Name: Gateway Inn
Address: 38820 State Route 706 East, Packwood, Packwood, Packwood, WA 98304, United States of America
Rating: 5

Shopping on site

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Heating

Gift shop

Express check-out

Fire Extinguisher

No elevators

Reception desk

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Fridge

Family room

Smoke Detector

Cable TV

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Linens

Alarm clock

Toiletries

Rooms

Coffee/tea for guests

Snack bar

Vending machine

Microwave oven

Coffeemaker

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

English

Korean

Multi-language staff

Languages Spoken

Hiking

Fishing

Recreation

Free parking

Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Playroom

Kids

Skiing

Winter sports

Pets allowed

Pets

Extra decontamination measures

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the cottage

Room amenities

Gateway Inn

Packwood

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

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3-beds

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31-beds

32-beds

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38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

They didn’t have water for most of our stay! Came on twice for a few minutes.  Found out too late at night to go somewhere else especially with a dog! We’re not told at Check in. Couldn’t flush the toilets or take showers. Used our dogs water bottle to take pills and brush teeth. They blamed it on a draught but we live in the same county and there isn’t any draught . We should have been told when we arrived and we could have gone home.

Worst hotel ever!

This place charged top dollar and advertised a beautiful cabin. Instead we were horrified by the neglect and unsafe conditions. Filthy dirty, mice poop, dead bugs and spider webs everywhere. Mouse holes in the bedding. 
No internet or phone service. Old broken furniture. Raccoons or some large rodent running around above the ceiling. Water dripping on to the bed from a leak upstairs. Moldy warped ceilings. No hot water. No food available even though they advertised a convenience store. 
Bathroom light was a wire pull down hanging from a single bulb. 
Floors were so unlevel that we had to put a book under the bed legs. So terrible we had to book another place to stay. No manager available.

DO NOT BOOK HERE.

What a great find near Mount Rainier. We stayed in a premium cottage for one night. This was better than some hotel rooms we stayed in on our trip. The gentleman who was working the front desk was so nice and polite. 

Great little find

We stayed in one of the suites within the motel - room 16. Like the review below, having read the negative reviews we were very uncertain of our booking before arriving. 

Stuart on reception was great and check in was easy. Our room was clean, as were the sheets. Yes there was the odd cobweb but you are in the middle of nature, near to a stunning national park, and believe it or not - spiders live there! We mentioned this to Stuart and were provided with a feather duster. 

The bed was very comfortable, the coffee machine works and the fridge is bigger than most hotel fridges. We had ample water and it was hot. 

If you are expecting the Hilton, this is not the place for you. You are very much left to your own devices - but that was our aim, being away from cities and people, in nature. 

One criticism - there are limited hairdryers available, not one in every room. One could not be located for me so hairdrying was natural - maybe consider packing one if staying here!

Literally by the gate to the national park - location is perfect. 

The negative reviews are really quite harsh and not representative of our experience at all.

Much better than expected considering reviews below

I rarely write reviews but after seeing these reviews on the way to the Gateway Inn and being terrified by what we read I needed to. Based on the other reviews I figured we’d be entering some smelly cabin, where squirrels were running rampant playing with raw sewage, using the little amount of toilet paper, and tracking stains all over the beds and sheets. I was pleasantly surprised to instead see a clean, cute, roomy log cabin with a bunch of character, fresh sheets, NO STAINS, plenty of toilet paper, great water and water pressure, and no bugs or rodents. Actually more like shocked after reading those reviews. Let me address a few things I saw and was weary about:
	⁃	Limited checkin hours: Office staff was available 9am-7pm. They not only called me but emailed me to make sure I knew this AND offered self-checkin if it was outside those hours. We checked in around 530 and were welcomed by friendly staff who showed us to our cabin. It’s a non-issue because again, there’s a self-checkin option.
	⁃	Unclean sheets: There was not one stain or piece of hair/sand/dirt etc on the 3 beds in our room. The comforters were cute and clean. Honestly I travel A LOT and these were some of the cleanest, most comfortable, fresh laundered scented sheets I’ve encountered. Another non-issue.
	⁃	“Graffiti on the walls” (a personal fave comment of mine): This is a log cabin and people have carved their names into if. We loved this! We loved searching for old carvings/writings. I think the oldest we found was 1984, which was fun! I loved this and thought it gave character so another non-issue.
	⁃	“1/4 full toilet paper rolls”- Personally, I think it would be wasteful to throw away perfectly good toilet paper. They supply extra rolls so why is this an issue? This is a common occurrence in hotels/airbnbs.
	⁃	“Rodents/bugs/cobwebs”: It’s a cabin in the woods people, but either way we had no rodents/rodent sounds and no bugs. There were some cobwebs but again IT’S A LOG CABIN. That’s to be expected and adds character.
	⁃	Dingy furniture: Our room has 3 matching beds (though one mattress was memory foam while the others were not), beautiful dressers/tables, plenty of lights (though no overhead so we had to move one around at night to play games), 2 clean comfy chairs, and a couch. Yes, the couch was older and had some stains but we didn’t really care and just sat on the other furniture. The carpet was stained but I literally always bring flip flops or slippers to walk around in at all hotels so I’d just advise that as a general rule of life.
	⁃	“Musty smell”: I would describe it as a log cabin with a fireplace that may have been used before me smell. Pretty much exactly what I expected.
	⁃	Confusing Wi-Fi: I’ll concede that I was initially confused when looking at the Wi-Fi sheet because there are a lot of different networks/passwords but you know why? Because you are literally steps from a national park with no service and so they have different networks/modems depending on your location/cabin/room. So look for your cabin number and use that Wi-Fi info. Easy.
	⁃	Temperature: The cabin was well insulated so the temperature was very pleasant. We did not use the fireplace but liked having it there. I’ll note there is also a thermostat but we didn’t touch it.
I’m removing a half-star (but then rounding up as you do when at .5) because the other beds were not as comfy and were squeaky, so I’d recommend memory foam toppers maybe until they are all replaced? Other than that I’ve got no suggestions. We were in a deluxe cabin, cabin #4.

