The Vintage Lakeside Inn — Hotel in Big Bear Lake

*NO AIR CONDITIONING!

I've got mixed feelings on this one. This review is not meant to come across bashing, but just being honest.

STAFF: Claudia the lady i made reservations with and all future dealings was great! Reasonable and great customer service! A real asset to the place.

The blonde hair lady there was nice, polite and understanding of the situation. She did what she was able/could do.

The dark haired girl there tried to be nice, but it came across somewhat snappy and it seemed like I was bugging her with my questions and presence. Like she had better things to do.

HOTEL/INN The price was good compared to others in the area. But the price and what you get compared to other hotels is not the same. Rooms were quaint, which means plain kinda old. No Tv remote, so no steaming off your phone or ipad. Just the a remote to the cable box and a prisoner to what is currently on tv. Room had a Tv, small college fridge, and microwave which is a plus. Room didn't (DID NOT) have air conditioning. The remedy told by staff is keep blinds closed during the day to prevent the sun from coming in and at night open your windows. The room didn't have any ventilation except for a small plug in fan. So if you were gone the whole day and came back, your room would be stuffy with stagnant air. No daily maid/room cleaning service. Even though the ladies at the front desk maid it known if we needed extra towels and such, just ask them. But no typical cleaning as offered in other hotels. The initial check into the room there was hair from the previous people there in the shower. The cleaning person didn't do a very good job of cleaning the shower and the dark hair girl who 'inspected' the room didn't catch it. Electrical outlet/switch plates were missing screws and some outlets were wobbly/loose. No ice machine or soda/water machine on property. I was told to go to the liquor store down the street to get stuff. WHAT? The room had 2 locks, a deadbolt lock and a normal door knob handle lock. We only go keys to the door knob one. So if we left we could not deadbolt the door lock to secure our things.

All in all, luckily no major drama happened to us, so we were fortunate. This place could be so much better if the owner invested some money into it, as the building it self, the amenities for the guest, and hire more staff or better staff. Next time I'll be staying else where. If you were born in the 1930s/40s and grew up and traveled in the 50s/60s/70s, this place is...

We stayed August 15-18. The location is very close to the village, within walking distance of Denny's, Sandy's and other full menu restaurants. There is plenty of parking and we were able to park our car and motorcycle right outside our room. The room was clean (even found a cleaning rag near the sink), enough space for the two of us. The bathroom was huge, however, I would take a smaller one for more living space in the main room. Plenty of towels, cloths and floor mats. Plenty of drawer space and hangers for clothes. Fridge, coffee maker, microwave. TV with many channels, altho no menu so we had to scroll. Also, the cable for the tv runs right under the carpet between the beds and it hurt every time I happened to step on it. The temps were in the 70's so no need for any air, altho a portable fan is provided. And even tho temps got into the 40s at night, it was still very comfortable. Very quiet as it is not right on the main street. My only complaint was that the light right outside the door is VERY bright, and as there are no black out curtains (only blinds) I did not sleep at all the first night--it was like sunrise all night. The second night I hung towels over the blinds which helped a little, but not much as they are white. So the last nights I used my car's sun visor as well as the towels and that helped quite a bit. Altho it is close to the lake, there is not a view from the motel. If you take a small path from the vacant restaurant behind the motel, you can get within a few feet of the lake, however it is muddy and buggy. That being said, there is plenty of outdoor seating: two covered areas, BBQ grills, also tables with umbrellas across the parking lot for smokers. Saturday and Sunday continental breakfast was provided and was perfect: coffee, juice, tea, hot chocolate, pastries, bagels, yogurt, fruit, oatmeal. Papers to read and also tv with local news. Overall a nice place to stay if you are just stopping by, or will not be spending a lot of time on the grounds. Book directly with the motel, they are super...

The first night we arrived, we had to call the after-hours number at 10:30pm once we realized our cable wasn't working. The first thing I said was "I'm sorry to have to call afterhours, but our cable isn't working and we're wondering if someone could assist us?" To which Carla, the manager, responded "You need help right now... Seriously?" as if it was a HUGE inconvenience to assist us afterhours for something so trivial. I told her, "Uh....yes. I know its late, but we paid for a room w/cable - Please send someone." Two mins later she called back (obviously annoyed) to ask if we had tried unplugging and/or turning the cable off, then back on again. We had tried both. She then huffed and said someone is on their way. About 10 mins later a man showed up, pressed a couple buttons on the remote, then threw the remote down and began walking away without saying a word. He was headed out the door so quickly we didn't have a chance to process what had just happened, so my husband called after him to ask, "Hey, wait...what did you press on the remote so we know how to fix it next time?" To which he condescendingly replied, "I changed the channel," without even looking back at us. We felt extremely insulted and embarrassed in that moment. We were treated like idiots because Management couldn't be bothered to tell us what an easy fix it was. Their behavior towards us was unacceptable and unmerited, which is why I called the Manager back to let her know how disrespected they made us feel. Instead of simply apologizing, she got equally hostile towards me and the conversation ended abruptly without resolution. Had we not made non-refundable plans the next day, we most certainly would have checked out a day early. We've stayed here previously and had a great time, so this this whole experience was completely unexpected and disappointing. Room and location were great.... Customer Service is severely lacking. We will not...