From left, Becky Garbey, wife of Army Chaplain (Capt.) Richard Garbey of the 71st Corps Support Battalion; and 5-year-old Sarah Pacania and her mother, Emineh Pacania, wife of Army Chaplain (Maj.) Richard Pacania of the 7th Command Support Group, relax by the fireplace last September at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany.

Charlie Coon / S&S

This standard room at the Edelweiss Lodge in Garmisch, Germany, costs from $69 to $99 per night, depending on the servicemember’s rank. There are also four categories of suites that cost more but have more amenities and can sleep more people.

Charlie Coon / S&S

GARMISCH, Germany — While managers and some workers may hold different views on the working conditions at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, guests mostly agree: The place is a gem.

Built to look and feel like a huge, cozy mountain lodge at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, the Edelweiss is decorated with an earthy mix of stone and varnished wood. Visitors have access to a full gym, spa, pool, mini-casino, golf course, ski and bike rentals, and guided day trips during the summer.

“The resort was a surprise. Very nice. I didn’t expect it to be this nice,” said Spc. Jason Martin, a soldier on two-week rest-and-recuperation leave from Iraq who was staying at the Edelweiss recently. “I’ll definitely go back and recommend this to a lot of soldiers.”

With three restaurants, 330 guest rooms and a thriving conference center, it’s a package that visitors say is thorough and appealing, and accounts for the resort’s popularity.

“It’s an amazing hotel. It’s good in every way,” said a repeat female guest who didn’t want to give her name. “The staff is good, the service is good, but they need to hire more people,” said the guest, one of several who described the hotel in glowing terms.

Perhaps the biggest complaint heard around the resort recently was that a 330-person convention being held at the hotel appeared to have overrun the capacity of the staff.

Stars and Stripes’ interviews with hotel employees seemed to confirm that observation, as many part-time workers say they are working longer hours than they expected to when they were hired. They also say that many services are being curtailed to make up for the lack of staff.

For example, the gourmet restaurant, Pullman Place, was closed for several days in a row, while the downstairs pub was serving cold sandwiches instead of its normal fare. The snack bar next to the gym also had reduced hours.

The resort’s buffet restaurant, Market Station ($15 for dinner), was the only one left with regular hours.

It’s all part of doing business, managers said. When the vast majority of the lodge’s guests are conference attendees scheduled to eat in the ballroom, it makes little sense to keep three other restaurants running full bore for the remaining customers.

“It’s balancing the needs of conferences against the needs of the other people in the house,” said the hotel’s assistant general manager, Edward Fagan.

The effects of a conference on regular guests are a matter the resort is working to improve as it matures, he said.

The resort may choose to accept fewer conferences in the future, he said.

Conference attendees, for their part, reported having a fun, well-organized and well-serviced convention, and some individual guests said they weren’t bothered by its presence.

“[It’s] no big deal,” Martin said. “You’ve still got excellent food here at the Market Station.”

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