Banff Caribou Lodge & Spa

I love this hotel. It’s cozy and inviting! You smell the wood burning fireplace in the lobby when you walk in. Smells very inviting. The rooms are small but nicely decorated. Clean. Beds were decent, I had a good sleep (which is rare, I usually can’t sleep well in hotels). The dip in the big hot tub before bed could of helped. Fabulous hot tub with a big steam room. No regular pool however.
This hotel is decently priced (I paid $ 130 for Friday night), the rooms are small but easily nicer than another big fancy castle up the way and the keg is conveniently located in the lobby. Great to catch a vino when meeting friends or have a meal.

My wife and I stayed here for 6 days on our honeymoon. I was truly floored at the room, service and quality of the place. Overall, it has your typical lodge feel to it, but once you settle in to you room (we stayed in the Norquay suite) it was very relaxing and enjoyable. I also really enjoyed having the bus stop, the keg, Red Earth Spa and parking garage all attached to the hotel.
The Keg restaurant is a great place for a nice meal, especially if you spent all day traveling like we had. The best prime rib and strawberry cheesecake in Banff I’d say!
The hotel service is really nice as well, but I will suggest, if you stay, be aware of the mattress pads on the beds. They sometimes get lumpy and lose their appeal, just toss another blanket across the bed and your good to go!

I wish I could give this hotel 5 star because the hotel itself is really nice, rooms are spacious and clean, staff is great, and my husband said his breakfast sandwich at the Keg was the best he has ever had. However we are leaving after 2 nights exhausted. The location of our room was by the ice maker. It dropped ice (LOUDLY) all night and woke us several times. We had to come to the hotel to nap the next day which was nearly impossible because right under our open window was the laundry exit. Staff yelling back and forth plus outside noise (that wasn’t the hotels fault) kept us from resting. The window was open to keep the room nice and cool. We asked that the ice maker be shut off our second night which they did but at 1:30am apparently someone needed ice and we were woken up again. My exhaustion says to give a 3 star but to be fair not all rooms are in poor location.

Average hotel for the price. Staff is friendly but does not have a lot of information for visitors (ie how long the hikes are at Johnson canyon, didn’t warn us that there were hike restrictions at minnewanka lake or that bear spray is needed.) everything could be easily googled but is always nice when the hotel is able to provide some guidance.
The keg restaurant is reasonable priced and there is no service charge for delivery. The heated pool is nice especially after a day out in the cold. Gym is very small — one treadmill, one elliptical, and some free weights.
Plenty of parking available in the garage for free. Bikes are avail to rent for $ 5/​hr

If you want that nature lodge feel, then this is the place for you.
If it was not for Rocky Mountaineer, I would not have stayed here. It had a weird smell to it.
I wasn’t into the antlers EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING.
We only stayed one night, so it was fine.
It gets really stuffy in the room. We kept the windows open and the fans (ceiling and portable) on all night eventhough it was a chilly 60 °F outside.

The weird thing about reviews of this lodge was that they were either great or awful. So I wasn’t sure what to expect. But the pool on the pictures of a lodge won over and we booked a night there.
Well, staff was very polite and friendly, as for the rest: slow elevator, wide good underground parking. We were lucky with our room, it was very cosy and mattress and pillows were nice and soft. I didn’t notice anything super fancy thou for the «upscale place». Maybe a deer face with horns instead of hangers…
Pool and sauna were nice but pool ended up being much smaller than one think it would judging by the picture. Somebody did really good job with angles!
So I wasn’t impressed and not disappointed at the same time. Still not my favorite in Banff for the same rate

Haven’t even been to this hotel but after the service i just had over the phone, I’m severely rethinking my plans. I’m planning a Bachelorette, so i called down to talk to their «Groups Department» to see about getting a group reservation & rates. Whoever is working that desk, the one with an Australian accent, was one of the most rude and disrespectful people i have ever talked to over the phone. She didn’t even let me finish what i was asking for before cutting me off and rudely saying «We dont accommodate Bachelorettes, or Stagettes anymore. You’ll find most hotels won’t either» So i proceeded to say it was just a group of about 8 – 10 of us and we were just coming down for the spa, nothing crazy. She still said they can’t. So by this point i’m just straight irritated and say «Okay so if i hadn’t have said the word ‘Bachelorette’ and just wanted group rates for 10 people, you could help me, but because i said Bachelorette, you can’t help me now?» her response was «Yes. I can’t stop you from booking online, but i can’t give you a group booking now either» and the conversation was done. Does that make a lot of sense to anyone? You’re going to A) Be that rude to a potential customer and B) Turn away how much money? Great business model. Oh want to know the kicker? They were just holding a «Stagette weekend giveaway contest» on Facebook. I would know, i entered it. So tell me again how you can’t accommodate them? This hotel looked very nice and i was really looking forward to booking it with them and coming down in September. Pathetic.

This was one of the more affordable lodging options for our little group. We made a super long drive from Seattle to Banff, and were exhausted upon check-​in. The staff were helpful, and got us into our lovely room very quickly.
Everything is laid out well, the beds are comfy, the staff was pleasant, and I would totally go back.

Very nice looking hotel. it’s all themed around a log cabin and caribou.
You are greater by a roaring fire as you enter reception.
Everything in the rooms were caribou themed with antlers on the bed headboard, lamps and a fake mounted head in the bathroom.
Bathroom was amazing.
We had an air conditioning vent right outside our door which was really noisy at night.
All the spa stuff is extra and costs a fortune.
Plus, as the receptionist put it, ‘the pool is more like a warm bath.’

