Hotel prices rising as the snow falls

A white Christmas at Tahoe and across the high Sierra has set off a rush for holiday lodging and driven up prices across the board.

Even the 1-star hotels are getting in on it. For New Year’s weekend at South Lake Tahoe, a 2-star hotel on Hotels.com is going for $219 a night for a New Year’s Eve check-in. Motel 6 was sold out. For Christmas weekend, Motel 6 was selling rooms at $135 a night and had only five rooms left.

At the other end of the spectrum, the 5-star Ritz Carlton, Lake Tahoe, located near Northstar south of Truckee, had a no-view room for $1,169 per night. As of Sunday, only five rooms remained at that price for New Year’s weekend.

In Tahoe City, a 2-star had one room left at $340 per night. A similarly reviewed hotel at Truckee also had one room left — for $495. No, yer eyes ain’t foolin’ ya.

With all the high prices at Tahoe, the best deals are in the north state at Mount Shasta. On Sunday, eight lodging sites had rooms available, starting at $79, topping at $167 for Christmas and New Year’s weekends. The Yosemite area also has some deals and availability, especially in Mariposa, Groveland and El Portal; in addition, outside the holiday period, even the Ahwahnee had many available dates.

Beyond the snow reports, the best insight to conditions is to watch four ski areas that have limited snow-making capability. If they don’t have to make their own, it’s time to pay them a visit because it means they have good natural coverage.

At Tahoe, Homewood Mountain Resort — set just above lake level south of Tahoe City — can’t always operate for the holidays, but it already has more than 3 feet of snow, and 6 of 8 lifts operating.

In the central Sierra, Dodge Ridge off Highway 108 east of Sonora has 9 of 12 lifts operating. In Yosemite National Park, Badger Pass fully opened over the weekend. In the north state, Mount Shasta, after being closed for most of the past two winters, announced it would open Wednesday.