Emerald Bay Lodge — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw the pool was empty and were disappointed. We were hoping to hand out by the pool before we went to our event.||||When we arrived to check in, I was told I had called to cancel the reservation (I did not) and had been told to call Expedia. The only time I had called was a week before to confirm the reservation.||||We got it straightened out and were able to get a room even though we were much earlier than the 3p check in time. Our room was pretty basic: bed, bathroom, tv, nightstand and small table. There was no dresser, refrigerator or alarm clock. We turned on the tv only to find we couldn't get it to work. I told the woman at the front desk and she came down to try and fix it. She was unable to so she called (I assume) their maintenance person. He was unable to as well so we were moved to the room next door.||||The room we eventually stayed in was a bit nicer than the first one we had been given but still didn't have a fridge. The TV worked fine. The bathroom had a pocket (sliding) door instead of a regular door so there was nowhere to hang anything. There was a place to hang clothes but there were no hangers. There was at least a suitcase table.||||When we went to bed, we found the blinds didn't completely block the light from the parking lot so the room wasn't completely dark. Luckily, neither me nor my husband require complete darkness to sleep and we slept fine. The bed was comfortable and the room didn't get extremely cold so the blankets that were on the bed were sufficient.||||This morning when I took a shower, I realized the lever in the shoer didn't have a handle. Luckily, there was something there to turn on the shower and adjust the heat. I did take a few minutes for the water to get hot but considering it was only 43 degrees outside, I didn't think that was unreasonable. There was decent water pressure but the shower stall was pretty small. The shower head also didn't adjust down so if you were short, all of you was getting wet. The towels were okay, a but scratchy but not too bad.||||When I went to check out, there was no one in the office. I called the number on the door and was told to just leave my card key on the desk so I did. There was coffee, bananas, and fruit bars in the office.||||All in all, for what we were there for (attending a concert) it was sufficient. We just needed a place to sleep and that's what we got. I don't think it would be good for an extended stay unless you didn't plan on spending much time in your room or...

TL;DR Absolutely horrendous room. Do not stay here.

Let's start by mentioning that I've been coming to Tahoe since I was a kid. I know that many of the buildings/properties in the area are old and am not expecting a luxury resort for $150/night. However, I do expect more than the bare bones room that I got. For reference, I stayed in room 112 over Presidents Day weekend.

I booked a queen bed and got a full size instead. They likely overbooked the queen rooms as it was a holiday weekend and didn't think we would notice if they put us in a full - they were right as we unpacked quickly and didn't realize the bed was tiny until we got back late at night. The fitted sheet had a small but noticeable blood or rust stain on it - gross.

The bathroom has no mirror, but does have a nail where the mirror used to hang, so you get to gaze at that while brushing your teeth over the world's smallest sink. There is no bathroom counter, so we ended up using the top of the toilet to store stuff. There is nowhere to hang anything (like a shower towel) anywhere in the room as there are no hooks in the bathroom and the closet has no closet rod or hangers. The top section of the closet looks moldy (this was my partner's observation as I am not tall enough to see up there). The bathroom shampoo is an old travel-sized bottle that they refilled and was not sealed, which is eco-friendly but unsanitary given the current pandemic. The water takes a very long time to run hot, and when it does, the water pressure is laughable.

The walls are paper thin - really glad we got to hear our neighbors chatting from 11pm-5:30am. They were not yelling... just talking at a reasonable volume comes right through the walls. The room also lacks blackout curtains and the lights outside the window never turn off, so the room is illuminated at night. Good luck sleeping! There is also exposed wiring on the wall..?

Last bit to add - no one was manning the office when we got there at 5pm. I called the posted phone number a few times before someone showed up. The woman who gave us our room keys was actually very friendly and helpful, and that was probably the only redeeming thing about this place.

Please enjoy the photos because the website photos posted by the lodge are hilariously false...

My boyfriend and I had a great stay with our two dogs at Emerald Bay Lodge. The manager, Chris was nothing but friendly and helpful. We were originally supposed to stay Christmas weekend, but with the snowstorm we called Chris and asked to move our date to next weekend (New Years weekend). He did, and even upgraded our room and was kind enough to let us keep our same price. Admittedly, we gave him the run around for how many nights we would be staying (my fault for not communicating better with my partner), we ended up buying him a case of beer for the troubles but even with all the headache I’m sure we caused him, he never lost his patience or was rude in any way, he was always willing to work with us. Chris really did go the extra mile for us, whether it was recommending a spot to eat or personally checking in to make sure we had everything we needed, his kindness by itself was enough reason for my boyfriend and I to decide that if we were going to stay in Tahoe again, we would book here.

The lodge itself is under renovation - this is an older place, you can definitely tell by looking at it, but our room wasn’t dirty or dingy or anything. The bed was comfy & everything was clean, the atmosphere itself was peaceful. The kitchen was a little small but despite that we had a stove/oven, fridge, and microwave. The rooms w/ kitchens include silverware, cups, some cooking utensils (like a spatula) plates/bowls, pots & pans & a cutting board; sponges & dish soap as well. No chefs knives though, if you’re going to be cooking anything make sure to bring a clean knife from home. We had one from home so we were able to have our DIY sushi night with no issue. Bathroom is also a tad small but my partner is 6’6” and was able to stand comfortably in the shower. We thought the room was quite charming & we’re very satisfied with our stay - there really wasn’t anything we were unhappy with. If I had to note something, it’d probably be the weird TV remote - we had to have the volume all the way up at 100 to be able to hear decently. But thats nitpicking honestly.

Regardless, we had a really great stay & would definitely stay...