The property is inside of the park which is fantastic. It’s located right on the lake and the area is pretty. Staff was nice and polite - a special shoutout to Jerry who gave us his custom park map. While the room did not have an AC, it didn’t get too hot. Bonus points for sustainability efforts.
Now, the negatives. The property is old and worn down. There’s a difference between “rustic feel” and an outright neglect. Unfortunately, Grant Village accommodation felt more like the latter one. There’s only one water fountain in each building with barely any pressure, making it difficult to fill water bottles. No places to hang out after hiking (picnic tables next to buildings etc.). Everything is old, rooms are not clean (found dead flies and crumbs all over the floor, it was clearly not cleaned at all). No microwaves (basically to force visitors into mediocre dining places in the area). Lack of WIFI is a separate story, it just needs to be advertised better on third-party booking platforms (e.g Expedia).
The most upsetting part is not even a huge gap between the level of service/amenities and a price tag. Yes, we get it that visitors mostly pay for the location; but the lack of effort on the behalf of Xanterra, given complete lack of incentive due to absence of competition. The “they’ll come anyway” approach is very sad. There’re a lot of foreign visitors in the park, and I hate to see the park being shown in this light. Yellowstone deserves better.