Though the accommodations are nice and the location is close to the West Entrance of Glacier National Park, the new owners are not hospitable people and seem a bit unhinged.... For example, we arrived late one evening from Glacier Park, around 9:00 pm, and I was planning to make some spaghetti for a later dinner for my two kids. When I looked for a pot to boil the noodles, however, I couldn't find one, and then I saw the sign by the phone in the cabin that read "If you need anything," to call their service number. When I called the number, there was no answer, and since I had stayed at the Great Bear Inn before, I walked over to the main building, which was always open for guests, to find someone to help.
When I found the place quiet and the manager's office closed, however, I went into the public kitchen area and took a pot, walked back to my cabin, and made the spaghetti. After my family ate the food, I washed and cleaned the pot and returned it to the kitchen.
The following day I called the landlady, named "Bunny," and asked what I needed to do to check out the following day. When she asked me why I had called the previous night, I explained I needed to borrow a pot to cook spaghetti, but after I tried calling and then walked over to the office and found no one to help, I borrowed one from the public kitchen area, used it to boil the noodles, and after eating, I had cleaned the pot and promptly returned it to the kitchen.
Bunny was irate and scolded me for doing this, insinuating that I had broken some sort of unpublished rule that the kitchen was off limits to guests. When I objected and said that I had both called and walked to the office for help, she was became rude to me, saying that she had an early bedtime schedule and could not be bothered after 9:00 pm. When I expressed my dissatisfaction at this blatant disregard of the customer's need, she became hostile, and when I told her that I had paid over $1500 to stay in the supposedly furnished cabin for three nights and therefore had a reasonable expectation to have the place furnished as was stated in the advertisement. When Bunny insisted that the pot I had needed was included in the kitchen area, I looked once again and finally found it -- but it was stored behind a wooden panel that was stuck due to poor maintenance of the property. When I explained this to her she was entirely unsympathetic and cold toward me...
I have no ill-will toward Bunny and her husband Larry who manage the new version of the "Great Bear Inn." I had stayed at the resort twice before in previous years and under the former management my experience then was happy and the service was excellent. However I can no longer recommend the Great Bear Inn because the new management apparently has no idea of what decent customer service means.
Let me close by saying that on the day of our departure, Larry, the husband of Bunny, aggressively came to the cabin and pounded on the door telling us to get out because it was almost 11:00 AM. At the time I was washing dishes we used there because there was a sign posted that said that all residents must wash the dishes before leaving, but Larry told me to just forget it and get out... He and Bunny then sat in their noisy ATV jeep in front of cabin until we finished packing the car and we drove off.... Disgraceful and childish behavior, to say the least, and I will NEVER stay at the Great Bear Inn again.
For these and other reasons, not the least being the $500 per night price for staying there, I EMPHATICALLY DO NOT RECOMMEND THE GREAT BEAR INN. read more
