Truckee Donner Lodge

3 years later, everything is exactly as I remember.
About $ 153 for weekday night in Jan now.
Breakfast bar had:
— omelettes, mostly egg with a dab of something like cheesy salsa inside.
— sausages
— bagels
— cold cereal
— mini muffins
— oj & apple juice
— yogurt

Warm and convenient parking, beautiful view! Staff is not the best at welcoming or conversation. However, the rooms are spacious and super clean lux! Complimentary breakfast, with more than cereal and fruit ! 24 hr beverage bar (hot tea and chocolate) Wish they had more outlets near bed to charge tech… wish the flat screen was a bit bigger, this one is like 35in maybe 40… However. They have complimentary toiletries and a nice fridge, coffee, microwave, ironing board and hair dryer. Love the full mirror closet! They have convenient luggage carts to carry in your stuff and a nice fireplace sitting area to lounge! Decora is lodge modern. Unfortunately our bathtub leaked, which was a bummer bc it wouldn’t stay full… and they only had 1 extra pillow available :/​
They didn’t mind checking us in early, the view from our window is the truckee river, blanketed in lovely snow, icicles hanging from the roof… it is a bit of a drive to Tahoe or downtown truckee, but worth it. Tahoe Donner Ski park is only 2.5 miles away, but we got lost trying to find it.
There is so much snow, and they have a food & drink delivery driver, too!
Best Western in Truckee is way better, their breakfast is a smorgasbourgh of amazing cooked food, this one is like cafeteria food. Best Western has like 100 board games to. play for families in the lodge sitting area and a much larger dining area!!! Their pool and spa are heated all year around, you can use the pool and spa while it is snowing and the snows melts on the pool grounds. The tubs are twice the size for bathing and the staff 100x friendlier, the elderly here seems to find you rude if you speak to hear with a smile or ask a question or try to strike up a conversation??? They have no playing cards and the best Western location in truckee is 30 seconds from the main strip while this location is farther… don’t come here when there is a better option for the same price, go to the best Western in town!

Excellent place to stay. Cannot understand the comments on the night manager but am assuming that this is to do with the disgusting video taken that is halfway through the argument some very rude guests in front of us were having. Before they started filming the guests were incredibly abusive and by the time the night manager was being filmed they had been shouting at her for a good twenty minutes. She didn’t use any profanity and had clearly was never going to appease these curmudgeonly ingrates. As a result of this altercation friends of the unhappy guests have been bombarding the hotel with «prank» calls which is harassment and as they have stupidly admitted it online they will be in very hot water at a legal standpoint. Very sad that these guests have little else to occupy their time during the holidays.

Absolutely horrible treatment by the night manager. I will risk freezing to death in my car before giving these miserable losers one dime of my money, and I will be sure to tell everyone I know to do the same. Keep looking for a better place, because this place is beyond bad.

I’ve stayed at this hotel several times over the years; initially when it was a Holiday Inn Express, and a few times after it became independent. This is an adequate place to stay, but with just a little effort to improve service and the breakfast, it could be so much better.
On the PRO side, the rooms are large. They have a microwave and small refrigerator. The bathroom has a wide vanity top. The closet is large. The furniture is nice. The towels are thick and white. And the beds are made up with three sheets (one on top).
On the CON side, the breakfast is barely adequate. The coffee is weak. The eggs and sausage don’t taste very good. The bagels and muffins seem stale.
More significantly, the service we encountered was very bad. The TV remote in our room did not work — buttons did unexpected things, and it was impossible to use the TV. We phoned down to the desk and were told there were extra remotes there. My husband went to retrieve one, but we held on to the broken one until we were sure we had something that worked.
The person working at the desk complained that she was giving up her last working remote, and what was she supposed to do now? She said she had 4 broken ones. Then, when we didn’t have the broken one to turn in, instead of just asking us to drop it off, she threatened my husband with charging him for the remote if he did not immediately return with it. Someone needs to give staff lessons on how to deal with their guests.

