Eastern Sierra Motor Lodge — Hotel in Bishop

Very basic accommodations but clean and functional.

We arrived for a one night stay in March (off season). Booking was done online and room information including entrance code and Wi-Fi details received by text. Personally, I appreciated being able to do all this contactless.

Arrived earlier than check in time. No one was in the office to ask if we could check in early. Tried texting and no response. Tried the door code but mis-entered it several times and had to wait for the keypad to reset anyway so we walked a bit of the town.

When we got into the room we found it very modest: the furniture is Ikea and/or built-in using plywood. Not fancy but tidy. The room was COLD though, it was significantly warmer outside. Heat, as it turned out, came in the form of an electric heater that needed to be plugged in. Even having it on continuously all night the room didn't get terribly warm but at least we weren't chilled.

The biggest, most obvious issue was there were no blankets. Zero. Not on the bed, not on any of the shelves. The bed had two sheets and two pillows and that was it. Maybe it is intended for backpackers? If so, that wasn't clear from the listing online. We tried texting the "text us if you have any issues" number but no response for several hours. We finally went to a hardware store and bought a camping blanket. (Gardner's Tru Value Lone Pine had our backs)

By the time we got it back to the room we did finally get a response from the owner? Manager? Contact person? Saying they would send housekeeping over with blankets and they did and we got two quilts and were plenty comfortable for the night.

We had the place to ourselves- like, ALL THE WAY to ourselves. The only other guests decided they wanted blankets and got a room at Ray's Den instead. So it was nice and quiet but I suspect the walls are pretty thin. Pulling into the lot was VERY dark when the sun went down. I appreciate the commitment to dark skies but would've liked a little bit more light to find my way to the door. The keypad was especially tricky in the dark since you have to tap it to get the numbers to illuminate which necessarily means hitting a number at random and mistyping your code at least once.

But the patio is very pleasant to sit on and it seems to be well maintained and tended. You also can't argue with the view. It's handy to town and the clock on the cupola...

Proprietor, Jim, became very abusive and threatening to me over a misunderstanding of our use of the room. We had asked if two of our hiker family could shower one time in our room and Jim gave us permission to do so. Because of a complaint from another patron about lack of hot water, Jim started yelling at me and my family. I am 5' 2" and he is over 6' and I was very frightened. He made assumptions that were not true and if he had taken a moment to calmly ask us what was happening I could have told him that only two showers were taken and the other people in our room were waiting to help us set up a car shuttle for the final part of their hike to Mt. Whitney. He would have also learned that I had had trouble with the hot water earlier in the morning but I didn't complain because it eventually worked out. He was also angry because we hand washed some clothing but I have done that many times in my travels, never causing issues in my rooms. Our room was left clean and picked up which is what we always do.||I will say that the room was clean and comfortable. I just didn't understand the sudden burst of...

Amazing find. Small town with small town charm. Great price, clean room, timely pick up from Kearsage pass, great advice on where to eat, hot shower, we combined some of our laundry to wash them quicker and save water/electricity, they had robes during laundry, room had a microwave, coffee pot, fridge, climate control, good security, easy to find, friendly owner and neighbors, felt very safe here. Good people. Will definitely come back. Use them for your resupply..... you will not be disappointed. Across the road from the more well known place with much higher prices. We resupplied here and saved money. Eating options in town are limited to a coop which makes pizza, salads, sandwiches during the day and some gas stations with supplies, but it works well and is such a better option than the "other" higher priced, but well reviewed place. Bus (east sierra transit) picks up about 5 blocks away for a daily trip to towns along HW 395 all the way to Reno airport and back the other way. Only one bus a day. To Reno picks up about 6:20 am. Evening bus goes the other way. Reached the airport by...