PlumpJack Inn — Hotel in Tahoe City

We were frustrated by a number of issues during our stay, one after the other. We stayed in the penthouse suite over the 4th of July weekend. The location was very good and some of the staff were truly lovely. However I don't think we will be staying here again. Details follow.

We had significant issues accessing our room. I had to go to the front desk no fewer than 4 times to ask for a new room key, as none of our room keys could open the door reliably. I really mean it, we had 3 people try 3 different keys, swiping the key slow, swiping fast, slow then fast, you name it, it didn't work. Sometimes we could open it after 30-40 tries, sometimes not at all. One front desk worker said not to keep the key next to a cell phone. I made absolutely sure to keep that new key in a pocket by itself, and it still had the same issue. This annoyance was magnified by having to go up and down 2 flights of stairs, (there's no elevator here FYI), about half the time we wanted to enter our room.

On arrival, the A/C in the penthouse suite was stuck blowing cold air. The thermostat would not turn off the A/C no matter what you did, even turning it off completely, or turning it to heat mode, etc - it was 67F and still blowing more cold air. They sent up a maintenance person, who spent the first 5 minutes assuming I was an idiot who didn't know how to use a thermostat. Then while I was standing in a stream of cold air waiting for his diagnosis, he felt for cold air using his hand... in the wrong spot, when I tried to tell him where to feel for the air, he cut me off and said nope it wasn't blowing. I couldn't get a word in edgewise with him. It took him a while, but he finally realized for himself there was a true malfunction of the system and he ultimately fixed it, but afterward the A/C could no longer be set colder than 72F, which was above my comfort level in the evenings.

Some of the staff was very friendly and accommodating, some were a bit short with us, borderline dismissive. One front desk worker was happy to fill up water bottles, another sorta refused and directed me to fill up at a dispenser which I felt had gone bitter from lemons floating it it for too long. One ignored my son completely when he went to ask for water.

The room cleaning service was very poor. They quickly came in and made the bed, gave us towels, but neglected just about anything else. They ignored pretty significant stuff like a dirty toilet used by 4 people, they didn't refill the coffee pods, didn't provide clean water glasses, wine glasses, or mugs, didn't refill the empty tissue dispenser. Then I politely asked for those things specifically. One lady took down a note, but those tasks still weren't done. I later asked a second time, mentioning that these things weren't done despite 2 days going by and my asking specifically. Finally, to make a show of it as if to say "will you please stop bothering us", they left us 4 extra coffee mugs and a whole bunch of unwanted decaf coffee and a crazy amount of sugar. Meanwhile, they still would not clear the dirty cups or give us tissues, did not provide clean water or wine glasses. The list goes on, the carpet looked and felt filthy and was pulling up in the middle of the living room, it needed to be replaced ages ago. There were beer cans haphazardly thrown into the bin in the fridge, covered with sticky goo from a previous drink leaking on them.

This is a dog friendly hotel and I received what I believe to be several flea bites on my leg. I grew up with dogs and have had enough flea bites to easily identify them, super itchy little red bumps in little semi-linear...

