The Jeffrey Hotel — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

This is a long read - buckle up!

The Jeffrey hotel touts itself as a boutique hotel which by their definition must be a small hotel with less than 100 rooms. The other definitions of boutique hotels don’t apply to The Jeffrey.

In case you don’t read the fine print they charge you the full amount of the reservation 24hours ahead of time plus a 100.00 incidental fee it’s to keep if they deem your room not fit at check out or after someone has looked at the room.

I read some reviews after what happened with us at “checkin” apparently you’re supposed to get a call after they charge you with the instructions for contactless check in. We did get a call but no one spoke after I answered and I was hung up on.

When we arrived after 5pm we called the number but was told they would call us back. After waiting a few minutes longer we called again and found out the “expert” cleaners were cleaning our room. We weren’t able to get in the room until 5:40. Which seems off since they make people check out at 10am. We’ve watched the cleaners all week - they are always finished long before 4pm.

We stayed in the state line suite from Sunday evening to Friday morning.

Pros: kitchen is very nice especially if you utilize as we did.

Walkable to downtown

Bed is comfortable.

quiet neighborhood

Bathroom mirror makes you look thin:) Cons:

First and foremost: No smoke detectors in suite and the fire extinguisher was in bathroom closet. Hasn’t been serviced since 2011- the owners clearly don’t care about your safety. It is California code that every hotel room have a working smoke detector.

Only 3 pillows - 2 very fat ones - one was thinner but only 3? Why not 4 like most hotels?

No AC or heat. This hotel touts AC and heat and after reading other google reviews apparently the other rooms have that but this “suite” does not.

Bathroom shower is like a coffin. Also if the upstairs person turns on their water while your showering your water is immediately cold. Who wants that?

There is no Window covering on front door of suite. I personally don’t want people looking in my room especially at night.

Also no screens on big windows in living room so it’s not safe to open them.

You should be able operate ceiling fan separate to ALL the canned lights in ceiling. Who wants those super bright lights on at night while relaxing or watching the only TV. Also a throw on the sofa would be a nice touch since this is a “boutique” hotel.

In living room there is an electric fireplace that is not hooked up - you can see all the electrical. Wow!

Only lights that work in bathroom is the heat light.

A second nightstand in bedroom would be beneficial for a lamp or to be able to charge your phone on that side.

Also need a TV in bedroom. Lots of people like to watch TV while falling asleep.

There is an ironing board but no iron? We of course didn’t need it but it just seemed strange.

Kitchen was good but a few extra cleaning supplies would be great. A sponge with scratcher to clean the stainless pans that everything sticks to. Also a Mr eraser or soft soap to clean stove top. Dishwashing liquid and that little sponge don’t cut it. A broom would have been nice too - since housekeeping doesn’t service the room.

It’s advertised as a boutique hotel but there are no “boutique” amenities anywhere in this suite but it has potential. You could really make it worth it.

Also it just doesn’t “feel” safe. Especially with that “extra” room connected to the suite which I guess was the lobby office or some sort of conference room. It feels like anyone could break in if they truly wanted to.

You can hear your upstairs neighbors every step. No sound barrier.

The sofa cushions and the rug in the living room really need a good cleaning.

I won’t recommend this hotel to anyone and we certainly won’t come back here. There are lots and lots of choices so choose...

I've driven through Tahoe plenty of times on the way to other places but never really stuck around. I stayed here with my 2 kids recently, we had a WONDERFUL time, and this hotel is a big reason we had such a fun trip. My son is still asking (2 weeks later) when we can go back to the hotel :D.

Location: It's in the perfect location, and as a result, we were able to park at the hotel for most of the weekend and then walk from place to place. We walked to the beach (5 min with kids), we walked to get food (The baked bear is 6 minutes away and is freaking amazing) we walked to go shopping for souvenirs and sight seeing (We missed the gondola since it was off-season). We did drive a few times, mostly because I have picky kids who wanted McDonalds or IHOP for breakfast, and one time to the local Mini-Golf Course (My son loved the Pirate and Dinosaur themed holes). But even those were only a short drive away. As much as it's in a central location, the road it's on isn't RIGHT on the main highway, so you don't have to worry so much about traffic when crossing the street.

The Room: The room we stayed in was super clean, and 2 big queen beds and had a nice little kitchen area that I didn't expect, with a microwave/toaster/sink/mini-fridge and even a little "Dining Room" table. The bathrooms were clean and well-maintained. There were plugs on the bedside lamp, so I didn't have to hunt for a place to charge my phone. Easy to get checked-in and get the code to the door and not have to "deal" with people, since it's all automated.

Connectivity: The Hotel Staff has a chat option so I don't have to call anyone. I really liked the option of not dealing with people. Great Wi-Fi signal with fast speed. I needed to connect to work real fast on my laptop at one point and the speeds were better than my home network. I also had good cell signal in the area (AT&T), so I wasn't super reliant on the Wi-Fi for my phone. My kids loved the Roku-TV that we were able to sign in with our own streaming accounts on so they could watch their shows while getting ready for bed, and it prompted right up front as to our checkout date, so I didn't have to worry about it getting left logged in. (The Great Wi-Fi also made this a good experience, no buffering/streaming issues.)

All in all, we will have to come visit again and we will for sure be checking for spots at the Jeffrey...

The point of Lake Tahoe is to enjoy and see nature, and room 4 is a windowless prison ( ok.... there's a window on the door facing a wall and a tiny window in the bathroom). The walls and ceiling are paper thin, so room 5 kept us up until 1am partying and room 12 upstairs is a family room of kids that woke up at 6am and to do laps in their room. The trendy but not functional new style barn slide bathroom door is not greased or on the track properly, making it hard to close and open and actually stuck closed with me inside until we lifted it back on track. The door also left a 2 inch gap providing little privacy and odor control. We continuously needed to keep closing the door all the time because the motion activated light switch in the bathroom turns on all the time when you move in bed.||||The check-in is all digital and has no front desk, so it is impersonal, which they try and make up for by repeatedly sending emails, texts and a phone call all within an hour saying the same thing as if they need an immediate emergency response from me about my checkin. Then, when I message, I get a robotic answer 4 hours later, from some remote message center asking to message them more and wait more time for responses. Companies are acting like this is some amazing service to not have humans working at their locations, but it's just a cheap cop out to dealing with confrontation from guests upset with the terrible product. So many people pulled into the parking area before the 4pm mass messages they would receive about checkin time looking for a front desk and confused. This actually became entertaining to watch. We actually checked out a day early to get a new hotel and nobody on the text or message then answered our comment that we were leaving. We also got an insultingly impersonal message at 8am about how wonderful our stay must have been even though we left then night before upset. The message also outrageously request a tip for the nonexistent staff.||||The rooms are designed nicely and decorated with a lodge feel but with cheap Amazon.com furniture. The only positive was that the beds were comfortable but only included 3 smaller flat pillows for 2 guests. We were charged $270 a night on peak summer weekend rates and feel we should have gotten a better room for the price.||||All photos of our dungeon are at 10am and we still need...