New South Lake Tahoe hotel preparing to open its doors

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It's been years in the making, but the goal line is just weeks away for the new Hampton Inn & Suites in South Lake Tahoe. Finishing touches are being placed on the lodging property's 120 rooms and suites, indoor swimming pool, restaurant, lobby bar with six on-tap beers and wine, and landscaping.

It's not your typical Hampton Inn with custom features throughout, including chandeliers, solar panels, and energy efficiency. The ski lockers will have boot and glove warmers, and the property has a fire pit, hot tub, outside heaters, and bike storage.

Owner Sushil Patel and his companies Mountain West Buildings and Laxmi Hotels, have been planning for the hotel since he bought the three buildings that made up the old Super 8 Motel on Lake Tahoe Boulevard 20 years ago. He was waiting for it to "pencil out" and the time seemed perfect now. His brother and sister ran the Super 8 until it was demolished in 2020 to make way for the new property, four stories and almost 80,000 sq ft in size.

Patel is no stranger to South Lake Tahoe. He in fact grew up just down the road where his dad owned The Sun & Ski Motel (where Day's Inn currently is). He graduated from South Tahoe High School in 1995, and since graduating college with a degree in business administration from Cal State Sacramento, he's been working in Reno building multi-family housing as well as owning two Hampton Inn motels there and a Home2Suites.

The Hampton Inn & Suites is adding a new restaurant, Truckee-based Burger Me which will have outdoor dining as well as indoors.

Patel has been buying up old skis that will be featured as part of the hotel's decor. All rooms will have microwaves and refrigerators, and some one-bedroom suites which are not normal with the Hampton brand.

A sign of the future are the 12 EV chargers on-site for guests driving electric cars, seven for Teslas, and five standard chargers with conduit underground for future chargers. The property also helps with lake clarity with a $1.5M water retention system under the parking lot.

The new Hampton has a bus stop in front and will carry bikes with the hotel's logo so guests don't have to get into their cars once they arrive.

To keep under the maximum height requirement of 59.5 feet, the ceiling height is 8.5 feet, instead of the normal 9 feet, but to the normal person that won't be noticed. The open lobby is large with high ceilings with chandeliers, and will soon be full of high-end furniture.

Just as with everyone else looking for supplies, the supply chain issues have plagued the property as well and they've been waiting for weeks for all of the furniture to arrive. This pushed off their opening date which was originally going to be Memorial Day and will be open by June 24.

Patel said they are bringing a much needed upper-end lodging property to South Lake Tahoe, and their rates will be in the $400 range during high season, $200 during low season. He said he is almost fully staffed and they've already been working to get the property set up and ready to go. He has called on an Incline High School grad, Aaron Ponce, to be the hotel's general manager.