I stayed here for three nights between April 10th and 13th on a Priority Club rewards stay.

The rooms are located in a series of two or three story motel-style buildings set nicely back from the main road.

The room was a little dated but well appointed, with a small kitchenette including microwave, fridge, sink and coffee maker.

The whole property has free WiFi with a decent level of bandwidth. (I was able to watch a soccer match on streaming video, which is beyond the capabilities of the majority of hotel WiFi networks!) The WiFi also includes free access to the MLB Gameday audio service, which is a nice touch.

The complimentary breakfast is served in the reception building and has seating for about 25 people. I ate breakfast at between 7am and 7.30am each morning and had the place almost to myself. I could imagine that it gets busy after 8.30am, closer to when the ski-lifts open. Food selection was limited but adequate.

The outdoor pool and spa were closed for the winter, but there is an indoor spa which I didn't use, but looked OK. I did use the self-service laundry, which was very handy.

Although I didn't walk to the Gondola base, it is certainly possible. I would estimate that it is about 300 yards away.

There are lots of restaurants within a short walk. The closest casinos (Harveys, Harrahs) are about 400 yards away, on the same side of the street at the Holiday Inn.

In summary, a nicely appointed property in a great location. Certainly not luxury accommodation, but the free facilities like breakfast and WiFi were very welcome.

Booked 4 nights stay on the hotel website for a 2 double bed/nonsmoking room at the AAA rate of $109.95/night. Arrived on Monday after Easter about 6pm and checked right in. Clerk gave us a room in the same building as our friends who had arrived the day before. We were in room 322 upstairs.

Rooms are upstairs/downstairs on two floors with doors that open to the outside. There was limited parking in front of the building, but we were always able to get a spot. Close enough to the stairs to easily carry up the luggage (didn't notice an elevator). There's a Carrows restaurant right next to the hotel, so there was always plenty of parking.

Room had two double beds, a large desk/table, chair by the window, microwave/coffee maker/refrigerator and TV. Beds were a little bit too soft for our taste, but reasonably comfortable. Lots of pillows. Door opened to a very large bathroom with two sinks and granite countertop, tub/shower with curved curtain rod. Bathroom area also had a deep 2 drawer chest and a closet. Under the sink was a wooden rack for drying ski boots, etc.

Lighting in the room wasn't spectacular. There are compact fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling that gave some harsh light. Lamps on the nightstand and the desks were much better but didn't light the room that well.

We moved the large desk/table close to the bed at night to give us room to play cards while the kids watched a DVD. NOTE: the TV in the room is an older style and did not have any inputs for hooking up a DVD player or video game. The hotel said they were going to upgrade in the future, but call to check.

Ice machine was in another building just a short walk away. Need a room key to get into the small room with the ice machine; also had two washers/dryers there for laundry. Hot tub was in the same building, didn't use it but looked ok. Dry sauna there as well. Outdoor pool was closed for the winter.

Breakfast was in the lobby area, although other reviewers were correct -- there is a very small breakfast area and it is quite crowded in the morning as everyone loads up before hitting the slopes. Not very good flow of traffic, although everyone was polite. It seemed like as soon as items came out, they disappeared quickly. Quality was ok, not as good as Embassy Suites but adequate. Good cinnamon rolls and coffee; orange and apple juice, bagels and bread for toasting. Scrambled eggs seemed like powdered eggs, bacon and sausage patties were ok. Selections alternated each day, one day had scrambled eggs and bacon, the next was "cheese omelettes" and sausage patties. Also had cold cereal, milk, yogurt, hard boiled eggs and some fruit.

One concern was that a single staffer was restocking all the food and also cleaning up the area. While we were eating, we noticed her emptying the trash, then going back a few minutes later and bringing out more food. Not sure if hands were washed in between and there wasn't any posted health inspection approval there. She was very busy, so we wondered a bit.

Overall, breakfast is better than your typical chain hotel, but I wish Holiday Inn Express put more money into food quality instead of wasting it on a national TV campaign.

Location of the hotel is just a couple blocks from the Nevada border. Way too far to walk (in my opinion) to the Heavenly Gondola. But a quick drive over there. We went to Harrahs/Harveys casinos one night and gambled a bit while the kids did the arcade. One note: beware the Harrahs food court chinese food. We're pretty sure that the eggplant/tofu was the cause of my wife's food poisoning that kept her sidelined in the room all day Thursday.

The Holiday Inn Express was a good base for our trip, nice location near the border and a convenient drive to Heavenly or Sierra at Tahoe resorts. Safeway grocery store just a few blocks south, Powder House ski rental shop just across the street. Personally I think I would have preferred to stay at Embassy Suites, but for half the room price, the HI Express was great.

Stayed here for 2 days of skiing in Feb 2008. Location was great very close to Heavenly Gondola, but I'd do it in regular shoes and not my ski boots.
Bathroom was enormous was clean and modern. Breakfast included was convenient but it was way too small of an area and really is a joke to eat in the lobby.
Quite and away from the main road. Room was nice size, an had a small fridge and microwave and two beds.

The front desk always seemed to have some computer issues, and they absolutely refuse to check you in or even talk to you before 4pn (check in)..
Even then I must say I was very surprised and would stay again. Highly recommended.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in South Lake Tahoe from Feb 23, 2008 through March 1st. Checking in was a little bumpy as the computers were down when we arrived. First the guy at the front desk was checking us into one room, when another guy walked in and said he had just put people in that room. So he checked us into another room, but when we got out to the other room, there were people already in it. So we had to go back to the front desk. They up-graded us for the incovenience. The room we got was very roomy, clean and comfortable. The bathroom was very nice sized with a double sink, a dresser against a wall and plenty of room to move around with a large closet with plenty of hangars. The king size bed was very comfortable with 5 or 6 pillows on it of various firmness and the sheets had a high thread count and were VERY cozy. There was also a microwave, small frig and coffee pot, which were very convenient. We were very pleased with the housekeeping. Our room was always cleaned thoroughly and she left plenty of extra glasses and extra coffee packets in our room.

We soaked in the indoor jacuzzi a couple of nights while there. GREAT for relaxing sore muscles after a hard day of skiing. When we first checked it out, there were already a group of people in it - A little crowded. So we waited 20 or 30 minutes and went back and had the jacuzzi to ourselves. There was also a steam room there, but we didn't use it. They apparently provide clean towels on shelves by the jacuzzi, but when we arrived, they were all used and on the floor. So be sure to take a towel with you in case they've all been used.

Our only disappointment was the breakfast bar. We had been seeing advertisements about the great new breakfast bar Holiday Inn Express was providing. However, we found the "bar" was crowded into a corner and NOT very well laid out. There were cold cereal dispensers, and a rack under heat lamps with sausage and eggs as well as shelves of muffins, bread and sweet rolls with a toaster near by. There was cold french toast you had to put in a toaster to warm. It was not very good. The food itself was probably not too bad, however, the layout was very poorly planned. There was no organized flow. Food was randomly crammed in a tight corner of the room and the items were not thoughtful ordered so people were just randomly grabbing things from the center rather than standing in line and taking things as they moved down the line. Trying to be polite and take turns resulted in repeatedly being shoved aside as kids and adults just shoved their way to what they wanted. The only way to get food was to rudely push your way in. I also noticed the tongs placed out to pick up food items were not used very often so the food was more or less mauled by others before placed on plates. Who knows whether the hands reaching in to select the food were clean or not. We chose to skip this breakfast bar altogether for the rest of our stay. We either kept muffins and fruit in our room or went to a regular restaurant. Other than the breakfast bar, it was a great stay and I wouldn't hesitate to stay again.