The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe

The Ritz Carlton Truckee (Lake Tahoe) is a wonderful resort, especially if you are looking for a ski in-ski out resort. The location is ideal (mid-mountain) with a simple gondola ride right outside the Ritz to the NorthStar village. There are dining options at the resort-Manzanita with its American upscale cuisine, The Living Room Lodge (a great place to sit by a fireplace and have a cocktail and light bites), or the Backyard Bar and BBQ for cocktails and fun food on the slopes. As far as things to do, of course there is skiing. You can rent your skis on site and the Mountain Concierge will store your boots and have skis waiting for your day right outside on the mountain. All you have to do is slip the skis on and go. Very easy. There is a large gym on property and a lovely spa with a multitude of services to enjoy on your days off. There truly is no need to leave the resort. If you would like to spend a bit more, you can enjoy the seclusion of the Club Level where there are food presentations several times a day. The people on the club are so helpful in arranging special outings and granting any of your wishes that you have to take the experience to another level. We felt like we were in a secluded resort within the resort and could truly relax and catch up on some much needed rest. The room was also very comfortable. We stayed in a 1 bedroom suite and had 2 full bathrooms. The bed was so comfie and the sitting area with its sofa bed made a perfect spot for our son to spread out. There were also 2 fireplaces in the room and plenty of closet space. Housekeeping did an excellent job at keeping everything pristine, just like the first day we arrived. The decor was modern yet still took in the mountain flair. Service is something that we cannot overstate because it was wonderful!!! Some of the people who took service to another level were Merrick in Valet/Bell services, Glorimar, Agostina, Camilla, and J who made the time on club equisite! Even before we arrived, people were reaching out to make our visit to Lake Tahoe a special one. And that is just what happened! We are still recalling the great memories made during our vacation. We will definitely be back, and we would like to thank the GM, Colin Perry for leading such an excellent team of people who make the place a magical one. This is truly a special property.

This property completely failed to deliver the service I would expect at a five-star resort. I valeted my car when I checked in without thinking twice. However, despite the car having automatic braking and a back up camera, the valet managed to ram my car into a pole and returned it to me with almost $10,000 worth of damage. When I raised the issue with property management, they just said they apologize and handed me the full bill for my one-night stay. And despite my many calls and emails to property management, they have failed to explain how the valet managed to inflict so much damage when the car had every feature available to prevent a rear-end collision. My wife and I splurged on a quick trip to the property so we could reset and destress. But our time at the hotel only left us with multiple trips to the body shop during the work day and a lot of questions. Save yourself the headache and stay somewhere else.

We booked ski rental through TrueNorth, one of the retail properties inside the Ritz Carlton hotel at NorthStar. I had no idea when we booked online that this would cause so much trouble. It was made very clear by the Ritz Carlton staff that we were not welcome there. We were told we could only park for 15 minutes. Beyond that it would be a $50 valet fee. But if we wanted to load skis into the car, that would be a $500 fee. WTAF? We wasted 2 hours trying to work out how to get our skis out of the ski rental property. The valet professionals were rude. The two managers were incredibly rude. The True North staff told me that this is normal. They (True North staff) aren’t even allowed to use the hotel bathrooms, even though they are a tenant retail store. In summary this place is beautiful to look at, but OH SO HORRIBLE to experience. If Ritz Carlton has a problem with the way customers use one of their tenant retail properties. They should update their lease contract and demand the store communicate any requirements and constraints fully with the their customers AHEAD of time. They have not done that. We lost a whole day of a short well earned holiday. I hate Ritz Carlton for this experience. This whole disaster is on them. I have always enjoyed my stay with them. NEVER AGAIN.

