Camp Richardson Campground — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

A great place if you’re okay with seeing multiple bears day and night and fine with your “bear proof” food storage box possibly getting broken into. Let’s talk about my stay 2 nights ago. The first night we hear from our neighbors that bears were around but left after a while, no problem right? The next morning we wake up to a bear snapping our door handle, trying to get into our van. Creepy.. but still we were doing okay. Now let’s talk about our final night. Around 11pm we hear a bear clawing at our bear box that we were instructed to keep ALL food in. (We had probably $200 worth of food in there and a nice new cooler). All the sudden we hear a big BANG! Then silence… then the crinkling of a chip bag. My husband and I just stare at each other. THE BEAR GOT IN. We were on the last stop of our 3 week road trip. We had expensive olive oil, seasonings, etc in that box. It took us several minutes of heart thudding panicked moments to finally decide to try and scare away the bear. But what’s going to get a big bear to leave a feast of free food? We turn the van around, roll down our window and throw rocks, while shining the lights in the bears face. Holy cow the bear was huge! Huge enough to easily be able to break through our windshield if it felt like it. At this point I’m trembling, realizing the moment the bear leaves, we will have to get out of the car and clean up the mess, not knowing if the bear will return quickly. The bear finally runs off and we throw all the food back in the bear box and quickly jump back in the van. What are we supposed to do? We aren’t going to put the food in our van and risk the bear trying to break in. It was HUGE, and who are we to know for sure it won’t try to pry open the van door the same way it pried open the bear box? After 30 min the bear comes back and moves the picnic table we put in front of our bear box and breaks in AGAIN, destroying and stealing even more of our food. We honk and yell and the bear runs off. We grab all our food and throw it in the van and leave. Because what else are we to do?? We drive 2 hrs to a Valero gas station and slept there and then just drove home. I’ve never been so scared in my life. The only reason I’m giving 2 stars is because they did refund me $100 for staying there which will barely cover the damages we suffered, but at least it’s something. They admitted that these bear boxes get broken into and they are working with the budget of the forest service, that it’s a process to update them. We stayed in Yosemite national park 2 weeks ago and there were much more secure bear boxes there and guess what? We didn’t see a single bear in that campground (probably because the bears learned they can’t break into the boxes). So now i have a better idea of why there were bears all over camp Richardson campsite. Like i said, I’ve never been so scared, being that close to a giant bear and having to get out of the car to defend our food not knowing if the bear would come running back. Both my husband and I were trembling long after the event. That was my first bear encounter and hopefully my last. I will never be camping...

During our recent three-day stay at the campsite, we were initially assigned a specific campground upon arrival. We inquired about the possibility of changing our campsite, only to be informed that such changes required a 24-hour notice and incurred a $10 fee. Later in the day we asked two different individuals and they told us it wouldn't be a problem and there was no charge. This did not lead to a great start.

After concluding our camping trip, I was surprised to find an additional charge of $150 on my credit card statement. In an effort to clarify this charge, I had to contact the campsite's management to request a receipt, which was somewhat inconvenient and left me wondering why such documentation was not provided proactively.

Resolving the matter of the $150 "unattended campfire charge" proved to be a rather frustrating experience. It took several attempts and a call every day for five days to finally connect with a manager of the campsite's staff. During this process, I encountered a notable lack of responsiveness, consistently needing to call 3 or 4 times in a row before I would stop going to voicemail. Furthermore, one of the staff members I spoke with displayed a lack of professionalism and courtesy during our interaction, which was disappointing.

Upon reaching the campsite manager on Friday, I was informed that there were no photographic records of the reported "unattended campfire" incident that allegedly occurred at 11:20 am. The manager indicated that such a fee meant a full-on blazing unattended fire. I offered to provide photographic evidence that we left at 8:11am with clearly no fire burning, but the manager didn't even bother and just agreed to waive the fee simply because I was calling about it.

This experience left me with a less than favorable impression of the campsite's administrative and customer service processes. The initial communication discrepancies, difficulty in reaching a live representative, and the inconsistency surrounding the "unattended campfire charge" all contributed to a less than satisfactory experience. While the issue was eventually resolved in my favor, the overall handling of the situation left me with reservations about the campsite's professionalism and customer...

DO NOT STAY HERE

I would leave zero stars if the system allowed it. Our stay at Camp Richardson was absolutely atrocious, and the business practices of the hotel are unacceptable. We did not sleep at all during our three-night stay, due to an equipment issue known to the hotel, and are being refused the full refund we were promised.

Each night of our stay, we were kept up all night by loud banging noises on our wall that sounded like hammering. On the second night, my partner went to the front desk to complain, and found the guests staying in the room next to us were complaining as well. Staff let him know that these noises were known to the hotel, and were being caused by an 80-year-old water pump. They accepted full responsibility, and told him we would receive a full refund of our stay. In the morning, I talked about the issue with staff as well, and again was promised a full refund.

We tried to stay somewhere else for the third night, but there was no availability for a same-day, one night booking at surrounding hotels, so we were forced to stay for a third night, during which the banging noises continued all night and we did not sleep at all.

The fact that this is a known issue to the hotel, and that they are still renting out the affected rooms, is unacceptable. At the very least, they should have contacted us ahead of time and given us the informed option to cancel our stay and book elsewhere, but even that common courtesy was denied to us.

To make matters worse, they are now refusing us the full refund. It took five days of emailing, calling, and leaving messages to get ahold of someone from management, only for them to tell us that they would not be honoring the full refund that we were promised on two separate occasions. I would have preferred to resolve the issue directly, but they’ve now caused even more hassle of me having to dispute the charge with my credit card company. This is unacceptable, and shows a blatant disregard for the experience and wellbeing of their guests. If you want an enjoyable trip and the ability to sleep at night,...