Rainbow Ranch Lodge - Gallatin County

So we love this place. The only reason we have been hesitant to come was because the food was trash for years. THIS HAS CHANGED. They must have a new chef because the dinner we had tonight was one of the best meals I’ve had in the Gallatin county area ina long long time. Comparable to Feast. This is now a must eat restaurant. Both my fiancé and I were like “damn. Well we willsuffer the food for the rooms and hot tub.” We were shocked with how truly amazing the food was. Everything we had was 10/10.This place is the only place to stay in Big Sky.

Cute place. Has great potential. Management of facility, privacy of guest needs work. I will say, I did complain and they discounted our room which we appreciated. My concern was the invasion of privacy was alarming. We were walked in on twiceduring our stay. Knock, then the door was opened without a chance to respond. Our room was unlocked while we were gone and notrelocked. I logged in under Amazon Prime to watch a movie and after we left, my account was attempted to be logged in 3 timesnot a mile after we left the ranch. I called and complained and I am assuming it was addressed. Unfortunately, we will notreturn. In fact, it was very alarming after I complained the lady at the desk knew this was an issue and would address the staffagain (it was a currently problem with employees). On a positive note, they did attempt to make it right with a discount butnothing feels worse than an invasion of your privacy when you pay a lot of money. Maybe they will make strides to address thisfor future patrons.

I really think this could be a 5 star place with some easy to fix changes. My guess is the staffing shortage everywhere, paired with two years of covid has caused this property to suffer. Let me start with the pros, because there are many. We stayed in theErmine Room on the pond side. The room is great, with a bedroom, a separate sitting room, three fireplaces (two indoors and oneon the porch), and a HUGE bathroom and dressing area. Large shower and separate soaking tub. The grounds are pretty. Propertysits right on the river. Large grass area for our Shelties to run around safely. Every staff member we have encountered has beenso nice. Particularly the daytime chef, Brendon. So friendly and eager to make sure his guests are happy. Enjoyed chatting withhim, and appreciated his attentiveness. He puts out quite a spread for breakfast, and it’s complimentary! Dinner wasoutstanding as well.. Cons: Room is filthy. Window shades are worn, dirty and broken (this could be such an easy fix). Burnt outlight bulbs, a sink by the coffee maker that doesn’t work. No daily housekeeping, which really surprised me. We stayed forfour nights. A very nice gal came after we asked, but all she did was bring towels and make the bed. No cleaning the floors orshower or anything. Granted, I came to know that she is the only person they have to clean the rooms, and we also saw her doingother jobs on site as well. This is when I came to realize how understaffed they are. Not placing blame on them for that, it’severywhere. So we just settled into the reality that we wouldn’t be getting housekeeping. I will say that is a minimumexpectation for me when staying in a hotel. Part of what I’m paying for is to have someone else clean and make my bed. Iappreciate that the people they do have employed here are working hard, but the shortage of help really affected our overallexperience. As mentioned, the property is very pretty, but it should be noted that it does sit right on the highway.

Beautiful grounds, seamless check-in. I did find a dead spider in the bathroom, which needs updating to be on the same level as the rest of our room. Free breakfast is simple but filling. The restaurant is open Wed-Sat (I think), which should be statedsomewhere. We didn't eat in town because we thought we could eat at the hotel but it was Monday.

The lodging was mediocre and dirty, but the service was unbelievably bad. The main woman running the front desk and restaurant may be the rudest, most unfriendly person I've encountered in the hospitality industry. I've never felt more unwelcome at anestablishment. Firstly, the rooms are dated, but for the price I was willing to overlook that. What was unacceptable was thedirty room. We even asked them to come clean again and the corners of the bathroom were still covered in dirt and hair. Thecarpet was pulling up, the whirlpool tub didn't work, and the TV was the size of a computer monitor. Hands down the worst partwas trying to grab some food from the restaurant. The entire place had two tables seated...a literal ghost town. That womanrefused to seat us at a table, followed us as we sat at the bar and refused to allow us to order food because they had twoparties coming that her kitchen was prepping for. Mind you, there was NO ONE there at that moment. She was so incredibly rudeand unhelpful that I was embarrassed for the establishment and the other workers that had to abide by her rules. You could tellthey felt terrible for us. Do yourself a favor and stay ANYWHERE else.