Lake House at High Peaks Resort — Hotel in Town of North Elba

My husband and I stayed at the Lake House through High Peaks Resort for the holiday weekend in January. We wanted a cute winter cabin vibe, so we decided to stay here instead of the main resort. We arrived around 6pm and were surprised to find an empty lobby. We walked over to the bar and the single employee in the building checked us in in the office and offered us a welcome glass of champagne. The lobby and room were nice, but definitely not as up to date as I expected from the website. We were hoping the resort would be nice enough to want to hang out more in our room and lobby to play games and drink at the bar, but the room was dated with an old TV, and the lobby was always completely empty, and had no one at the bar to serve us even if we wanted a drink. A couple of days in I thought it was odd that there was still only the same one man working at all times. He worked in the office, the bar, and left the lobby to do the parking lot plowing. He was very, very friendly, but I expected more service for a "resort". Whenever we used the room phone to call the desk, we didn't realize it was not actually the employee in our building, but across the street. So, when we asked for utensils and they told us to come to the front, we didn't realize they meant across the street. There was also miscommunication when we asked to participate in "green housekeeping" in order to waive the room cleaning to receive a monetary credit for the hotel restaurant. We spoke to the desk 3 different times about it and each time they didn't know we had requested to participate. I also didn't realize until later into the trip that the complimentary morning refreshments and snow shoe rentals mentioned on the website were only across the street at the main resort. At the end of our trip, a high school hockey team arrived and stayed in the hotel. They were pretty loud (and tried to enter our room while we slept one night until we yelled to them to stop, which I assume was just a mistake). The most frustrating part of our trip, though, was that the single employee left the building after 10pm and no one replaced him. Meaning my husband and I were in the hotel with a large group of high school kids who were not being supervised by chaperones (probably staying at the main hotel) and there were NO employees in the building to manage them. Our last night there the kids were running up and down the hallway in their underwear, screaming foul language at each other, slamming doors, wrestling, and throwing what sounded like the ice buckets at each other. We opened the door multiple times to see if any adults were in the hallway and aware of the situation, but we only saw other confused guests. I went to the lobby and there were no employees because it was 10:30pm. We called the main hotel across the street to complain and they said they would send security. Fifteen minutes later the boys were still in the hallway on both the first and second floors. We called again and complained that these kids shouldn't be left unattended in the hotel with no adults or employees to make sure their behavior doesn't disturb the rest of the guests on vacation. The noise eventually stopped. We went to the lobby to check out the next morning and no one was there, so we walked across the street to check out. Overall the hotel was fine, with fun games to play during the snow storms, but we were pretty disappointed by the lack of employee presence for our basic needs. It was definitely NOT what I thought we paid for and would not stay here again. In hindsight I should have read the reviews online instead of just looking at the...

My husband and I stayed at the Lake House through High Peaks Resort for the holiday weekend in January. We wanted a cute winter cabin vibe, so we decided to stay here instead of the main resort. We arrived around 6pm and were surprised to find an empty lobby. We walked over to the bar and the single employee in the building checked us in in the office and offered us a welcome glass of champagne. The lobby and room were nice, but definitely not as up to date as I expected from the website. We were hoping the resort would be nice enough to want to hang out more in our room and lobby to play games and drink at the bar, but the room was dated with an old TV, and the lobby was always completely empty, and had no one at the bar to serve us even if we wanted a drink. A couple of days in I thought it was odd that there was still only the same one man working at all times. He worked in the office, the bar, and left the lobby to do the parking lot plowing. He was very, very friendly, but I expected more service for a "resort". Whenever we used the room phone to call the desk, we didn't realize it was not actually the employee in our building, but across the street. So, when we asked for utensils and they told us to come to the front, we didn't realize they meant across the street. There was also miscommunication when we asked to participate in "green housekeeping" in order to waive the room cleaning to receive a monetary credit for the hotel restaurant. We spoke to the desk 3 different times about it and each time they didn't know we had requested to participate. I also didn't realize until later into the trip that the complimentary morning refreshments and snow shoe rentals mentioned on the website were only across the street at the main resort. At the end of our trip, a high school hockey team arrived and stayed in the hotel. They were pretty loud (and tried to enter our room while we slept one night until we yelled to them to stop, which I assume was just a mistake). The most frustrating part of our trip, though, was that the single employee left the building after 10pm and no one replaced him. Meaning my husband and I were in the hotel with a large group of high school kids who were not being supervised by chaperones (probably staying at the main hotel) and there were NO employees in the building to manage them. Our last night there the kids were running up and down the hallway in their underwear, screaming foul language at each other, slamming doors, wrestling, and throwing what sounded like the ice buckets at each other. We opened the door multiple times to see if any adults were in the hallway and aware of the situation, but we only saw other confused guests. I went to the lobby and there were no employees because it was 10:30pm. We called the main hotel across the street to complain and they said they would send security. Fifteen minutes later the boys were still in the hallway on both the first and second floors. We called again and complained that these kids shouldn't be left unattended in the hotel with no adults or employees to make sure their behavior doesn't disturb the rest of the guests on vacation. The noise eventually stopped. We went to the lobby to check out the next morning and no one was there, so we walked across the street to check out. Overall the hotel was fine, with fun games to play during the snow storms, but we were pretty disappointed by the lack of employee presence for our basic needs. It was definitely NOT what I thought we paid for and would not stay here again. In hindsight I should have read the reviews online instead of just looking at the...

Pros:

Funky cross between MCM architecture and Adirondack style decor. Comfy beds. Spacious rooms (at least with the king room we occupied). Balcony or patio* for every room. The Great Room is super neat. Access to all High Peaks Resort amenities across 3 hotels is included as part of the resort fee**. Great walkable location. Dog friendly* (though we did not bring our dog).

Cons:

Even with the updates, the building still feels a bit dated in places and could use more renovations - especially the pool and hot tub area. It's a bit of a pain in the neck walking across the street to check in or out. 3*. The first floor patios don't have a great view of the lake due to an overgrown hedge that should be either significantly cut back or outright removed. The hedge was clearly much shorter at one time based on how it has overgrown the accompanying lampposts. The on site bar in the Great Room was closed (surely due to Covid) and it seems like it would be a cool spot to have a cocktail to close out the day. 5**. While included in the resort fee, the standard Wifi speeds are atrociously slow (5Mbps). The "upgraded" speeds (for an extra fee) are still atrociously slow (15Mbps). It's 2021. Decent wifi should be standard, especially if a somewhat hefty daily resort fee is involved. 6*. Dog friendly means they'll accept dogs as guests for a sizable daily fee that is likely more than the cost of leaving them home and boarding them elsewhere depending on where you live. We experienced a small to moderate amount of rain one night, and a lack of gutters on the roof lead to buckets of rain very loudly falling into a puddle on the grass right off our patio. The outdoor fire pit appears abandoned and out of service, and the fireplace in the Great Room was not lit at all while we were there, though both feature prominently on their website.

All in all it was an OK experience - not spectacular but also not horrid. The staff was very friendly and our room was comfortable and clean - the two most important things to get right. We would likely stay again at the right rate, but feel the combined rate with the resort fee added was just more than what the room and amenities were worth unless the issues above were addressed. The Lake House is better than a motel, but not quite up to a high quality "resort" standard in some respects. Perhaps the experience is better in the main building across the street, and we do intend to try the main building on our next trip.

If you're looking for a nice clean room with a view of Mirror Lake in a convenient location, The Lake House will serve you well, keeping in mind what we noted about the view of the lake from the first floor rooms being quite obstructed. Overall an average stay in an average place for a somewhat above average rate considering the...