We were frustrated by a number of issues during our stay, one after the other. We stayed in the penthouse suite over the 4th of July weekend. ||1. We had significant issues accessing our room. I had to go to the front desk no fewer than 4 times to ask for a new room key, as none of our room keys could open the door reliably. I really mean it, we had 3 people try 3 different keys, swiping the key slow, swiping fast, slow then fast, you name it, it didn't work. Sometimes we could open it after 30-40 tries, sometimes not at all. One front desk worker said not to keep the key next to a cell phone. I made absolutely sure to keep that new key in a pocket by itself, and it still had the same issue. This annoyance was magnified by having to go up and down 2 flights of stairs, (there's no elevator here FYI), about half the time we wanted to enter our room. ||2. On arrival, the A/C in the penthouse suite was stuck blowing cold air. The thermostat would not turn off the A/C no matter what you did, even turning it off completely, or turning it to heat mode, etc - it was 67F and still blowing more cold air. They sent up a maintenance person, who spent the first 5 minutes assuming I was an idiot who didn't know how to use a thermostat. Then while I was standing in a stream of cold air waiting for his diagnosis, he felt for cold air using his hand... in the wrong spot, when I tried to tell him where to feel for the air, he cut me off and said nope it wasn't blowing. I couldn't get a word in edgewise with him. It took him a while, but he finally realized for himself there was a true malfunction of the system and he ultimately fixed it, but afterward the A/C could no longer be set colder than 72F, which was above my comfort level in the evenings. ||3. Some of the staff was very friendly and accommodating, some were a bit short with us, borderline dismissive. One front desk worker was happy to fill up water bottles, another sorta refused and directed me to fill up at a dispenser which I felt had gone bitter from lemons floating it it for too long. One ignored my son completely when he went to ask for water. ||4. The room cleaning service was very poor. They quickly came in and made the bed, gave us towels, but neglected just about anything else. They ignored pretty significant stuff like a dirty toilet used by 4 people, they didn't refill the coffee pods, didn't provide clean water glasses, wine glasses, or mugs, didn't refill the empty tissue dispenser. Then I politely asked for those things specifically. One lady took down a note, but those tasks still weren't done. I later asked a second time, mentioning that these things weren't done despite 2 days going by and my asking specifically. Finally, to make a show of it as if to say "will you please stop bothering us", they left us 4 extra coffee mugs and a whole bunch of unwanted decaf coffee and a crazy amount of sugar. Meanwhile, they still would not clear the dirty cups or give us tissues, did not provide clean water or wine glasses. The list goes on, the carpet looked and felt filthy and was pulling up in the middle of the living room, it needed to be replaced ages ago. There were beer cans haphazardly thrown into the bin in the fridge, covered with sticky goo from a previous drink leaking on them. ||5. This is a dog friendly hotel and I received what I believe to be several flea bites on my leg. I grew up with dogs and have had enough flea bites to easily identify them, super itchy little red bumps in little semi-linear tracks on my leg. ||The location was very good and some of the staff were truly lovely. However I don't think we will be...

A glorified motel? I decided to stay there after looking at their beautiful website showing a swimming pool. However, I was quickly disappointed after checking in for the following reasons:

1. There is no elevator or bellman so you have to haul everything upstairs yourself. Definitely not welcoming to older folks or people with heavier bags.
2. The room looks dreadful. It's looks like they might be trying to go for a granola motel look or they ran out of budget while renovating. Actually, the entire hotel looks like an good effort in achieving shabby chic without the chic part.
3. There is no bathtub and the shower structure is the same as what you would find in a cheap apartment. (see pic)
4. The shower door wouldn't even stay shut (see pic).
5. One day after skiing, I was really looking forward to a warm shower. Unfortunately, the water wouldn't go any warmer than lukewarm.
6. The pipes were really loud so you would hear your neighbors running the water.
7. I was also really looking forward to swimming after skiing to stretch out and brought my swim gear. Unfortunately, the pool is closed during the winter. Guess it's not heated.
8. The wall-mounted hair dryer sounded like it was going to explode when I turned it on. Seems like there was a loose metal piece in there that was being flung around at a very high speed. After turning it off, I noticed there was a crack along the length of the hairdryer.
9. The skis are stored behind the reception but they don't take shoes. So you have to put on your ski boots in the room and walk to the reception to retrieve your skis.
10. There is no breakfast or lunch available. This is called Plumpjack Inn, but even the Holiday Inn Express has breakfast, right?
11. The bar/cafe was closed the entire time we were there -- Tues and Wed. So for the entire stay, there was no breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee or drinks we could have had at the hotel except for using the coffee/tea maker in the room.
12. To watch Netflix, you can call them to set up a ROKU for you. The first one didn't work but the second one did. All in all, it took about 20 minutes to get the TV going.

The staff was very nice and friendly. They took the resort fee of $20/day off after receiving our feedback. But then again, I don't think Motel 6 or Holiday Inn Express charges resort fee in the first place, do...