Introduction
Another weekend, another wedding. I was actually glad that this was in a destination I had never been before – Lake Tahoe. The only points hotel that I considered was the Hyatt Regency due to my Diamond status this year. It was either something like $500 a night for 20K points, so the decision to use points was an easy one. Plus, I’d also avoid their resort fees if I used all points. However, I did check to see if there was any P+C availability off and on and never saw it. I also saw that Scott reviewed it recently, and I was a bit hopeful I’d be upgraded to a cottage too. A few days before my trip, the front desk supervisor emailed me about my Diamond benefits, and I responded to her asking to be upgraded to a cottage if it was available due to a wedding I was attending there, but she said it was sold out, but I had been upgraded to a Regency Club room.
Checkin
We got to the hotel around 3PM or so, and my room was ready. Like I said, I was upgraded to a Regency Club room, which I think is the same room but just on floor 11 [out of 12] and so you have a better view. The funny part was the person who checked me in was the same person who I had emailed. I had told her previously in email that I wanted the 2 free items from the shop instead of the points, so she handed me the card (we wound up getting the smores kit and a bottle of wine.) She also gave us our towels cards [for the pool] as well as a complimentary glass of champagne (I think everyone gets this since it’s in the “resort fees.”)
The resort fees do come with free valet or self parking. We chose the valet just because we’re lazy. I was shockingly happy that they didn’t charge for parking or valet parking.
Also note that if you do get a cottage, you’ll be on the beach side of the hotel and not in the main hotel building.
Wifi
You do need to log in and it was pretty good all throughout the resort. The wifi worked on the beach near the cottages as well.
Room
Our room was fine. I liked the touch screen thermostat. It was set at 72 when we checked in, but we turned it down to 68 at nights because 70 was still a bit too hot for us.
Here’s my first big complaint about the hotel – there are no water bottles in the hotel. Okay, I get the drought issue and stuff and they have water refilling stations down by the lobby, but they charge you $5 for a fancy water bottle. I don’t see why they can’t just give out a cheap water bottle like the Hyatt Regency in Maui or the Andaz Maui (or at least give it out to Plat + Diamond customers.) I’m sure those cost less than $1 from China.
My 2nd gripe is the noise from the hallway. You know it’s one of those places when they have complimentary ear plugs in the bathroom. I don’t think there’s anything the hotel can do about this, so I’d advise you to request a room as far away from the elevator as possible.
Beach and Pool
I thought the beach was GORGEOUS. This was my first time to Tahoe and I loved it more than Maui due to the lack of humidity. We didn’t actually swim, but we went out to the floating pier for a drink, which I thought was a highlight of the resort. We did go into the pool, but it was later in the day. I thought the pool would be cold, but it was warm-ish. The hot tub next to it was pretty nice as well.
Breakfast and Regency Club
We had evening snacks at the Regency Club on the first day and was very impressed with both the food and drink selection. Anytime you have a brat and sauerkraut as your ‘appetizer,’ that’s a win in my book. We just ate here for dinner. The hours that the Club is open is fairly generous. We saw people come in and take water bottles to their room (hey, I don’t blame them.) Breakfast was also good as well; the wife loves salmon. The Club was full at times, but not enough for you to not find a seat.
Casino
The casino is literally across the hall from the checkin. We were given a $5 match play certificate, which I used to play Blackjack. I put my own $5 + the $5 matchplay; got dealt an 11 versus a 6. Then decided to double down and wound up with 15. The dealer then flips over a 5 to give him 21. FML.
They do have a poker table that starts up at night playing 1-2-NL. My buddy and I killed a couple of hours there.
Conclusion
Besides the noise and water bottle issue, we loved the hotel and Lake Tahoe. If you prepare for that, I’d highly recommend this hotel.
My family and I literally checked out the day you arrived. We too loved the resort, and Tahoe in general. The lake as too cold to really swim in so we spent more time at the pools, which were very nice. We had a suite in the wing off to the side of the pools. No noise issues at all. We would’ve preferred a tower room but maybe they don’t have suites there??? FYI on the smores kit… I took the points as my amenity and went to buy a kit. The cashier said to go ask the front desk for a complementary coupon so I did. He front desk guy didn’t bat an eye, just wrote one up and gave it to me. We hope to visit this hotel again sometime.
I am slowly leaning towards picking the points just for this very reason.
Every time we request a room away from the lift and to not be a connecting room we almost always, without fail, get a room next to the lift. Or a connecting room. Or a connecting room next to the lift. And this is at hotels where we hold top tier status, or 1 step below top tier. Maybe redeeming points gets you into a crappier room? I don’t know. We spend the past 4 weeks in hotels, and it really pissed us off. Good to go at the Conrads for BKK and SIN, though the corner executive room in BKK was still a connecting room, but luckily we never heard them. Europe was a total crapshoot, we were disappointed in roughly half of our 3 weeks of stays there.
Well that’s no bueno. Good thing you don’t have a blog to rip them then Ken. 😉
I do, actually, but I haven’t posted in years lol. Travelingforfree.com.
It’s like traveling back in time…
Hahaha, when I got my domain renewal a few weeks ago I thought the same thing. If we do move out of the country I might wipe the whole thing and start something else from scratch. Gonna need some kind of income overseas.
My wife refuses to go to Hawaii because of the flight etc. and we go to Vegas at least once a year for the weather so this may be a good compromise (lake plus casino is a big win in my book haha)…thanks for the good write up!
This was my first time in Tahoe. I loved it. If you don’t care so much for the beach and humidity, the views and weather in Tahoe > Hawaii imho.
Good to know. I live in Michigan and we have a ton of lakes so I have always been a lakes > ocean type of person and I am not a fan of humidity so that may be our spot.
Was it like a 45 min drive from the airport? Any other good options to get to the hotel besides renting a car or do you need one to go out to eat etc? I would think Uber would be pricey for that distance.
Yeah about 45 minutes and you are basically going up a mountain and back down, so 45mph most of the way. Scenic though. The car rental was pretty cheap Mark. I think I paid ~$106 for a Thurs-Sunday. You’ll want a car at the resort in case you want want to go around the lake (which I highly reco.)