Diana M.
Yelp
We traveled to South Lake Tahoe to accompany my sister to a wedding she was attending, and thought we'd make a nice weekend in Tahoe out of it, while she attended the wedding.
I don't even know where to start so let's start at the beginning:
Valet:
Valet staff was friendly and quick! No complaints here!
Hotel Check-in:
When you step into the hotel lobby, there is major construction going on and lots of temporary walls and plastic everywhere. Check-in was quick, there wasn't a line and we were able to check-in early. The clerk let us know that there would be construction going on throughout our stay and I did tell her that isn't a problem as long as we cannot hear it from our room.
Also, when signing the hotel agreement, it clearly states NO DOGS. Keep this in mind for Room review below.
Room:
The rooms are extremely outdated and feel dirty from the time you enter the room. There was a coffee maker with two porcelain cups, but no coffee. I used the Ivy virtual assistant to ask for cups, coffee, cream, and sugar, and housekeeping brought us four coffees. I had to reach out again to ask for the items they forgot, and then we left the room. When we returned, housekeeping failed to leave these items in our room, so I once again had to contact Ivy.
COMPLAINT FOR THIS REVIEW: Shouldn't coffee be part of the standard of cleaning the room and left for the new occupants? I shouldn't have to be chasing down housekeeping for something so normal.
The first night there, we clearly heard a dog in the next room, whimpering! Luckily it stopped after a few moments. My first thought was how gross that we may be sleeping in a room that a dog may have been in, and if they have dog friendly rooms, shouldn't those be colonized together and not with the rooms that don't allow dogs?
I am a Caeser's Rewards Diamond member, and the room I was given was on the 7th floor, overlooking the roof of the lower part of the resort. We had to keep our drapes closed as there were workers on the roofs constantly during the day. I was not treated like a Diamond member at all!
Casino:
Once you step off the elevators to the casino level, good luck getting any where quickly, The permanent and temporary directional signs were incorrect and led to more confusion than not. There were temporary walls everywhere, construction crews, and you better be careful walking down one of the temporary corridors, there are workers up on scissor lifts with hard hats on, so it was extremely concerning that we were walking under a worker that could have easily dropped a tool on us. We had to go that way too, it was the only way to get through that area. This happened during the day on the three days we were there.
Once you find your way to the casino, you will not need a jacket! It as extremely and uncomfortably hot in the casino, no matter what area you were in. This lead to a very smoky environment with no air circulation.
If you like to play slot machines, they definitely have several of the new games that are out, so that was a little bonus.
Food:
Our first night in Tahoe, we made a reservation at Wolf by Vanderpump. That restaurant gets five stars under a separate review that I created!
Harvey's lacks restaurants and getting to El Jefe's under the tunnel is like a mouse looking for the cheese in a maze! They also have Hell's Kitchen (pricey), a small coffee cart tucked away in the construction mess. We made it to Harrah's to Brew Brothers, which was another good restaurant. Harrah's has the River Cafe' downstairs but it closes at 2pm daily. Where are the 24 hour coffee shops for the late night folks, or if you want a late lunch? You will have to walk down South Lake Tahoe Blvd to find food.
Room Service:
Sure there is room service, called Caesers Eats, but the only restaurants you can order from are Wolf, El Jefe's, Hell's Kitchen, Sage Streak House, and some other seafood and steakhouse. None of these restaurants had a simple sandwich that you could choose.
We were so overwhelmed by all the construction, constantly getting lost due to detours where there was work being performed, and the overly hot casino, we left a day earlier than we had planned.
I get it - Caesers Republic (aka Harvey's) will probably look like a whole new place once it's completed (estimated completion June 30th), but we will never stay at Harvey's again.
In addition:
I forgot to mention that the Harvey's property allows dogs. Not just service dogs, all dogs! I love dogs, I have two small dogs at home, but to allow people to roam freely around the casino floor with their dogs, and the inside of the property, is unacceptable and unsanitary! I observed two dogs going after each other as they passed in the casino. No workers came over to see what was happening.