Downtowner Inn

Although the Inn is older we found it very cozy and comfortable. We found the rooms very clean and quiet. The front desk people were very helpful in letting us know what was going on in Whitefish and nearby areas. The best thing about this place is that it is right downtown and you can walk to all of the shopping and restaurants on Central Avenue. We would certainly recommend others to stay at the Downtowner. We found the rates comparable to some of the other hotels in town. We enjoyed our stay and will be returning on our next visit to Whitefish.

When considering our options for staying in Whitefish, our biggest concern was getting something close to the Amtrak station. It turns out that the Downtowner was the only option within walking distance. It was also more expensive than other hotels, as a result. But based on the reviews that we read from other travelers, it seemed as though this was a decent place, was convenient and would be worth the extra money. We were extremely disappointed when we arrived, to say the least. The entire property is severly outdated, despite their claims regarding a recent renovation. (I cannot even imagine what this place was like prior to their "updates".) The furniture, decor and bathrooms were old and crusty. I do believe that it was technically clean, but the overall feeling of the room was anything but inviting. And the room was stifling when we arrived, as they had not turned on the window air conditioning unit. When we turned it on, much to our dismay, it was incredibly loud, and was placed right under the curtains in such a way that the air blew the curtains all over the place. (This probably sounds ridiculous and believe me, it was!!) So, we thought that we could move the curtains to avoid this problem, but of course once we moved the curtains, we realized that we had the incredibly bright light from the hallway shining directly into our room. (Not to mention the privacy issue with other guests.) In the end, we slept without air conditioning. Overall, this was not a good experience at all and I would not recommend staying here to anyone. Unfortunately, we had to stay two nights - the night we arrived on the train and the night before we departed on the train. They had a 7-day cancellation policy, and we were arriving and departing within a 6-day window, so we were stuck with the room for the second night. I was seriously dreading having to stay there again. If I could do it over, I would have sacrificed convenience for quality and would have stayed somewhere outside of downtown Whitefish or else in nearby Kalispel. With the money we could have saved on the nightly rate, we could have hired a taxi or shuttle to pick us up from the train station.