My wife and I had a wonderful time at this Margaritaville resort. I'm glad that I hadn't read most…read moreof the reviews prior to visiting, since many of the other reviewers commented about their frustration on issues that I knew about in advance.. I knew that the mandatory valet parking fee was expensive, and I knew that the resort fee was uncomfortably high. I also knew the Margaritaville brand, and that there would likely be a disconnect between the lake/ mountain experience of Lake Tahoe versus the traditional Margaritaville palm tree vibe.
All of that said, there's a lot to like here.
The rooms are large, with a separate living room area from the bedroom, there's a dining table, mini fridge, safe in the room, and the water pressure is pretty decent from the handheld shower head. The location is also wonderful, just feet away from the major casinos on the Nevada side, lots of restaurants and retail, the marina, Heavenly village, Edgewood, etc. We spent more time outside the room then we did inside. The TV channels having pretty basic cable was a bit of an annoyance, but since they do have Chromecast, I was able to cast my own TV apps from my phone to the hotel TV. The hotel had a musician come in daily (nice touch), and from their position in the lobby, their voice carried throughout the entire hotel. The hotel itself gives off a layout vibe of an Embassy suites - about eight floors of rooms around a middle courtyard that has the breakfast restaurant on one side, the bar and other seating on the opposite side, and lots of foliage all over. There's also a lot of colorful seating with umbrella covering around the outside of the hotel, which makes indoor / outdoor living easy.
That said, I am disappointed with the management/leadership of this hotel, as all of the biggest frustrations are simple fixes that have come up in recurring complaints on this review site. People complain about the lack of engagement at check-in, and I experienced the same thing. Teaching people in hospitality on how to engage with traveling guests is part art and part operational science, but despite all the people who have complained about it, it's still not fixed. I pray that somebody from Margaritaville leadership would take over and start training on how to speak to a customer. I've experienced far better engagement from the cashiers at my local supermarket than I did at this hotel. I've personally trained hundreds of customer service representatives in my 30-plus year career, I was tempted to start teaching people on the spot. Come on Margaritaville, please be better.
I've also been trying to come up with a better word for the shuttle management, but I just have to use the word dumb. Before we arrived, I received a text from the hotel informing me of the available shuttle to take us around the local area, and encouraging me to ask the front desk when I arrive. I did ask the front desk agent, and she shared "I don't know when the shuttle runs - it just kind of goes around in a loop. We don't have anything to do with it, you should ask the valet." So I then went to the valet booth, where they said "yeah, it's here when it's here, it picks up and drops off on its own schedule, you should ask the guys who park cars if they've seen it yet today." So when we wanted to go to the marina, we stood out in front and asked the parking attendant, and he encouraged us to stand by the trash can and wait. We waited about 5 minutes (the shuttle was there with hazards flashing, they just couldn't find the driver) at which point we decided to just walk the 1.5 miles on our own. This hotel motivated us to get a lot of steps in over our 4 days.. we never did get to use the shuttle as it never seemed to be available. Even if the hotel has made the strategic decision not to put the shuttle on a fixed schedule, a true "resort" would say, "how about you enjoy our lobby comfortably, and when the shuttle arrives will come get you" (or something similar). To have a plan of putting customers next to the trash can, as a hospitality business, it's just bad leadership judgment.
So overall, everything about this Margaritaville gives off the Embassy suites vibe (not a bad thing), from the rooms and layout to the amenities, even down to the "we clean your room when we feel like it" experience (for us, they randomly cleaned it after day 3 of our four-day visit)... And that all comes at a premium price, with additional fees. There's nothing that for me felt like a "resort."
All of that is balanced against a great location and the laid-back Margaritaville appearance which I personally enjoy. I keep asking myself if I would stay there again - the best answer I have is probably not at these prices, but if the price was right I would give it another shot.