Marriott's Timber Lodge at Lake Tahoe Hotel

, Lake Tahoe, United States
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Marriott's Timber Lodge at Lake Tahoe Hotel

4100 Lake Tahoe Blvd - Lake Tahoe - California - 96150 - United States Hotel Website | 530 542 6600
288 Traveller

Reviews - Marriott's Timber Lodge at Lake Tahoe Hotel

Historical Traveller Reviews of Marriott's Timber Lodge at Lake Tahoe Hotel

Very Nice!!!

from cahCalifornia
We stayed over President's Weekend. I read other reviews before we went. Many of the reviews were negative and/or extremely critical of the Marriott. I was motivated to write a review to counter what others had written. I could not understand how people could not enjoy the Timber Lodge. If you can't find happiness at this property, you just can't find happiness at all. It has an incredible location near the lake, town, gondola, gambling, shopping, skating. The rooms are in excellent condition and the staff is very friendly. I also thought the kitchens were very well supplied. We had a great time and I would highly recommend the Timber Lodge. Just a minor note for management, if they read these... they need full length mirrors, larger trash cans (especially the kitchen), and the outdoor spa and pool needs to open between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. so the skiers can warm their muscles before the slopes open.

Location, Location, Location!

from A TripAdvisor Member
We had a lovely stay with our 2 kids at ages 10 and 12 at the Marriott Timber Lake Tahoe in California. We rented the 1 bdrm unit. The bathroom had 2 sinks, shower and seperate jacuzzi tub. The sofa bed was a bit uncomfortable (should have brought a couple of sleeping bags). The maid service is every other day - didn't bother us except we didnt' know. We liked the full kitchen, the large bathroom and washer/dryer in the room. The gas fireplace was nice (didn't use the wall heater) and it had 2 TVs. We parked our car and didn't use it until we left 4 days later ($14.00 daily charge). The supermarket is across the street. ski rentals close by plus video rentals as well as a ton of other specialty shops. Marriott has an outdoor ice skating rink also. However, the most important item - the GONDOLA! We really enjoyed being so close to the Heavenly Valley lift which meant sleep-in mornings and taking our time to get out skiing. The sidewalks to the swimming pool and outdoor jacuzzi are heated! Also, it's only a few minutes walk to Harrah's on the Nevada side. Marriott sells 1 and 2 bdrm timeshares here and they would love to talk to you. We didn't bite, however. We will more likely be returning to rent at Marriott's again for skiing next year.

Horrible!

from A TripAdvisor Member
We were so excited to stay here until we got to our room. Our room reminded us of "Laverne & Shirley's" apartment. Our view was of people's feet as they walked by and the AC/heater banged every twenty minutes leaving us without sleep.
The walls were paper thin and we were able to hear our neighbors talking even though they spoke in normal voices.
Upon check out, we were over charged by almost 400% for one of the nights!!! When we called and asked to speak to the manager, we got her assistant. She would not let us talk to the manager and said that we would not be refunded the overcharge. She was quite rude.
We asked to have the manager call us and it has been three months with no return calls.
This place is highly over rated. Your money would best be spent elsewhere. Don't believe me? Just hang out in the lobby for 15 minutes and watch how many people are upset, complaining to the staff. Good luck trying to talk to the manager.

Great Location;

from A TripAdvisor Member
We stayed the week of November 11, 2004 for 5 days. We actually checked out of this resort and checked into another more spacious one about 5 miles away. All of our paperwork indicated a 1 bedroom, it was actually a small hotel room. There is no VCR/DVD or stereo. The lack of a kitchen was a serious inconvenience. Other than ski/snowboarding there is no entertainment for teens. One positive is the location was great --centrally located to the shops and gondola. Walls are paper thin, baby cried all night and noisy during the day. The valet parking fee is unbelievable, however the valet service was great when it came to retrieving the car timely.

Great property, ear plugs a helpful suggestion

from kymbny
My husband and I were given a week's stay here as a wedding gift and we were thrilled! The hotel is brand new and beautiful. Three outdoor hot tubs made the trip very relaxing. The staff was very attentive and helpful (even at all hours of the morning!). Fire and Ice (the restaurant on the first floor) was amazing and lots of fun. Great access to the slopes (not open while we were there), shopping, casinos or whatever you might want to do. We were not even verbally asked to sit thru a time-share presentation, but instead an "invitation" was left for us in the room. A nice change from other time-share based facilities.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1) As voiced by another reviewer, the walls do seem to be fairly thin and the adjoining room had a family with small children for the last few nights of our stay. The screaming of the kids was easily heard even though both adjoining doors were closed. My suggestion, if you are a light sleeper - ear plugs. It's not as strange as it sounds and will make all the difference for a good night's sleep.

