After our vac trip down to South Lake Tahoe we chose this La Quinta to move to the night before our early flight out as it's within two blocks of the airport. After reading a couple of the reviews from 2004 we were a little concerned about the quality... sounded seedy.

But we were pleasantly surprised to see that it has been refurbished since those ealier reviews... new paint in and out, new carpet, and has a nice heated indoor pool. Have stayed at a lot of La Quintas across the west, and I'd say this one is about average or slightly higher. Not as nice as some of their newer upscale'ish ones, but not seedy and run down as some of their franchises can be.

Service was very pleasant and helpful, and the beds and room were clean. The rooms were roomy enough, furniture was newish and in good condition.

An issue though was the pillows. In all of our many travels through a lot of little towns and stays in little independent motels we've never encountered such tiny, thin, heavy, foam rubber pillows. Two of them together weren't adequate. Asked the front desk in the late evening for an addtional pillow, but they could only come up with an extra blanket rolled to use as a pillow. Staff effor gets A+, management comfort concerns for guests gets D-.

Another issue was check-in. We're gold level Returns members and our reservation packet should have been prepared and posted on their Returns member's board to faclitate Returns members check in process by using on-line info to cut the check in process to simply presenting you ID and receiving a key, and you're on your way, It wasn't prepared and on their board.

Requested a room near the from to be near the morning coffee and breakfast buffet and was giver 103 next to the lobby. It was closest to the freeway and we feared road noise, from what an earlier reviewer wrote, but it was adequately qiuet.

There was no business area so I couldn't print out our early flight check-in boarding passes.

Since I don't trust room clocks as wake-up alarms so I requested a 4:15 am wake-up call, which came at 4:05 am. Guess they were concerned that I not be late for my flight. lol.

All in all, a more than adquate hotel when airport location, cleanliness, and price are your mosr important crieria.