East West Hospitality Tahoe — Attraction in Truckee

I was at first considering the Ritz Carlton Residences for our annual Thanksgiving ski trip (to Lake Tahoe this year,) but then I somehow stumbled on One Village Place when researching Northstar. We generally choose the 'residences' that are connected to hotels, i.e. Four Seasons, Ritz, etc, so having been in those before, it's easy to compare One Village Place. The 3 BR/ 3 1/2 bath was very spacious. The kitchen was furnished with top of the line appliances and was completely stocked with everything we needed. We’ve stayed in places before where ‘this’ or ‘that’ was missing - not in this case - everything we needed was right there. The entire 'common area' was beautifully decorated and extremely comfortable for our family of 4. Where this place differed from a hotel residence, I would say, was when we got to the bedrooms. The master was a bit tight, and there wasn’t a lot of storage for unpacking, although the closet was spacious enough. The master bath, however, was lovely and even had a heated floor (although it was a bit inconsistent, ranging from 64 - 74 degrees on its own whim no matter what we tried to do). The second bedroom also had a bathroom connected, but the third bedroom had its bath across the hall. There was a safe for the condo, washer/dryer, and a boot heater for apres ski. There was optional housekeeping service if you wanted, and we were told that they were not allowed to enter, under no uncertain terms, if the ‘do not disturb’ sign was posted. We prefer to not use housekeeping service because of several unpleasant experiences in the past, but our ‘do not disturb’ sign must have fallen off one day, and housekeeping apparently came in. Of course, not knowing that this was going to happen, we left laptops, wallets, car keys etc, out, and we were very pleased to note that absolutely everything was left untouched. ||||In the middle of our first night (2am to be exact) my husband and I were awakened to the sound of snow machines grooming the mountain. It sounded as if there was a freight train going through our bedroom. In retrospect, I remember reading another review about which condo to ask for and which not, and I think maybe '302' was one NOT to choose (?) because of its location - too late for us unfortunately. We received 10 inches of snow earlier that day, so I guess the mountaineers were hard at work for the next day. Luckily, we made it through the rest of the week peacefully. ||||The building itself was extremely secure. There was at least one person at the front desk during the day at all times, and after hours you needed your key to get into the building, and at all times during the day you needed your key to get anywhere when operating the elevator. There was a small gym on the second floor with a sauna and very spacious hot tub that overlooked the village ( again, which is only accessible to the residents. ) The people at the front desk were very helpful at all times - especially when we first got there, when we apparently arrived at the wrong place to check in, which was never made clear - again, another difference from being at a 5-star hotel. ||||Just a couple of other random notes - the concierge contacted my husband several times in the weeks before we arrived to see if we needed help with plans/reservations of any kind for our trip....there, of course, is not room service, which is always something that my teenaged boys are wanting after spending almost the entire day on the slopes, however, the condo is situated literally in the midst of the village so it is easy to go pick up food at one of the many restaurants and bring it back (great excuse for my husband and me to grab a glass of wine at the bar alone while waiting for the food)....the ski gondola is right next to the condo, which is where you hop on and it takes you right up to the mountain to start your day of skiing - no waiting....and finally - a 3BR/ 3 1/2 bath condo is about one-third the price of a comparable place at the Ritz. There is no question that One Village Place, is THE...