To close, I hope that if you read those other reviews thinking you made a mistake you give the Gateway Inn a chance and make your own decision. I don’t know what those other reviewers were expecting given that it’s a cabin, in the woods, but we were so happy upon arrival. I’m writing this from my comfy memory foam bed the morning of checkout and I’d recommend it to anyone/stay here again.

Charming log cabin with perfect location

We stayed in the Suites which were disgustingly expensive and not fit for human habitation. Bed very uncomfortable, sloped & was propped up on wooden blocks. Sheets were worn out and very dirty behind bed. 
Shower dripped all night, tv didn’t work, loose wires which won’t have met safety specifications. Lamp fittings didn’t work - slept with lamp on all night. A fridge which froze liquids. Staples holding down carpet and  cobwebs were visible. Got up & left at 6am as couldn’t wait to leave. Do not consider staying here. 

Worst night ever

The pros: It's super close to the park - the closest you can stay to the Paradise end without staying IN the park.

The cons: Well, let's start with the animal living in the walls of cabin #2. Scratched around all night so I didn't sleep. I told the front desk and the guy was nice but just sort...laughed? And nodded. And didn't offer any solution like moving to a different cabin, giving me a refund, calling pest control...Utterly bizarre. Makes me think I'm not the first person to have this issue.

TV mostly just had channels showing infomercials plus HGTV and local news. 

Sign in the bathroom saying to minimize water use as they sometimes run out of water. WHAT?! How can you operate a commercial lodging facility without water?! Thank goodness that didn't happen while I was there.

Instructions to connect to wifi left in the room were incorrect so I had no ability to contact my family and let them know I was safe (which is important to me as a solo traveler - especially when there's no cell signal!). Asked at the front desk the second day and was told the nearest modem was 4 cabins away so wifi would be weak in mine. Got the correct network password and was able to connect to very weak wifi eventually.

Room had musty smell. Clearly needs a major update. I didn't notice any dirt on the sheets but after reading these other reviews, maybe I just didn't look close enough! 

You're paying for the proximity to the park. That's why this place gets 2 stars and not 1. I'll stay further out next time (ideally in a rodent-free facility) and just drive in.

Need to fix the rodent problem

Disgusting - we woke up to raw sewage in the shower and an over flowing toilet. I asked for a refund to be told that ‘the manager’ doesn’t like to give refunds!! The place is old and run down and I think just trading from its proximity to the entrance to Mt Rainer. Do not stay there.

Disgusting place - sewage in the shower ..

Horrible room, dust gave me an asthma attack, no coffee supplies. Expensive for a low grade hotel. Sheets were not clean. Electrical was dangerous, surprised it hasn't burned down by now. Office didn't open until 9 so no coffee to start the day.

Horrible

Look, guys... It's got a bed and a bathroom and it's as close as you can get to the park without actually staying in the park. Electric outlets, WiFi, coffee supplies... Who cares? You are at Mount Rainier! Are you trying to shave and fix your hair? You're going hiking! Leave your phone in the room and enjoy the outdoors! Wake yourself up by dunking your head in an ice cold waterfall!

Gateway Inn

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