Holiday Inn Express South Lake Tahoe by IHG — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

Worst IHG hotel experience of a decade and a half of busines travel

I am a Spire Elite member and I have been for several years. I travel on business and am living in hotels for about half of the year and have done so for more than a decade. This 2 night stay at HIE South Lake Tahoe was by far the worst experience I've ever had at any IHG hotel. This HIE in South Lake Tahoe is simply horrendous relative to other IHG locations and relative to IHG competitor hotel lines. The entire building is outdated and not well maintained. The common areas, rooms, everything is just a little bit run down. Upon check in, as a Spire Elite member, I am supposed to get an automatic upgrade if available, that didn't happen despite the fact that the hotel wasn't close to at capacity, as my stay was in a very slow time of year for Tahoe area. The first room they assigned to me had the worst odor I've experienced at any hotel. it was an overwhelming "mustiness". I went to front desk and asked to change room due to smell and was greeted with a "huff/sigh" from the front desk attendant. Her reaction was unprofessional. She did assign me another room, but the 2nd room smelled just as poorly. I had to open the windows the entire time and still didn't help. The room was rundown and outdated. The hotel didn't seem to care to fix things that were broken or even conduct standard ongoing/preventative maintenance. The phone didn't work, so I could call the front desk; the dial inside the mini fridge to control the temperature was broken and so you couldn't accurately tell what temperature the fridge was set to; the grab-bar by the shower/toilet had a cap that had disconnected so the screws that attached the bar to the wall were simply exposed and the cap was dangling on the bar; the shower curtain had a button that was missing and the curtain was partially ripped... but I guess the hotel staff thinks that is an acceptable state of care (I mean seriously, how hard is it to replace a shower curtain?). It is overwhelmingly obvious that the hotel management and/or staff just simply don't have enough pride to ensure the IHG standard is maintained at their property. I've stayed at creepy roadside motels that have shown better pride in simple maintenance than this IHG location showed. Additionally, they advertised breakfast being open at 6:30AM; however, I showed up at 6:40AM and several breakfast items were not out from the kitchen and I had to stand around and wait for the breakfast proteins to be brought out from the kitchen. Don't advertise breakfast at 630AM if it isn't going to be ready at 630AM. In summary, I am a very frequent business traveler who is staying in hotels half the year. I stay almost exclusively in IHG hotels, and this hotel was one of the worst, if not the absolute worst, hotel I have ever experienced. This stay has made me decide to switch my loyalty to an...

I will begin by saying that the experience in this hotel has not been so pleasant. We paid a significantly amount for two rooms, to be exact $1492.00 for 2 nights.

The rooms I paid for were 4 queen beds, we were given 4 full beds. I went to the office and I mentioned that, the attendees didn’t take me serious. Mentioned he can’t do anything. I feel like the staff should have a different approach when they are handling customers concerns/issues. His respond was I can’t do anything, perhaps saying something along the lines like let me get my general manager and see what we can do for you or let me see how we could accommodate.

This trip was suppose to be a great experience for my family, kids were disappointed. I went to the front office and ask for towels for my kids since they were at the pool. They only gave me 2 hand towels, what am I suppose to do with two hand towels?

After the kids got back to the rooms, I called the front desk twice and asked for towels. Those towels were never brought up. The front desk could of said we have no towels available we waited for hours, we decided to just got to the closest store in the area to buy towels since we weren’t being accommodated.

The reservation as stated on the website includes Full breakfast, breakfast buffet, continental breakfast. I took the kids down to grab some breakfast, our only options were turkey/beef biscuits, apples and milk. This is not a full breakfast, nor buffet. I asked the lady she mentioned due to COVID-19 that they are only able to serve those items. I feel like that should of been said on the website, limited breakfast due to COVID-19. The kids would of been fine with a box of cereal.

The rooms were not as of accommodating, we got two rooms next to each other. We noticed the first room on our right side was twice as big as ours, more spacious and they were given an extra bed. When I originally booked the reservation I had called and ask if they can be accommodate an extra bed they said they don’t offer that options. I spoke to the family that got that room, they said they had asked for a room with two queen and the attendant offered an extra bed.

There was little things that we noticed with the bathroom amenities. The shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel were not full, they were about 3/4 full. There was no hand soap, we had to drive to a store and purchase one.

We tried making coffee in the morning using their coffee maker in the room. As I attempted to full the container with water the inside was pretty disturbing to look at, there was pieces of white things just floating around on the water...

We stayed at the South Tahoe Holiday Inn Express for the second time in two years. The first was a bit of a disappointment with a dark room, stains in the carpet and an outdated 80's style climate control system, poor sound insulation (you hear neighbors next door) and poor wifi. Management suggested I should come back and try it again. Sad to say nothing has changed. In fact, it might have even been a little more challenging because when we checked into our room we found the toilet was clogged. I went to the front desk and asked for a plunger (there was none in the room) and, after a quick search of the office, I was told that someone would deliver it to our room. After no one came that afternoon and evening, I raced up to Ace Hardware before it closed and bought my own plunger and fixed the toilet. I asked the front desk if they would reimburse me. While everyone I spoke to over three days was embarrassed at the situation, I was met with stalls and “talk to the manager” answers. Very un-IHG-like. Be prepared for a 1990’s style motel, outdated infrastructure (toilets) and spotty wifi (you must log on multiple times per day) and irritating card operated door locks that, for some unknown reason, took three to five times to make it work (at one point the cards stopped working and we had to get them replaced). The all-inclusive breakfast is nothing to get excited about but I can’t be too critical here – it was typical Holiday Inn fare prepped by a hard-working staff featuring scrambled eggs and turkey sausage, fruit, cereals, and coffees and juices, and a pancake machine the kids enjoy (I opted for the Red Hut Café just down the street) The dining area near the lobby is clean with a nice outdoor option (weather permitting) available. Why did I still give it 3-stars? Location, location, location. You are steps away from the Heavenly Gondolas, Stateline clubs, and superior access to Hiway 50 east or west. There are laundry facilities that are clean and open 24-hours. AND we even had a bear sighting in the parking lot. Yes, a black bear was turning over trash cans right in front of my wife. She was started and yelled at the bear, who then ran and practically leapt over a fence in a single bound. We found out later that locals have a name for the bear: Betty. The bear sighting was a bonus for us, and made us forget about the plugged toilet at the Holiday Inn Express. For a while, anyway. I left the plunger in the...