt slightly out of place in this upscale hotel. We opened our window instead as temps were mild/ warm for us but perhaps in cold or hot temps it might be an issue for some. Even better if each side of bed had its own bedside table / shelf. There is plenty of room to allow this. All hotels should be like this! Would absolutely return if we come back. Thank you.

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“Lovely stay and experience”

Fabulous experience. We moved to this hotel late at night from the Elk & Avenue which was utterly horrendous. The room was lovely and front desk staff so helpful. The hot pools delightful and the breakfast beautiful. Fabulous place to stay and highly recommend it when in Banff.