Silver Spur Motel in Lake City Colorado
If I could award this motel negative stars, I would. I have booked rooms at this motel a dozen times over the past 10 years and have always had a pleasant experience. It WAS a comfy, clean, quiet and peaceful place to come back to after a hard day's climbing in the mountains. The key word here is WAS. Those days are over. Here is an account of my most recent stay (late August 2008).
Let me start with the ice. They have no ice machine; just bags in the liquor store. Up until now they have allowed guests, for no charge, to take a bag whenever they needed it. The first day we did so and took one. By the next day that ice had melted and I went to get another one. You would have thought I was asking for a free room! She looked at me sternly and said, "for two dollars!". I made do without ice that day.
The next issue was the hot water. In my room there was none. The manager (the owner's wife) said the matter would be fixed by 5:00 pm that day. It wasn't. Nor was it the next day. Nor was it the next. Thankfully the other room that we had booked did have hot water, so at least we were able to shower there.
The final and biggest reason for avoiding this place is the NOISE. Since our last stay here they have added on a bar. One that features live music (and most other times a loud jukebox), and one that is about 10 YARDS away from the motel rooms! It doesn't help that their newly built smoking space (outdoors, of course) is even closer to the rooms. So much for a peaceful evening on the deck when a bunch of profane, drunk loudmouths are at it. What was the owner thinking? I always thought that the reason most people booked a motel room was to get some sleep. The owner of the Silver Spur has either forgotten this fact or just decided to ignore it. I suspect the latter. Last night I was kept awake by the LOUD BASS from the band until the last note was played at 2:00 in the morning. It seems clear that it was decided that more money could be made from the bar than from the motel. That is all fine with me. The problem is they did not warn me in advance what to expect. If they had, we would have booked rooms elsewhere.
The day we left I happened to encounter the owner in the parking lot. I asked him if he realized that people were actually trying to sleep that (last) night. After a couple lame excuses ("I told them (the bar) to shut the door", and "well, the place is leased") I brought up the issue of the hot water. His response was, "I never heard about that". His wife had actually been told twice of the problem. Guess there are some communication issues there.
The bottom line is stay away from this "motel" unless you want a place with a toilet to use when the band is playing. For sleeping or enjoying a peaceful evening, forget it.