Review: Lakehouse Hotel and Resort

The Lakehouse Hotel and Resort is a charming hotel on the shore of Lake San Marcos, near Carlsbad, CA. It is on the small side with only 142 rooms, which includes suites and lake-side cottages. I recently had the pleasure of staying there for 2 nights last month to attend a wedding. The wedding was on a Thursday so I decided to make a weekend of it.

The hotel has an outdoors/nature decor which they really did a good job of. Outside there were 2-dimensional animals that you would normally find in a forest. The flooring in the rooms are a dark grey wood that was very comfortable to walk on.

Lakehouse Hotel Lobby Entrance
Lakehouse Hotel Lobby Entrance
Lakehouse Hotel Roadside Sign
Lakehouse Hotel Roadside Sign

The room I booked and received was a standard Pool View room. It was a pretty standard room with flat-screen TV, mini-fridge, etc. The king-size bed was very soft and comfortable to rest in. When we got back from the wedding, we were greeted by some crickets on the walls of the outside walkway and ants in our room. I can’t say whether or not the ants were our fault (it was!), but I certainly didn’t want to deal with them myself. I went to the front desk to tell them about the crickets and ants. They said the crickets were normal but ants are not but the maintenance staff was backed up. I waited patiently while she typed on her keyboard then handed me another pair of room keys and said she switched my room to a Deluxe Poll View room. I didn’t even have to ask or slip in a tip, etc.

Deluxe Pool View Room

Upon entering the room, I noticed that it is a much bigger room. At least 3 or 4 queen size beds could fit in the room with room to spare. It was bigger than what most chain hotels would call a Junior Suite.

Entry with closet
Entry with closet

However, after walking into the bedroom area I started, nearly hysterically, laughing. These rooms have a shower/bath tub in the bathroom!!! If you follow me on Twitter, you know how much I despise showers, bath tubs and toilets that are in the bedroom or other common areas. I’m sorry but who thought these were a good idea?? Not only that but the water came out of the ceiling but lacked some kind of shower head so it just kind of fell. This design didn’t seem very functional.

Shower in Bedroom
Shower in Bedroom

Luckily, I did not have to resort to using it (as I have had to do at other hotels), as there is a separate bathroom with a proper wall and door to enclose it from the rest of the room.

Lakehouse Hotel Bathroom Sink & Mirror
Bathroom Sink & Mirror
Lakehouse Hotel Bathroom Shower
Bathroom Shower

The bed is the same kind of bed that was in the original room (sans ants, of course). It was very comfortable and I slept very well. There’s a large LCD tv with a lot of channels, most in high definition. I like that more hotels are doing away with the archaic hotel “provided” channel lineup.

Lakehouse Hotel TV and dresser
TV and dresser
Living area with couch and desk
Living area with couch and desk

Outside we had a small patio with two Adirondack chairs with an excellent view of the pool and surrounding scenery. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. It was a beautiful day and I was able to spend several hours working outside.

Lakehouse Hotel Pool
Lakehouse Hotel Pool

Food & Drink

Although there is no on-side restaurant, room service is offered and guests can eat at the golf course restaurant which is a 5 minute walk, if you walk slow. There is a convenience store that sells food, drinks and other items you may need. There was a pretty good selection of food and I found the prices to be surprisingly cheaper than expected. There is also a pool bar that served a delicious hard Arnold Palmer that was also reasonably priced. I definitely didn’t feel like I was paying hotel/stadium/captive audience prices.

Overall Thoughts

Cleanliness: 5/5 – absolutely no complaints. I felt like I could walk around the room barefoot which is a feeling I don’t often get.
Comfort: 4.5/5 – even though room design isn’t really part of the comfort, I feel like I have to take something away for the bath tub in the bedroom. Aside from that, everything was very comfortable. It made it very easy to relax.
Location: 3.5-4/5. I’m actually a bit torn about the location. The hotel itself is very quiet and it in a quiet area, which made it easy to relax and sleep. But it just seems so isolated from attractions you would want to go to. It is about 7.5-8.5 miles to Legoland, Carlsbad Premium Outlets or the beach, but those are a 15-20 minute drive. There are other hotels in Carlsbad that would make that drive much shorter.
Service: 5+/5. I was highly impressed with the service I received. I called earlier on the Thursday to ask about early check-in as the wedding was in the mid-afternoon. I was told they would try but can’t guarantee anything. On my way to the hotel, the same person called me back and said my room was ready. Ironically, I was only about 5 minutes away when that happened. Also, when the front desk clerk upgraded my room due to the ant problem, it was done so without batting an eye.

Overall, I was very impressed. Due to the location, I may opt to stay in a hotel in Carlsbad next time but it might depend on the purpose of the trip and cost of rooms or points.

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