We stayed in a four bedroom and four and a half bath unit in Great Bear Lodge. Check in was easy and friendly. We had three cars in our group and they provided us with free parking inside a secure garage requiring key card to enter. ||||From the garage you enter the "private elevator" which opens right into your unit. Somewhat fabulous until later in our stay when others were also using the elevator which services about 8 units, guests in the elevator could walk right into our condo when the door opened - no security. Many times we got in the elevator to go down and it would go to another floor, sometimes up and sometimes down and open to another condo. Once it opened to a condo that appeared to be unoccupied and anyone could have just walked in. Yes you do need a key card to press the button for your unit but there would be no recourse if someone in the elevator wanted to enter your condo with you. The other tenants were cordial about this but equally astonished. ||||The condo was beautiful. It was immaculate, absolutely not a crumb anywhere. Everything exactly in its place. The most obcessive complusive person would find no fault here. The kitchen was perfectly stocked with everything you need to prepare meals and a lot more. They provided everything you would need right down to foil and saran wrap, even scotch tape. All dishwashing supplies along with Tide detergent for the full size washer and dryer were provided. One of our four bedrooms had two beds, two of them had queen beds, and the master had a king - along with a queen sofa bed, if needed. The media room had a small sofa bed. We had seven adults and more than enough places to sleep. Each of the bedrooms had a full size private bathroom connected to it and there was a spacious half bath off the entry hall. There was a long dining table which would seat 10, a beautiful fire place in the living room and two balconies. The larger balcony overlooked the Village but it was not noisy. We didn't use the side balcony because there was no furniture on it and very little on the larger one, two chairs is all.||||Safeway (grocery) is a convenient and beautiful 10-15 minute drive to Tahoe City. If you are interested in a casino it is not far from Safeway too. There is a nice swimming pool, exercise room, and game room with pool table on the premises and were never busy or crowded. We went on the "Wine Walk" which was supposed to be wine 'tasting' at different shops and restaurants but each poured a generous half glass and some provided food including pizza. Well worth the $20 and you keep the glass. There are several restaurants if you don't want to cook but there really isn't anywhere in the Village to buy things like milk or bread.||||The condo was beautiful along with the view. In summer there is free roller skating. We saw two weddings from our balcony. There is live music. In the evening you can sit near a fire in one of many cabanas surrounding the skating rink. There are gondolas that will take you up the mountain (and back or ride your bike down) and one that will take you to the Ritz Carlton. All in all very relaxing with just enough things...

I originally booked 1 bedroom in Catamount bldg but found out that all the 1 bedrooms face Village walkway which is narrow, can get crowded and loud with music. So, I had to request an upgrade to Big Horn for better view while paying extra since I stayed for 5 days. Front desk personnel, Katie was very helpful and understanding with my request and gave me a discount since it was near the end of the season. ||||Start with things they need to improve (I am not even talking about any structural stuffs.) and then what was good.||||Bad:||- Very cheap and very rough bath towels, bathroom tissue, and kitchen paper towel: I felt apprehensive to use towels at times because towels are so rough. ||||For the price of lodging, those rough and cheap basic supplies are very disappointing. Even a $45/night ski motel (price varies according to demand) I stayed for 1 night had much softer bath towels.||||- Intolerably rough bathrobe with waffle pattern: It felt like bathrobe was torturing me with pinpricks. Please provide guests with bathrobes with smooth and soft fabric. ||||- Given high elevation location, body lotion needs to be more moisturizing. ||||- Bedrooms should have bedroom benches or chairs that guests can use to leave a luggage. It was hard to find a space to leave a luggage and use clothes from luggage. I don't like unpacking everything when I am staying 4 nights.||||- Duvet was way too heavy. I had to leave it at the bottom half of bed because I felt too weighed down by a heavy duvet.||||- Inadequate and wrong information given to me by a check-in personnel (inadequate) and another time by a front desk guy who is slender with dark hair and wearing glasses (inadequate and wrong)||||Both failed to give me adequate information about how I can leave card keys in the room when checking out and keep a card key to access a ski locker and gym after skiing on the day of check-out. ||||Also, a guy with dark hair and wearing glasses gave me a wrong instruction to Highland Gondola and got me lost, which was very annoying when you are tired after skiing on a hard terrain all day.||||Only after I went through the hassle of returning key cards to Katie, Katie explained all those things to me. It could have saved a lot of time and energy for me. ||||Good:||- Great location for ski-in and out||- Well-equipped kitchen||- Bed was comfortable. ||- Quiet heater and fireplace||- Decent view compared to view of narrow Village walkway and another building right in your face - but it was more expensive.||- I can't talk about cleanliness of carpet since I wore...