Cedar Crest Cottages - Homewood, California

Frank K.

Our family of four recently spent 3 nights in the Woodpecker cottage at Cedar Crest. The Woodpecker cottage was perfect for a family of four. Cedar Crest is located on a quiet area of Lake Tahoe with beach access across the street. Cedar crest is just minutes away from Tahoe City We enjoyed exploring Lake Tahoe during the day and sitting by the fire pit in the evening. I highly recommend Cedar Crest Cottages when visiting Lake Tahoe.

Nick G.

We were excited to stay at the Cedar Crest Cottages for 2 days during our recent week long California trip. The evening before we were to drive from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe, The National Weather Service issued a Severe Winter Storm Warning. The warning spanned the entire period from our arrival to departure with up to 30 inches of snow expected, very hazardous road conditions and tire chain requirements. The warning included the strong recommendation not to travel and, if unavoidable, to keep flashlights and food in your vehicle in case of an emergency being stranded.

We took this very seriously and decided it was not worth the risk. I called Natural Retreats to alert them of our decision and was told that someone from the local (Tahoe) office would contact me. The next morning (day of our expected arrival) I was startled by a call at 5:42 AM alerting me that there's no refund, sorry, nothing they can do.

I was not surprised by this given the 11 PAGE CONTRACT that they made me sign months in advance. I didn't expect a full refund but did believe some discretion would be made given that it was impossible for me to get to their location. They ignored my request to consider even removing the $265 cleaning fee.

I know, they have a contract, I should have bought insurance, etc. But since we did not enter the unit, a small token would have gone a long way. I am sure the place is beautiful, but be aware that the company is not easy to work with. Additionally, they have a 5:00pm check-in time (latest I recall ever seeing) with a strict 'no exceptions' notice on the contract. Combined that with a 10:00am check out. Aggressive on both ends in my opinion.

oscar

Summarized review:
The reason I am giving this lovely hotel 3 stars overall is largely because of the wifi, and shower pressure/heat. The wifi was just, incredibly slow. And the shower pressure was very low. If that doesn't bother you, this could easily be a 4-5 star hotel. This hotel had incredible amenities, besides the wifi and lack of A/C.

Pros:
- The hotel buildings themself: they are lovely. Since the hotel "rooms" are more like little homes separated from each other, this makes for a potential romantic area, as well as a family area.
- The amenities: the hotel provides cooking supplies, including a tea kettle, coffee maker, and range of tools even going as far as a potato peeler and ice cream scooper.
- The wildlife: In my trip there may have been a lot of spiders spotted in the bedrooms, but outside the room we saw a bunny, and three mice.
- Walkable distance to the lake
- Laundry machines and Dishwasher
- Fans to make up for no A/C.

Cons:
- No A/C.
- No extra set of sheets incase you used the feature of the beds to split them into twins (in woodpecker)
- For the lack of housekeeping, some kind of cleaning tool for the floor would help for longer term stays
- As previously mentioned: the wifi. The wifi was so slow that I couldn't even connect my Nintendo Switch to it. This aspect is especially inconvenient considering the low network in the area.
- No physical office to ask for assistance.
- No bathtub (in woodpecker)
- The shower pressure was very low, and the heating was not very strong either.

Would I recommend this hotel? Yes. If you want to stay at Tahoe in a nice room that's not overly expensive, this is a great option. However, the cons mentioned could be a nasty inconvenience for some, and I think that if the hotel

G

Overall:
Pretty nice, updated rooms. Wish a couple things such as the WiFi was more reliable, and an office on site to talk about issues. Pretty good value propositions for families or larger parties.

Pros:
The location is lovely, the stay we had was pretty nice. The advertised pictures matched our room fairly well. The beach was nice and super close walk away. The rooms were fairly clean and up to date. With all of the renovations that they had to have done, I am surprised they didn't install a/c.

