Resthaven Tahoe — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

Out of over 450 Yelp reviews, I think I’ve only left one other 1 star review. I prefer to give a business the benefit of the doubt and rarely think any expedience is honestly worth only a single star. My experience with Resthaven was absolutely not worth more than 1 star and is some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced from a business. It was bad enough that I decided to even leave a Google review which I rarely do. It is disappointing to see a business be so shady and disorganized after presenting in a completely different way online. We were excited to stay here because it is in a great spot in South Lake Tahoe (walkable to the ski village and beach), price was affordable, and they have pet-friendly rooms! We booked it over 2 weeks in advance. We got an email the day before saying we could do pre check in online, or we could wait until arriving on the day of the reservation. We decided to just wait. Check in was at 3pm and my husband happened to check his email around 2:30pm. He saw an email that was sent after 12pm that day saying our reservation has been cancelled due to overbooking, but that they made alternative arrangements for us. No mention of what those accommodations were, and no contact info was provided. They sent us this email LESS THAN 3 HOURS before check in! After we already drove over an hour to South Lake.

We tried calling the number listed on the website which constantly had a busy signal. We tried going to the property but there is no check in desk or anyone to speak to on-site, only a man who was cleaning the rooms and knew nothing about the booking process. Nobody is on site because they offer a contactless check-in with a QR code system. We finally got a hold of someone on the phone and they couldn’t give us a reason why our room was cancelled last minute besides being overbooked. No mention of why our room in particular was cancelled, or why they didn’t tell us sooner since we booked weeks in advance and they clearly knew they booked more parties than available rooms. This is a boutique hotel with a small number of rooms. They also did NOT have alternative arrangements made for us as the email had said. All they could offer us was a refund and a credit for a stay there on a future date. Why would we ever return to such a place to use a credit? Absolutely absurd. We will never come back and will be telling everyone to not stay here.

This extremely last minute cancellation left us over an hour away from home on a Saturday during peak ski season, trying to find another pet-friendly lodging option for an affordable price. The whole situation added more stress to our weekend and we could not get over how unprofessional everyone at this business was. How can such a place continue to operate? These shady business practices will certainly catch up to them eventually. Do yourself a favor and find literally any other...

So…it seems this place changed management lately because the reviews were I read were excellent. My stay was terrible. I never leave reviews but I feel this is necessary because you could get in real hot water if you don’t know about this. No staff on site, at ALL. I had a 3 hr drive, which took 5.5 hrs because of traffic. Called ahead to the hotel because it asked for an estimated arrival time and to call and update if it changed. I called 7 times over the five hr drive. No answer. Started to get worried. Get to the hotel around 5pm. The hot tub and outdoor lounge area looked as if nobody had been there in ages, dirt/dust/leaves everywhere. Granted: I know this was right after the Caldor fire evacuation so I didn’t think much of that at first. Office says it’s open 3pm-9pm but nobody in sight. The property almost looked abandoned. There was a kitchen/cafe room that was unlocked? Literally stocked with like wine and beer and sodas and I walked right in off the street. Luckily there was a couple there with their door open, I had to ask THEM for help checking in. You had to call a number on a whiteboard, the lady who answered had to call me back and was based on Texas. She didn’t have my door lock code so had to switch my room. This happened to every single other guest staying there. Myself and the couple ended up helping 4-5 sets of other guests check in. My room was very cute, but the heat did not work. It was supposed to be 28 degrees (F) that night. They send a maintenance guy out, he was SUPER nice but he had only started a couple days ago and it sounded like he had a similar experience with the property managers that we had: little to no communication. He wasn’t able to fix the heat. I had to go to the grocery store down the street to purchase more blankets. I also found out my sink drain was leaking and water was pooling on the floor so I used the shower to wash my hands and brush my teeth. The lady from Texas also told me I hadn’t paid for the room when I had a confirmation number. Sent me a new invoice, then kept texting me and calling to ask me to pay it. I finally told her I didn’t feel comfortable paying the full price because of how sketchy the place was, and how I didn’t even have heat and had to go BUY supplies to stay warm at night. In the end they gave me a 20% discount for the whole stay. And and they sent another company out to fix the fireplace/heater. I think this place could and will be great when they hire on-site staff. And a plus was I didn’t see a single bug/spider. But if you’re someone who has specials needs or kids this place is not...

When we arrived at Resthaven, ourselves and another guest were having a tough time with the mobile check-in process. The other guest called the office phone and a few seconds later we heard a door open and a male voice yell “Over here big guy.” We followed him over to the “office.” There was a male sitting at desk in the middle of a kitchen. He was wearing gym shorts, a tank top, slides on his feet, and over the ear headphones, I was surprised when he yelled (probably because he was wearing headphones and could not hear) that he would help us next. He was not very professional in his attire, and his communication style was abrasive, loud, and unprofessional. He did not even make eye contact, just kept looking at a computer that was on a small desk facing the wall. This meant his back was to us and it was very awkward. Needless to say, it was not a warm greeting. |Once in our room, the bed was the only part of the room that felt updated and clean. The sofa was covered in some sort of a bed sheet, and the sofa’s shape seemed to be dilapidated. My guess is the sofa was covered because it was an eye sore. ||Other things we noticed:|-both USB outlets on one side of bed were both broken.|-window coverings were old, yellowed, and in poor condition.|-The ceiling fan was something out of the 70’s with the power cord running along the ceiling and down the wall to the outlet.|-The “fireplace” was on a small, elevated platform with some type of foam sealant bubbling up from the wall.|-the curtain rod over the closet (yes the closet was covered with a curtain) was bent and looked like it was about to fall off the wall.|-there was a toilet brush inside the bathroom that was yellow and discolored.|-the final straw was a dirty sock that was left on the floor by someone else. ||We chose Resthaven because lodging was very limited for the one night we needed and Resthaven looked cute enough online. We were very thankful that we only stayed one night. I don’t think we could have stayed another night, the room grossed us both out. ||Resthaven has potential to be a cute motel, but the owner would need to invest time and...