Sandman Hotel Cranbrook

The most accommodating place in town. Wonderful management and staff to boot.
I highly recommend this establishment anytime of year.

Hotel was older, smaller rooms and bathrooms, staircase slants a lot plus no elevator so make sure to request a main floor room if you need any kind of accessibility accommodations. The bathroom tap leaked and the toilet did not always flush. Pool was closed, sounds like it has been for months with no intent to reopen, should be taken off the website as an amenity. We checked the website before booking and it was not clear that the pool was closed or we would have booked elsewhere, very disappointing for a week long family vacation. The room cleaning is set up by request only, but when you place the placard on your door you just get fresh towels, extra soaps and empty garbages. Can be challenging for a week long vacation with kids when trying to also keep floors clean and beds remade regularly. Also, the internet is intermittent and cuts out regularly. The staff seemed nice and friendly but we did get a snarky note left when we tried to have some dirty dishes cleared away without putting the cleaning request on the door.

The experience at THIS Sandman was one for the books. Never again will we stay at this OLD smelly place. I think people need to know what they are truly getting for their money.
Let me explain, here's how it went on arrival. Carpet in the entrance is very dirty, check in was fine. Asked if there was a comp breakfast, she said No we have Dennys. The hallway is as dark as a dungeon, then the door to the room was very hard to open and close, A/C was on but very noisy. Had to turn it off to try to sleep. The fan in the bathroom was extremely noisy and the bathroom itself is a joke. You have to turn sideways to enter the toilet area because the door opens towards the tub, the sink and the toilet/tub are separate. The toilet is old school, very low and a very poor flush. Beds are far past their best before date. Then the trains, several during the night, another thing to keep you awake. We would sleep in the car before staying here again. And, for all of this the rate is still $194.88.
The room was clean (good housekeeping) and the 32 inch tv worked just fine. This was a kitchen unit and it had a newer larger fridge.
Usually, Sandman hotels are on par with the best stays. NOT this one.

Sadly this was probably our last stay at the Sandman in Cranbrook. We booked a room through the booking centre about 1.5 hours before arrival. When we went to check in we were told the pool wasn't working & the internet was down and wouldn't be back till the next day. Really? Nothing could of been said when we booked? We took the room as we were tired from a long day of driving and the early start we had the next day. Got up in the morning, went to have a shower and no shower curtain? We packed up and checked out. The lady (manager) at checkout said we should of called and they would of brought one up. Sorry, but as a paying customer I should not have to ask for something that is a basic requirement! They did take $60 off the room after my husband asked. What they seemed to fail to realize is that next week we would of stayed there like we do everytime on our way back home.

I would say this is, in general, a 3 star hotel.

The hotel is safe, the rooms are decently quiet. The rooms are also fairly clean. The staff was great.

Here are the niggles which were a bit annoying that has me dropping the review from 3 to 2 stars:

Wifi: The wifi went down Thursday night and wasn't up when I left on Sunday. The staff were aware of the issue as they asked me if I was having issues on Friday afternoon.

Pool: I stayed from Tuesday through Sunday and the pool was closed the whole time. There was no explanation provided as to why or hint of when it would reopen.

The bathrooms: The bathrooms in the room have a strange layout. The sink is in the bedroom while the tub and toilet are in their own section. This leaves the tub and toilet area feeling extremely tight. The ceiling above the tub/shower was covered in brown specs. The shower nozzle is about 5.5' above the tub so if you are over 6 feet, you will need to duck considerably.

Nice rooms, very polite and efficient staff. Location was fantastic, walking distance to the Rock the Kootenays location.

Staff were excellent - super friendly and helpful! Unfortunately, the property is in bad shape. Internet stopped working intermittently, plumbing was leaky, there was no functioning fan in the bathroom (probably the cause of peeling paint on the ceiling), I found random strands of someone else's long hair in my room, the coffee-maker didn't work, the doors to most rooms were hard to effectively close, the side-entrance door was broken/out of order for 4/5 days of my stay, the pool was closed, the toilet paper was cheap and uncomfortable, I regularly smelled second-hand smoke in my room despite having no open windows, and my room was right next to the parking lot.