This lodge was 3 miles from downtown Truckee and the least expensive room in the area. It was $ 119/​night but with our AARP discount $ 107. The room we had backed up to the forest and had a electric fireplace. The bedding was good with 5 pillows of different degrees of softness; everything was very clean. In room coffee, micro and fridge. WIFI was excellent. The breakfast served until 9 AM was of better quality than Marriott. We would diffinately stay here again!

Update: we called them about our poor review when we booked three rooms and they gave them all away. No manager was there. We were told we would get a call back from a manager; never did. I guess they don’t care about their customers.

We stayed in this hotel multiple times. It is clean, quiet and people are nice. They have an ok breakfast that is very convenient with kids. It is not Ritz Carlton, but a pretty good hotel for what it is. We never had any issues there. I would stay there again.

The rooms were clean as was the hallways. The breakfast was good. The views out the back were woodsy, nice and unexpected.

The room was clean. The parking lot is tight if you have a large vehicle/​truck. The continental breakfast was mediocre. Bread, bagels, cereals, a few hot items (small pancakes and some sausages), some spreads, and juice. Nothing looked really appetizing. They have hot coffee and hot chocolate available in the hotel lobby ²⁴⁄₇. The hot chocolate was honestly the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. :) I was in a room near an ice machine. There are a lot of hikers/​outdoor recreation types that stay here. They get up super early (3−5am) and at those times they were filling up their ice chests with ice from the super loud machine outside my room! I was woken up 10+ times in the early morning hours due to these people! If it hadn’t been for these people and the darn ice machine, I would have given a better rating.

Great location and price! I booked on the hotel tonight app and only paid $ 99! The employees were all very kind and even stayed up for us to check in. The breakfast was decent and the room was clean. I’d stay again for the same price!

This is a great hotel! My experience there this weekend was very positive. It’s conveniently located in Truckee, giving you easy access to all the north Tahoe mountains.
The room was on par with a Holiday Inn: queen bed, mini fridge, microwave, tv, and a desk. The free wifi was reasonable, which is better than the snail’s pace you get at some other hotels in the area.
The view out the window was nothing special, just a field. I assume it would have looked nicer if there had been snow on the ground, though.
The continental breakfast was decent. It had hot items: eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Other options included yogurt, pastries, and cereal. Coffee, orange juice, apple juice, and milk were all available too.
There are also a hot tub and a pool. The pool was covered for the winter, but the hot tub appeared to be working. We never got a chance to try it out, but I’d definitely plan on doing so my next stay here.
Finally, all of this came at a price of $ 169 /​night. On a holiday weekend! With no minimum stay!
Bottom line: If you like hotels that just offer the basics: cleanliness, a comfortable bed, an acceptable breakfast, and decent free wifi, this one does so at a price that is hard to beat.
One last thing to consider: when I arrived, two guys were at the counter and very upset. From what I overheard, it sounded like they had been put together in a room with one queen bed and were not cool with that. It occurred to me that when I made my reservation, the hotel never asked me what style of room I would like. Luckily, I was traveling with my girlfriend and we got one bed like we wanted. But if you really want two beds, don’t forget to ask for that up front!

This place is conveniently located just off the freeway and is a quick drive to shops and amenities in Truckee, that’s why I gave it an extra star.
My issue is that sound does travel through the walls and floors here, so much for a nice place to get some rest after a long day of driving or activities.
So ask for the top floor if you have to stay here otherwise be prepared to tolerate heavy foots steps — boom, boom, boom from the guests above you, hearing conversations blah blah blah from the room next door and the occasional muffled fart or toilet flush.
Do not expect a professional Front Office staff, if you want 3 star quality/​service drive a little (yes I said 3) and stay somewhere else; and the check in time and process is painfully slow, maybe because its a single person who’s overworked.
The room is relatively clean, not super clean just relatively clean — it does cost about $ 180 so one would expect a clean room. Heating and room lighting is good but the furniture is somewhat dated.
I will not stay here again.