Cons:
A couple of the light bulbs need replacing. The toaster was rusting. The wifi was by far my biggest con, the reliability is not good and when it does work the speed is very slow. "High Speed Internet" is a flat out lie, at some points I was getting 0.07 megabityes upload which is the worst internet I have seen. The water in the shower, took quite a while to actually get warm, when I first used it I questioned if the hot water worked at all. There is no office on site, you get a code to check in and a number to call if any issues happen. It would be nice to have someone on site to discuss issues with. My data connection on my phone was also quite spotty here so be aware when booking. A couple members of my party spotted some mice, and I had 5 spider spottings. My fan remote for my room didn't work, and one of the tv's didn't work seems like it was unplugged or non functional. If it was unplugged impossible to plug it back in without taking the entire tv off the wall.

thejoyciecat

We stayed at the wonderful Sparrow Cottage 1 in August 2022. Hubby and I stayed in the primary bedroom downstairs and each of our teenage kids brought a friend and stayed upstairs - two boys in one room and two girls in the other with a shared bathroom in between. If you have a similar situation, be sure to ask in advance to make sure those rooms' beds are split into twins, otherwise, they'll be pushed together as a king. ||The cottage is handsomely furnished and has everything you need for a week or a weekend - kitchen, washing machine and dryer, TV and a nice deck. The only bummer was that we were unable to use the BBQ grill on the deck - apparently the on-deck grill is not allowed anymore by the fire marshal. No matter, we used the kitchen to make our meals. ||The beach access is across the street. It's just a small little beach with gravelly rocks, we just walked up and down one evening, didn't really hang out there. The cottage is also on the main road, so it does get noisy with traffic. However, it is nice and quiet while sitting on the deck for a lovely morning coffee.||You do have to drive like, 10 minutes to Tahoe City for restaurants and such, but the cottage was so nice, we didn't mind just hanging out and eating in. It was a very lovely stay and I can imagine staying there in the winter, using the fireplace, and going to the Homewood ski area right next door. I highly recommend, any time of the year!||

Diane L.

The woodpecker cottage (a two-bedroom) was perfect for my husband, daughter, son-in-law and me for four wonderful, peaceful days of hiking in the Tahoe area in September. All the positive comments in other reviews are well-deserved. The rooms are stylish yet cozy and welcoming, and the landscaping around the cottages is exceptional. We all enjoyed preparing meals in the full size kitchen and eating together at the family-sized dining table. Every convenience is provided. Arriving after 10 days on the road, I especially appreciated the full-size washer and dryer. All the design details, from layout to furnishings, are well thought out. If we are ever in the area again, we will definitely return to the Cedar Crest Cottages.

Ray C.

We were stunned by this place. The entire area is beautiful, well kept, and truly a remarkable place to be.
We spent our 10 year wedding anniversary here in cottage 2 and fell in love with the place. The hosts were extremely friendly and very helpful during the entire process and even through the concerns of the Mosquito fire that was on going.
I am very glad I found cedar crest cottages, it will be a regular place for us now.
The cottage was stunningly beautiful and clean. Amenities were well thought of and they provided coffee upon our arrival (bag of ground coffee). Definitely some of the best coffee I have ever had.
I feel like I could write pages about this place on how amazing it was. It gets 10 stars out of 5.

Laura H.

My family rented the 3 bedroom Sparrow cottage at Cedar Crest over the 4th of July weekend. The day before arrival they called to inform us that our refrigerator was broken and let us know we could either move to a different cottage or they would move in a dorm sized fridge for us. I appreciated the call and that they check things like that before your stay. They also gave us a discount for the inconvenience! The cottage was well equipped with everything you need. Pots and pans, cups , plates , silverware , toiletries . All the sinks had liquid soap and lotions which I appreciated. It was very spacious, nice and clean. We loved opening all the windows to let the fresh cool air in. It was a perfect location on the west shore with a beautiful bike/ walking trail right outside the cottage that went all along the lake. It was close to some really good restaurants ( Firesign, WestShore Cafe and the Tahoe bakery.) The only drawbacks to our stay were that our particular cottage was the closest to a busy road . It was pretty noisy when you had the windows open , but didn’t bother you when they were closed. The WiFi did not work at all during our stay. They reset the internet several times but it never worked . The cell phone reception is terrible in the area so it was difficult to look up trails, directions, activities etc without WiFi. You couldn’t get any reception at all if you were downstairs . Also, if you were In the bedroom downstairs you heard a lot of noise from the bedroom above you . Overall, it was a great stay with very accommodating and responsive hosts . The cottages are beautiful and in a great location . We would stay here again but would make sure the WiFi was fixed before booking.