Very old building with uneven floors. Door to the room won't lock, you shouldn't have to slam it hard to get the lock to work. The chain for the door is coming off screws are popping out.
The bathtub had alot of hair in it. Gotta climb stairs there is no elevator to take luggage up.

On the day of our check in, we got a call from the desk staff stating that the room we booked was no longer available to us. We were told there was a glitch in the booking system. We insisted that they find us a room elsewhere, we would pay the room rate we booked, they would pay the difference. About 30 minutes later, we got a call back stating they figured out the problem, and our room is available now. Great! We arrived 3 hours later, and checked in. The room was clean and comfortable. However, the walls and doors are paper thin. It was so noisy from other guests (which I think was a large group).
Between the stress of not knowing if we had a place to stay that night as we were literally enroute, and not sleeping before our 10 hour drive home the next day, I don’t trust this hotel enough to try booking again.

Excellent customer service from Matthew. Carried both of our heavy bags to second floor. Did his very best to make our stay a good one.

My name is Paul Hindson. I am managing partner at a 25 room hotel and RVpark in Crawford Bay BC called Kokanee Chalets.
After a gruelling summer at the hotel, I escaped overnight to Cranbrook and checked into the Sandman Inn.
During an afternoon snooze, I realized the air conditioning unit in my room was not working properly.
I called the front desk and within minutes, “Stacey “ the hotel manager came to my room and determined the unit was defective.
Instead of making me move to another room, Stacey immediately returned with a brand new AC unit, and we worked together to haul the old unit out and install the new one.
This was definitely an “above and beyond “ effort by Stacey. Thanks so much for your excellent service!

Sincerely

(and staying cool)

Paul Hindson
Managing Partner
Kokanee Chalets

We wanted a conjoining room, told we can get it (booked online) just to show up and see our rooms arent. Pricing is absurd for quality of the rooms. One room was warn down with a bad AC smelled every time you turned it on, the other room visibly looked ok as you walk in until you turn on the lights and they fliker non stop and get worse with foots steps on the next floor. The cleanliness of the room could be better. I shouldnt look in the tub to see a bunch of hair stuck in the drain and brown marks on the white tiles and what seems to be "mold" spots. Yy

Check in was a total disaster. I should not have to negotiate a fair room rate. Please do not advertise prices that you are not able to offer. The check in experience was horrible after a long day of travel. It might be time for some staff training to ensure that some standards are met.

The room AC are old and not working properly. The desk agent tried several rooms and all were not working properly. He found one that actually cooled the room and that was much appreciated. However, the AC unit was very loud, but kept the room temperature comfortable. Big thanks to the desk agents help as he was the only one on shift and was being run off his feet.

Price negotiable at the front desk but had to put on my pawn stars hat to get the best deal.

Bathroom was a dud. Not worth $160/night never coming back.
Exhaust fan not there. Someone took it.
Leaking shower head.
Shower tap valve about to fall off.
Bathtub faucet loose and about to fall off, probably leaking in the wall.
Shower curtain rail loose and about to fall off. Curtain sags and causes water to pool and drain onto floor.
Drain doesn’t drain. Enjoy showering in swamp water that never drains. What a scam. Staff didn’t care about non functional bathroom. Avoid Denny’s….

The pool was closed. We were not informed of this at check in or when reservation was make. No breakfast provided that is a industry standard no adays. We stayed two nights so this concerned us.

Super friendly staff. The decor is beautiful and reflects the magnificent scenery of the area.

Good price. Nice room. Soft towels. Bed had an indentation which usually means it's time to replace but I slept just fine.

They don't have queen beds, they're 3/4 beds. Not comfortable. Bathrooms are dirty. Very disappointing.