The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe

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.

It is difficult for me to write this review because I wanted to give the ritz every benefit of the doubt. I wanted this to be an annual tradition for my family (my husband and 2 little kids) but after this week we may need to look elsewhere. This is our second time at this particular resort. First time was about 7 years ago and it was an amazing experience. This time around was a complete 180. We are on our 4th of 5th night here. Let's bullet point all the incidents since we checked in: 1) Day of check in: we arrived around 12:30p with the expectation that our room would be ready at 1pm. Didn't get in until around 4pm. No problem. We hung out at the Living Lounge. Service was ridiculously slow because it was PACKED. 2) In room dining night 1. DISASTER. We ordered 2 pizzas, salad, dessert, 2 beverages. Ordered arrived with one pizza, no dressing for salad, and only 1 milk. We called in room dining and they told us they ran out of pizza dough. So basically they decided it was fine to deliver 1 pizza, charge us for 2 and not mention a thing to us. All that was offered - complimentary dessert which we obviously didn't need so late at night. My sons white pasta was watery - likely they didn't take the time to drain the pasta long enough. 3) front desk "upgraded" our room facing the alpines, gorgeous views and beautiful room, but day time they have a DJ that is LOUDDD. My 2yo toddler could not nap whatsoever. When did ritz become a party hotel?! And why when most of the guests here are families with kids and pets. When I say loud, I mean I can feel the bass in my veins loud. 4) had lunch at Manzanita, the food was beyond disappointing, and guess what after reheating the kids pasta at our kids place we FOUND a PIECE of METAL in our son's food! Luckily he didn't swallow it but pulled it out of his mouth. 5) made reservations for our son to do the gingerbread making activity for the kids. Almost got kicked out because they were full and another family lied about having reservations. They let us in but had to share gingerbread houses with 2 other kids. Got shamed when I complained because it's a "complimentary" activity. Really ritz? Do better. 6) oh yes the list goes on..., can someone tell me why housekeeping would only give us 3 bath towels when we have 4 guests on our reservation? 7) night 3 - fire alarm goes off during dinner time and everyone is escorted out into the blistering cold and of course guess what? False alarm. Probably some wild child pulling the fire alarm somewhere. 8) this is what convinced me to write this review. Night 3 we decided to treat our kids to some in room dining ice cream and cookies. My older son has chocolate and strawberry ice cream. 1am rolls around and I hear my son tell me his stomach hurts. We both RUSH to the bathroom and he starts vomiting violently and guess what comes out? All the chocolate ice cream. We're both literally lying on the bathroom floor until 2am waiting for all of this to pass. This 2 star review isn't because of ONE mishap but as you can see, multiple upon multiple mishaps. From someone who interned with the Ritz 10 years ago (before Marriott took over), I can tell you this resort has fallen far from the tree. They need either better management or a quality control team to come in and audit. Giving 2 instead of 1 star because the rooms are very nice and comfortable. The employees (for the most part) have been very nice and friendly. BUT with everything that has happened it would be hard for us to come back...

I visited this Ritz multiple times. The most memorized one was during Covid, when service and food are at very satisfying level. Also to note, my kids were not at skiing age then so we did not even ski then. This time we decided to celebrate our new years’s eve at Ritz, booked skiing and new year buffet. There is no more convenient place to ski at northstars than this facility. We were impressed by the mountain cocerige service they provide. Super cool and staff super helpful. However, this is the least satisfying trip to Ritz I ever experienced. I have been to a dozen Ritz Carlton hotel, and the experience was the poorest among all of the trips to Ritz. I received a call from Ritz two days before check in to confirm my arrival time. I told them 10:30 am. They told me the guaranteed check in time will be 5 PM but they will make sure staff know and room will be ready upon arrival. Upon arrival, they told us the room is not ready, but given people check out at 11, it will be soon. The room was not ready until 3:30pm. Which is fine, but caused kids do not nap, and I will be fine if they don’t set false anticipation. During the call before arrival, I also asked for a crib. Upon arrival, I was informed that they ran out of it. We got a pack and play, but kids did not sleep well in it. Come on, this is Ritz… The new year buffet was disappointing. There was just no hot food. The steak was even not warm enough and the food quality were worse than casinos… come on this is Ritz, and new year eve. During the stay, we went to have food at lobby, it’s hard to get attention, upon food was served, we got no forks… the staff were just the staff we met a few years back. We could have just set the expectation wrong… but this is not pleasant.

I stayed at the Ritz Carlton Tahoe for my birthday this past weekend. I would say my experience was nothing short of phenomenal. Matthew S. (the front desk manager) made sure that this weekend was surely one to remember. He went out of his way to help me with a reservation at the Ritz restaurant, Manzanita. I especially want to thank Chef Christopher for his amazing food (best filet mignon I’ve had), our wonderful waitress, Brigette, and sommelier, Lesley. They were knowledgeable, friendly and welcoming. I would highly recommend this hotel for weekend getaway to go skiing, celebrate a birthday, or to relax with family. The property is beautiful and it is literally on the ski lifts making it very convenient to have a great day skiing. Thank you once again! It was the staff that made this a memorable weekend.