Firelite Lodge — Hotel in Incline Village-Crystal Bay

We stayed for 2 nights and even though some places rate it a 2-star hotel, I think it’s more on the level of 3-star except that it’s outdoors, so maybe that takes it down a notch.

Anyway, I know everyone is trying to move to self check-in and automated processes because of Covid and now it’s just more convenient, but be prepared to be spammed a couple of days before your arrival. Maybe 4 days before my stay, I received a text asking me to do my pre-check-in process online. I completed it right away and it didn’t take too long. The next day, I got another text asking me to complete the pre-check-in process, which I then responded that I already did, was I missing something? A real person responded at that time and said no, I was all set. Then the next day, I got a text saying that I was arriving that night and I need to pay a $100 security deposit, to which I responded no, I’m arriving tomorrow, what are you talking about? Is this a scam? I thought. Then I received another text correcting the original text stating that my check-in is tomorrow but that I should pay the security deposit asap. Again, is this a scam? I responded and said I’ll pay tonight since they texted me during business hours and I was working. Then that same night, when I barely finished eating dinner and started cleaning, someone CALLED me to say the exact same thing, please pay your security deposit $100, to which I responded, I already said I would pay it in the text (like can you give me a break because I work and literally just finished dinner and didn’t even have a chance to sit down yet to work on this). So the text wasn’t a scam. But mind you, all these texts also came through email and also came through our reservation site messaging system, so every message I mentioned here was x3, and not to mention the excessive “we look forward to having you.”

This place really needs to figure out how to better automate their system because it does not match what the guests are doing and is quite frankly, very annoying. If it weren’t for this automated experience, I would have rated it higher, but geez, this texting system was too much and had too many errors that didn’t reflect what I already did.

Rooms were relatively clean and I didn’t find any bugs, which is a plus for a lodge. I did move the beds (as I have been doing for 4 years since I have 2 little kids and don’t want them to roll off the bed) and I always move it back, but this place refused to make our beds because we moved the beds. I’ve never had this happen to me at any other place, in fact, hotels go the extra mile to combine sheets so that we can sleep more comfortably on two combined beds.

Anyway, I always do my part to keep the place as clean as possible and provide reasonable tip, but it was disappointing that even though we are paying for the room, we came back to a bed unmade.

I think mediocre 3-stars sums up...

I stayed here before the pandemic and it was great. Excellent service and great value for money. Now they've raised rates and also removed all on premises employees. This means if you need help with anything during your stay you need to text or call them and hope their remote people pick up. Alright fine they're too cheap to hire someone to sit at the desk, whatever, so what's the huge deal? The huge deal is they don't pay any support people to answer the phone after about 9 or 10pm. I checked in about 10:30pm to find no parking at the hotel. It seems like since no one is on property non guests just use the lot for extra parking and this means you aren't guaranteed a spot. I called and texted for help multiple times to no answer. I had to leave my car parked in a dangerous spot and was worried about it being towed all night. When they finally got back to me at 8 the next day they basically treated it as a non issue. I also had issues unlocking the digital door lock as the lock seemed to be sticking due to the cold. I got incredibly lucky it started to work after a while because otherwise I would have had nowhere to sleep due to them not answering the phone even for emergencies. Before you stay here ask yourself if you're willing to sleep in your car if anything goes wrong with your check in since they certainly won't answer the phone if you're coming in late. Also ask yourself if you're willing to not have parking. Alternatively if you're in the Tahoe area and need a place to park a car I'd recommend this place since they clearly don't check if you're a guest. I will never stay here again due to this horrific lack of support and will be telling everyone I know to avoid this place...

We enjoyed our 4-night stay at the Firelite Lodge! Our small family stayed in a 2-Queen Lakeview over our kid's Easter break to take advantage of the great spring skiing. Just 20 minutes from Northstar, the Firelite is situated in a sweet little town with super convenient access to Safeway, drugstores, ski gear rentals, and lots of adorable eateries. The inn overlooks Lake Tahoe, and we had a lovely view of the lake and mountains from the small balcony off our room, which was a great place to take a morning coffee from in-room Keurig. I LOVED the electric fireplace heater, what a luxe upgrade for a 2-star-class hotel!

The building is probably an old school motel from the 1950s or 60s when there was a demand for cheap and easy places to crash for a night vs luxury "Experiences", but the rooms seem to have been thoughtfully renovated recently, from gray-brown wood-look floors in the bathroom and efficiently-sized furniture, with a small kitchenette with a small bathroom sink, compact microwave and a decent sized mini-fridge. The hotel doesn't allow for cooking equipment like hotplates and such, but overall the kitchenette was just enough for prepping light breakfasts and snacks, and storing and reheating leftovers.

TL;DR it's a Days Inn/Motel 6-class building but with a lot of well thought-out touches in the room design to help meet modern basic needs.

Check-in/out is all contactless. No key to lose, entry/exit uses a keypad code. While there is officially no daily housekeeping, someone comes thru daily to take out the trash and...