Crest Trail Lodge

Warning that this place doesn't have an elevator, so good luck hauling large luggage upstairs to the second floor. The woman who checked us in just sat behind the counter like a lump and couldn't be bothered standing to greet us. Just a lazy all around experience. The room was large and clean, so once we didn't have to deal with the front desk or haul anything upstairs the experience was better.

Due to changing circumstances I needed to cancel our reservation and was 20 minutes late calling it in. The office person said it was too late, no adjustment could be made. I had booked through ******* and she told me to call them. They called her and she said I had screamed at her - completely untrue - and refused to accommodate. I was a little distressed due to losing over $300 by 20 minutes but never approached screaming, more tearful than anything. However since I'd upset her somehow I called her back, apologized, and she hung up on me. I did not try calling again so the reservation never cancelled from our end - there was no way to do this by website or email. The night of the reservation and the morning after, I received text inquiries and messages from the same staff person, almost accusatory. There seems to be no way to contact upper management or an owner so I'm resorting to a review. I will never stay at this place, given the lack of courteous customer service and defensiveness of staff. Also, this place is very rigid about cancellation so don't be late if you need to cancel, even by a few minutes, for whatever reason. Sadly I had only looked at reviews on the lodge's website, which are out of date. There is no breakfast and it seems up to mid-2024 there had been warm hospitality. But later reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp show a significant shift to complaint. Options are limited and expensive in the Packwood/Mt. Rainier area but consider another place if you can afford it. Otherwise, have thick skin.

We were traveling cross country and booked all of our hotels for our trip weeks in advance. This hotel was within our driving distance but our car broke down and parts had to be ordered by a Honda dealership. We ended up staying 2 days near the dealership waiting on parts. We called Crest Trail Lodge and explained our problem and they offered to give us a different night stay but we had to be in Seattle for a airline flight. Instead, they charged our credit card for the night's stay. We tried to work with them, but their reply was "it wasn't their car" that had a problem. We even stopped by and showed them the receipt for the car repair as we drove on our way to Seattle but they didn't care. They didn't care about us, they only cared about their bottom line! They didn't loose any thig because the motel was not fully booked. They just made more off us without any effort.

Nice place. Would recommend going after mid May due to road closures. Had some difficulty/delay getting to the property.