We are staying here in the fall but after reading the other reviews our experience is different… in a positive way. We are driving through on our honeymoon and our room rate was reduced and upgraded for free. We were greeted warmly by ciaran (sp) and he arranged for us to check in early and offered up the hot pool while we waited. We decided to have lunch at the keg instead which gave them enough time to clean our room. I wandered through the pools just to check them out and they were clean and I saw no sign of towels that another poster mentioned. The room does lack air conditioning (something to consider in August) and the fan in the washroom doesn’t work. The doors are not sound proof but our floor is fairly quiet. I would come here again as long as its not too hot out.

We loved this place. The room was comfy clean and beautifully appointed. The spa experience was lovely. If I return this is where I’ll stay

Booked for one night however the staff the facilities and the room, also Banff and surrounds, made us stay another night at the fabulous hotel. We were given «a loft room» with a king size bed. Linen quality, toiletries, free parking and vicinity to shopping are all positives. One small problem was as it was rather warm and no air conditioning and only one opening window you need to consider the time of year for these rooms. Other than that the rate and everything else about this hotel was A1.

For $ 190 a night and being described as «the posh place to stay in Banff», I expected more than just a regular hotel. However, our room was nice, the staff was very helpful with suggestions of this to do & the hot tub pool was great. The free bus passes were also great.

Stayed here for 2 nights, was great! The free off-​street parking was a nice touch. Its a bit out of the downtown area, but is perfectly walkable within 10 min. Our room was quiet, clean, and had great toiletries/​towels. Only [minor] complaint was that the beds didnt have fitted sheets for the bottom sheet, so mine kept getting untucked and tangled. But for the price, it was a great value.

Stayed here again while in Banff for 2 nights. Love it. Great place to stay. The hot pool in the basement is very nice too. Parked on the street this time. Excellent!

This is my favourite place to stay in Banff. Located on Banff Ave, away from most of the noise, it is a very well run hotel. Beds are nice and firm, bathrooms very large for Banff, and the free underground parking is a worth at least $ 25 night. Free Wi-​Fi was good.
The Keg in lobby is like all the other Kegs — good for red meat, but this one also does very nice breakfast. The kids breakfast buffet at under $ 10 is the best food deal in Banff.
Red Earth Spa is lovely, but expensive. But after a day of hiking or skiing, it is a lovely treat. Be sure to book before you arrive, as it is very popular.
We did not like our first room as it was right off the lobby and facing the avenue, so we were willingly moved up to the third floor the next day to a balcony room overlooking the playground.
The lack of air conditioning can be an issue for the two weeks of the year that Banff gets hot, but usually it is not an issue.

Ambiance: Poor
Room: Poor
Service/​Concierge: Average
Parking: Reasonable
Location: Average
We got this place through hotwire. The rooms had an old place smell. The location is far end of the main drag so it takes forever to get here with all the slow moving traffic. Unfortunately our trip was prepaid otherwise we would have relocated. There is a keg steak house in the lobby. The service at front desk is sub par in providing guidance. We had to chase the concierge to spare us sometime. The parking is tight and is strange as I guess most people come here in SUV. The walkaways are dingy. I would look elsewhere if I could.

Check in process was quite slow. It appeared that a few people were trying to change rooms due to maintenance reasons. It ended up taking 25 minutes to check in.
They have underground parking but I am not sure of the cost as I booked through
and it was included in the price quoted.
Pool is basically a large hot tub. Not ideal for kids. Pool was very busy in the evening.
Caribou WiFi signal was too weak to connect to. Carpets were old, stained and ripped in places. However, the rooms are updated with a decent décor and appeared clean.
Towels did look stained but smelled clean and there is heat only in the room. So a table fan is supplied as opposed to actual air conditioning.
I will stay here again if I get the same or cheaper room rate. My rating is closer to a 3 than a 2 but I feel the ‘A-​ok’ associated with the 3-​star rating system may mislead some people.
The price was right and it was available a week before I was to travel through the area.

So Banff is a busy tourist destination and an all round great place to be which I get. This has the unfortunate outcome of making lodging expensive. We looked for a hotel that had some good amenities and a reasonable rate and this was the best we could get at $ 139 a night. Walking in and the lobby is clean but when you start to explore, things start to fall off. The carpets on the guest floors are filthy, so bad that wet shoes actually appeared to make the carpets cleaner. The parkade is a mix of cars and construction with broken toilets sitting on luggage carts for guests to see. Not sure about you but seeing that isn’t something that makes me feel great about my stay. The spa and workout area were littered with used towels and the bathroom/​change area didn’t look like it had been cleaned for a while. Displayed prominently in this area were No Alcohol signs which gives off a generally bad vibe especially when trying to relax. The guest rooms heating controls didn’t work and we had to leave the window open to cool the room down. Also, weirdly, the bathroom had no fan which I would think would be an important thing to include when overhauling their rooms. Our room overlooked a garden terrace area that looked like it hadn’t been maintained in a couple of years. My advice would be to pony up the extra dough and stay at a place where the staff care about the facility and want to make the experience memorable. In our opinion, this is a party hotel pure and simple. Would not recommend.

We stayed at the Banff Caribou Lodge & Spa last night. We have previously stayed there for the Winterstart run [or whatever it’s called]. The hotel has renovated many of its rooms — the bathrooms are much nicer than before, and the décor is current. The beds are very comfortable and the TVs are modern flat screens. The front desk staff were excellent and very helpful. The elevators are a little clunky, but they work. Overall, we enjoyed our night, and we will be back.