2) Since there is gambling and all night entertainment nearby, do not expect a sleepy ski resort mentality. People will most likely be coming and going at all hours of the day and night so keep that in mind. Again, ear plugs make this almost a non-issue.

3) If you are staying here for the better part of a week, do not expect nightly turn down service or maid service. We had to call on the third day to find out what to do with the trash and to get some clean towels. Because it is mainly rented by the week, they do not come daily to clean the room. Not a big deal, but just something to keep in mind. They were amazingly speedy to drop off the clean towels and we received a follow up call to make sure that we had everything we needed.

Overall, a great property and if you have a chance to visit, take it. The town is beautiful and don't pass up a chance to eat at Driftwood Cafe across the street. Great food ~ look for the half-price or buy one, get one free coupons in the local entertainment guide newspapers!

ok, but some problems

from A TripAdvisor Member
My husband and I stayed here only for one night, and it was terrible. because we were not able to sleep, the walls are too thin and you could hear everything from your neighbor. I must say that it is a nice hotel and have good staffs.

Beware the rooms on the 5th floor!!!

from A TripAdvisor Member
My wife and I just returned from a 2 night stay (June 24-26) at Marriott's Timber Lodge. It was not what we expected.

I need to preface my review by stating that I am a Marriott Vacation Club International owner at one of their other properties. We had recently visited our home resort, so we thought we knew what kind of accomodations to expect when we would be staying at a Marriott timeshare property. Not so!

We booked a 1 bedroom suite for our stay. Our room was on the 5th floor (I had requested a high floor) which at this property is the top floor. As we found out later from the front desk staff, this floor and the 1st floor (I don't know why for the 1st floor) are the ones to avoid at this hotel/property. The rooms on the 5th floor lose about a third to half of their usable square footage due to the extreme slope/peaks of the roof! This also makes for fewer windows for the rooms on this floor which in turn means the rooms are not as bright as they should be. The bathroom was extremely disappointing, barely above Motel 6 quality and size. The air conditioning/heating duct for the bathroom was located in the wall of the tub/ shower! (Our home property has a large jacuzzi tub in an area just off the bedroom and a seperate area with large glassed in shower with the heating and A/C ducts in discreet, unobtrusive areas). The air conditioning duct in the bedroom was aimed directly at the sleeping area, with no way to adjust it other than to turn it off. Neither of us slept well because of this. To top it off, our view, such as it was, was of the bus depot for the casino buses. And it was a long walk to the elevators to boot!

We did try to change rooms when we arrived, and Joe at the front desk tried his best to switch us out, but because we were staying only 2 nights, he couldn't make a comparable switch to another room. He did spend almost 10 minutes tryiing.

There are some positive points to the property. The parking valets, bellman and housekeeping staff all were friendly,helpful and courteous. The property is only two years old so is relatively clean and in decent shape. The pool area was attractive and the sitting area around the outside fireplaces by the hotel's restaurant, Fire & Ice, was a nice touch at night. We didn't try the restaurant, so can't help there. The property is part of "Heavenly Village", with the gondola to the top of the mountain right out the front door. The Heavenly Village shops and the exterior of the Marriott are very attractive looking. There are many fun shops to check out within easy walking distance. The supermarket is only a couple of blocks away as well, for those staying for extended periods. And the casinos are only a 2 minute walk to get to. Lots of great restaurant/buffet choices there!

The Embassy Suites Hotel is right next door, between the Marriott and Harrahs, and it was very attractive looking from the outside as well. If I were to return, I would try there instead. Also, the Embassy Suites Resort (also a timeshare property) had a nice spot directly adjacent to the lake, although it is about a mile down the road from the Heavenly Village/casino area.