We just checked in for a weekend family vacation and the place looks recently updated, clean & well maintained. It’s a little pricey for what it is but about the same as everything else in the area. IF YOU HAVE PERFUME ALLERGIES OR AVERSIONS DO NOT STAY HERE. I have thrown up twice since we checked in because there is an overwhelming perfume smell that is permeating every inch of this place. And on top of that they use a HEAVILY scented furniture polish to clean the rooms so I also have a headache from the mix of this old-​lady smelling perfume and lemon pledge. If I weren’t miserable and sick from the smell, this would be a pretty nice place to relax with my family.

First of all, if I am going to spend $ 165 plus taxes and fees to stay in a room, I want at the very least a HOT SHOWER. This was a far cry from what we experienced. Apparently they had a hot water heater go out on them but instead of showing any type of customer service, concern or quite frankly gave a rat’s a$$ they barely looked at us as we were leaving to let them know we had cold showers, all they said was, «yeah, you’re the second one with that complaint today.» That was it! Seriously? There are so many other options in Truckee, we will be exploring those options next time!
Additionally, their pool was dirty and was in desperate need of cleaning, the mini-​refrigerator in the room is not very cool, but it is producing a lot of heat inside of an enclosed cabinet and it feels as if it may start a fire at any time. The bed was not very comfortable when you first laid on it as you felt every spring, however it didn’t prevent me from sleeping. I just don’t like spending that kind of money to have a frigid shower!

This place was an absolute nightmare for a room block that I booked for my wedding. Every time I dealt with them I wanted to scream, and I’m truly a usually very calm person. I can’t put into words how awful and incompetent this place truly was, but I will summarize my experience.
It all started when less than a month before my wedding they called and told me they HAD to give away 7 rooms off of my room block… what??! What is the point of a room block in that case? They said it was because I had 30 days before my block date to cancel any rooms I didn’t want, which I hadn’t cancelled any. I looked for this information everywhere and never found such a thing, it was not on my reservation confirmation anywhere, and in fact, it stated that I had 48 hours to cancel rooms. It made no sense. And even if it were true, I hadn’t cancelled any rooms so they had no right to be giving them away.
So…I start frantically reaching out to guests to tell them to book their rooms ASAP because the hotel was GIVING away my rooms that I ROOM BLOCKED. Again, still dumbfounded at the point of getting a room block if a hotel is just going to give them away?!? So now I have the word out to everyone and I’m thinking everything is better. Well come to find out, when guests are calling to book their rooms, the front desk girl apparently DOESN’T know how to work the computer and is telling guests that their hotel is completely full. When we talk to one of the managers, Nicole, she explains that the front desk girl only works one day a week and needs more training. So in the mean time, we have no idea how many guests were turned away because of an incompetent staff member, and I’m guessing it was a lot since I pushed all my guests to call right away
My mom leaves a very urgent message for the main manager, John, in the midst of all this. He takes several days to call back, and when my mom explains the situation he says that he sees no reason that he is obligated to keep our rooms blocked and that he could ‘sell those rooms in a New York Minute’. This is shocking to me, I don’t think this hotel understands what a room block is.
Another issue we had is that the hotel had promised us (and documented) and they would give us an early check in time to our guests for 12:30pm instead of their usual 3pm since our ceremony was starting at 3pm. One guest received a confirmation notice stating a 3pm check in… when we asked one of the managers, Nicole, about this, she said that there was ‘no way’ she would have told us we could have a 12:30pm check in. Luckily, we had it documented where she wrote it herself on our confirmation that she was approving the earlier check in. But she had no intention of honoring that if we hadn’t been able to prove that she said it.
So a couple weeks before the wedding I’m thinking everything is resolved and we’re on track until I get an email from a guest saying that she can no longer go to my wedding because Truckee Donner Lodge said that they’re completely full and she wasn’t able to make a reservation under the room block (even though I know for a fact that I have several rooms still open in the room block). I call the hotel right away to tell them and it’s that SAME INCOMPETENT staff member who tells me she’s sorry but only works one day a week and doesn’t know how to work room blocks on the computer. Still?!?
I also need to mention that we hired a pretty pricey shuttle bus to take guests from the hotel to the ceremony. The day of the wedding we called to check how things were going, it was of course the same incompetent staff member who answered the phone and she wasn’t sure what we were asking about and put us on hold for several minutes and we had to hang up because there were too many other things going on. Come to find out they didn’t honor the early check in and there were only 2 guests on the pricey shuttle. Truckee Donner Lodge 100% sucks. I have nothing good to say about their hotel.
Luckily I had an amazing wedding and this really was my only issue along the way, I rarely write reviews but I really felt I needed to warn any other brides or people blocking rooms for an event. Don’t use this place, you will sorely regret it.