Simply put, the Ritz Carlton exceeded my expectations. As someone who owned a home for a long time in the Truckee area, we decided to stay at the Ritz for a ski vacation with the kids. Let me say at the top, the service at the Ritz has exceeded any service experience in the Tahoe area. I am used to ski town service in Tahoe, and so it was a shock to have such perfect service at the Ritz. When you check in the valet takes your skis directly to the ski valet area. This hotel is a true ski in - ski out experience. In the morning we simply had to get on the elevator and walk into the mountain concierge on the first floor. They would bring you your boots, and when you got outside your skis were ready to go. You then simply skied down to the mid mountain lifts. No gondola, no dragging your skis through the village to get on a bus. I think that experience alone made the trip memorable. One thing I do want to point out: TIP THE PEOPLE WHO GET YOUR SKIS! I could not believe the number of people who didn't tip the people getting your equipment. I tipped, my kids tipped we all tipped because they are working so hard to provide great service in an expensive place to live. Beyond the ski-in/ski-out experience, the room was very spacious. A few things about the room. The curtains are great. It is one of those hotels where the room is actually dark and night and dark in the morning when the curtains are closed. I was a bit disappointed in the firmness of the mattresses. I am used to a more comfortable mattress at the JW with a more fluffier topper on the bed. I also wish the room had a couch in it. It is funny, but because the room was a pretty good size, in the second bed you were pretty far from the TV, making it a bit hard to see. The bathroom was amazing in every aspect. One thing I don't particularly like but tolerate is a hotel where people can bring their pets. For some reason you occasionally run into the person who feels very entitled. The room beside us had a dog barking for about 2 minutes when we checked in, but then never barked agin. Aside from all of that, every where we walked the service was outstanding, and the hotel had a beautiful mountain feel to it. The fitness center also qualified as one of the best fitness centers in have seen in a hotel with free weights, machines and other amenities. Of course you pay a Ritz price to stay here, but I am sold and will come back again and again for the high quality service at the Ritz.

We traveled as a family of four and booked a room with two queen beds. We received an unrequested upgrade to a king suite. I believe the hotel ran out of double queen bedrooms although we arrived early at 1 pm for a 5 pm check-in. It would have been an awesome room except the sofa bed mattress curled up on either side and was thin and awful. There were also no sheets provided and only a blanket with a single pillow. We ended up sleeping three in the king bed and got a roll-away bed the next night. The cot mattress was excellent and worked out well for one of our kids. It was roughly the size of a toddler bed and low to the ground so it wouldn’t work out well for an adult. The room included a tub with a drain that didn’t open and close with the valve unless you manually held the lever open the entire time it drained or pulled the drain plug entirely out and refitted it by snaking the attached metal pieces back into the pipes. The shower drain was plugged up so the water pooled a few inches high. The hotel fixed the shower but it’s just odd to have plumbing problems and not inspect and make sure everything works. The cleaning service was good with attention to detail like folding the toilet paper, but the toilet had streaks and a ring that made it pretty obvious it wasn’t cleaned for at least a week. We could rarely get any staff on the phone when we called. No one picked up over multiple attempts different days—front desk, valet, hospitality. You have to spend a required daily $60 fee to park and retrieve your car so it gets frustrating when you have a schedule or need to get to the airport. Room service personnel promptly answered a call there but wow, was the food bad—burnt crust pizza with completely soggy bottom crust and no condiments for a burger and fries The hotel food was mediocre—nothing special for ridiculously high prices. We got room service the one night because the food choices in the restaurant were the same for lunch and dinner and the other restaurant option had worse choices for our family. This is a tiny ski area with walk-up restaurants in the nearby village that have an hour-plus wait time. The hotel would provide a fantastic service by offering better food quality and menu options. We also could not get rental equipment on site and had to go to the village for skis and to fix lift ticket problems in the app. The Ritz prides itself on ski in, ski out convenience and our experience was the opposite. Some of this resulted from not knowing or receiving information ahead of time on how to smoothly use the equipment and storage options. It was our first trip and any information on ski services and a map or brief explanation on coordinating lift tickets and ski rental would have been a huge plus versus a big hassle while managing kids and meeting other family on-site. We’ve enjoyed staying at other Ritz and Marriott properties but this one was a let-down with a very high price tag.