Beautiful Place but...

from sacanon
If you are interested in spending a lot for a big and beautiful room, you will get that. The Timber Lodge is amazing in its design. We got the room with 2 bedrooms that had 2 fireplaces. The fireplaces got too hot to touch so with young ones, beware. What I was very disappointed in was the service. The warmth was not there. And you cannot part your own car or even go to your car to get items, at least we were told that by the front desk. I will say if you know this and are OK, everything else makes up for it.

family ski vacation

from CarlosFR
Rented two 2-bedroom villas at the end of Mar ’04 for a big family ski vacation. Rooms were nice, clean, in good shape with enough room for all 12 of us. For the 2-bedroom villas they basically give you 2 adjoining rooms, one with large master bedroom with large Jacuzzi tub (a plus after skiing), separate bathroom area with shower, kitchen, living room with sleeper sofa, fireplace, and dining room table; and a smaller room with large bed, sleeper sofa, small refrigerator, sink, and another smaller bathroom. Rooms have small wall safes for valuables. Kids enjoyed the sofa beds, though adults may be disappointed. Rooms kept out noise from hallways and other rooms. Our large group generated more trash than could fit in the small trashcans in the rooms. Would be useful if they provided a larger trashcan in the kitchen or at least extra large trash bags. Only real issue we had was with washer/dryer units. Stacked washer/dryer unit in one villa worked fine. Other villa had a combo-unit that didn’t dry clothes well. Maintenance came up quickly to check after a call to the desk. They said there was no problem with the unit, but that’s just how well it dries clothes. Also told the combo units were designed for handicapped / wheelchair bound (though we didn’t ask for a room with handicap access). So you might want to ask if your room has one of these combo-units! But really did not have major complaints about the rooms. Overall staff was friendly and helpful. Valet parking was expensive as everybody else comments in the reviews, especially if you also tend to tip a dollar or two every time they bring your car like we did. We actually did get better and more useful information (driving directions, restaurant recommendations, etc) from the valets rather than hotel staff. Lodge is next door to the Heavenly gondola making it useful to get up to Heavenly, but it gets expensive if you ride more than once or twice. Would be nice if Marriott could negotiate a lower price for hotel guests on the gondola rides. We also just drove to the Heavenly CA lodge since it really wasn’t too far away. Or the shuttle bus also has a stop in a lot right next to the Marriott. For those with kids, the arcade at Harvey’s was better than the one at Harrah’s. There’s a grocery store across the street from the Marriott Grand Residence Inn on the other side of the Heavenly gondola. Or if you notice on the drive up from Reno, there’s a Costco just past the HWY 50 turn-off from HWY 395 (continue on 395 past the 50 exit) so you can fill up on supplies, which might be useful for large families or extended stays.

Excellent Location, Nice Accommodations

from AllieKate_mom
We stayed here from March 27-April 3, 2004 and had a great time. The location definitely can't be beat- it's so easy to roll out of bed and go straight to the gondola. The ski school is also nearby so we just dropped off our daughter before going on the gondola ourselves and picked her up at the end of the day there. The outdoor pool and spas were well heated for our brisk end-of-March stay, but can't imagine walking to/from the pool when it's 10 degrees outside. The restaurants nearby are good choices to supplement the clean, well-equipped kitchen. We got take-out from Wolfgang Puck's and dessert from Cold Stone Creamery. Yum, and perfect for dining with kids- staying in the room so they could run around the modest sized living room if need be, or just go to bed early. The bedroom was small due to the Jacuzzi, but luckily you could retreat to the living room. That, however, was furnished a little sparsely- could have used another love seat sized couch since there was only a sofabed, easy chair w/ottoman and a small bench. We had a semi-below grade first floor room- not bad, but would have liked another floor to get away from seeing people's legs walk by in the distance (there was a buffer by some landscaping, so that helped). Sparse to no adult activities, but looked like a nice kid's center (my kids were too pooped or young to participate). Would stay here again because it's clean, nice and VERY convenient.

Top Local Tips for Lake Tahoe

kids and snow play you can spend $26 for the gondola then $25 for the tubing and play at the snow area up on heavenly, or go to the sno park off of hwy 50 towards Boulder Lodge for just as much fun for a fraction of the cost. Buy a cheap saucer and spend the day sliding down the hills. Bring a thermos of hot chocolate.

Off the beaten path Do research before you go. There are excellent local restaurants near the resort that tourists don't know about!

Harrah's lunch buffet and MontBleu's Unbuffet Both of these buffets are overrated. The Harrah's food was subpar at $12/person and the desserts were very disappointing. The Unbuffet had better quality of food and desserts yet the selection was very small. It was $15/person on Sunday.

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Other names for Marriott's Timber Lodge at Lake Tahoe Hotel

  • marriotts timber hotel
  • marriotts lake tahoe
  • marriott lake tahoe
  • lake tahoe marriott
  • Address: 4100 Lake Tahoe Blvd - Lake Tahoe - California - 96150 - United States
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