They messed up my husband and daughter’s reservation tonight. After a long day of skiing and dinner, they arrived and find out there’s a system error and the hotel is completely overbooked. Ended up they have to be send else where for a room.
Terrible service.

I’ve stayed here over 3 ski trips and have no real complaints. They are close to the freeway (a plus if you head up Friday night) and within easy driving distance to several ski locations and it’s an easy drive to Truckee for dinner (which is super cute, but, be warned, more along the lines of SF restaurant prices). There is also a CVS nearby in case you forget anything.
The rooms are always clean and the staff are extremely friendly. The free internet is a big plus and the hot tub is large and extremely hot (though lthe only time I’ve tried using it, I could not get the jets to work). They have a pool, but since I’ve only stayed in the winter, I haven’t seen it in action. The hot tub is outside, so be sure to remember some sort of flip flop footware. It’s pretty cold running back to the hotel with bare, wet feet.
There is a free breakfast. As far as free hotel breakfasts go, it isn’t bad — not the best I’ve had, but the selection is better than a lot of other free breakfasts. They usually have eggs, biscuits, bacon, bagels, yogurt, cereal, orange juice, and oatmeal. I tend to avoid the coffee and grab some elsewhere on my way to ski, but then I’m a slight coffee snob.
All in all, for the price, this is a great hotel option. And the best part, no multi-​night minimums!

Eastbound on 80, the first hotel you see in Truckee isn’t all that bad.
The Truckee Donner Lodge was one of the few places I could get a room with same-​day notice on a summer Saturday. And not exactly a cheap room — $ 169 seemed a bit steep for such a no-​frills place, but it was cheaper than a lot of other places nearby. I suppose it is a tourist area.
Beyond that, I can’t say too much more. An average room with average amenities. (Think Holiday Inn). Very clean. Free wi-​fi was a plus. Bad room coffee was a minus (but they made up for it with good coffee in the lobby). The only other minus was the inability to close the curtains fully (I had to engineer something to block the streetlights from outside).
I arrived late; I slept almost immediately; I woke at 7, showered and left quickly with coffee and a few snatched items from the continental breakfast bar. (they had eggs, but they looked like they might have been powdered)
I’d stay again… but only after checking other places and prices first.

We decided very last minute we would stay here, it’s easy to find, right off the freeway and the only hotel we could find for under $ 200. I would have been a lot happier paying like $ 129 instead of $ 179 but whatever, it’s last minute and it’s Tahoe summertime. It was just a little irritating because we called and they gave us one price and we called 10 minutes later to book it and the price had gone up. I also saw someone else’s receipt and that they paid $ 99, which would have been a lot more comfortable.
We checked in and met the woman at the front desk and her oh-​so-​sweet dog, Charlie. Super friendly, laid back Tahoe service. Even though you’re close to the freeway the room still offered a nice view in the back of trees and wildlife. The hotel backs up to a park that has a small lake, bike trails, camping and the Donner museum is a short walk away as well. It gives a nice free day activity for anyone to enjoy.
The room was perfectly adequate, microwave, tv, high speed internet and a nice granite enclosed tub. They offer a breakfast daily from 630am-​930am that has several hot options, including biscuits and gravy, eggs and pastries. They also offer hot coffee and hot chocolate all day long.
The pool and spa is nice, the spa has a round area in the middle that one has to assume is a mini swim up bar – in the spa, I’m kind of in love! The person at the front desk said it was open until 11pm but if you’re super quiet you won’t get kicked out. Perfect! Will definitely stay here next time we’re in the area.

Una estancia muy placentera en este lugar, limpio, tranquilo y espacioso. Un trato amable y todo a un precio cómodo