The questions we get asked before a booking

Pets and service animals

Does Cedar Lodge allow dogs and cats?

Yes, up to two per booking, with no weight limit and no breed list. In a motel room or the house the fee is $20 per pet per night, capped at $60 for the whole stay however many pets you bring. On an RV site, pets stay free. The rest of it, the leash rule and the clean up rule included, is on rates and policies.

Is this a pet friendly motel, or just a motel that tolerates pets?

Dogs are welcome in all seven motel rooms, in the house and on all fifteen RV sites. Nothing is set aside as the pet room and nothing is off limits to a dog. What a dog actually gets here, and what the law owes an assistance animal, is written out in pet friendly stays and dogs at Cedar Lodge.

Is a service animal charged the pet fee?

No. Service animals are welcome in every room and on every site at no charge, they are never counted against the two pet limit, and we do not ask for documentation. Emotional support and comfort animals are not service animals and are booked as pets. The distinction, with the federal and California law it comes from, is in the same post.

Arriving and leaving

How does check in work at Cedar Lodge?

You call us and we come and let you in. Check in is after 4 PM for a motel room or the house and after 2 PM for an RV site. When you get here, call 530-994-9913 and we will get you into your room.

Will I be emailed a door code?

No, and we do not promise one. Getting in is that phone call, every time. A code that fails at eleven at night is worse than a number that reaches a person.

What if I arrive in the middle of the night?

Rooms and the house have no closing time, so an arrival at eleven at night, or later, works. Call the number and we will meet you. If you are in an RV and get in after 10 PM, park in the marked late arrival pull through and set up after 7 AM, so the rest of the park sleeps.

What time is check out?

10 AM from a motel room or the house, noon from an RV site. Late check out from a room until noon is $25, when the room is free that day.

What it costs, and cancelling

What does a night cost?

Sunday to Thursday outside summer, a king room is $125, a queen and bunk suite is $150, the three bedroom house is $225 and an RV site is $60. Across the published year the whole span runs $60-$290 a night, depending which of the four you book and which night it falls on. Every figure, in one table, is on rates and policies.

What gets added to that?

Two county taxes, and nothing else: 9% Plumas County occupancy tax and 3% Plumas County Tourism District assessment. There is no resort fee, no booking fee and no cleaning fee. One Sunday to Thursday night in a king room is $140.00 at checkout with both taxes in it.

Which nights cost more?

Three things move the price and they are the only three. Every Friday and Saturday sits above the Sunday to Thursday rate. Summer, 18 June to 5 September 2027, is higher again. And three holiday weekends carry a rate of their own: Memorial Day, 28 to 29 May 2027, Independence Day, 2 to 3 July 2027, and Labor Day, 3 to 4 September 2027. A holiday rate replaces the weekend rate rather than stacking on top of it, and a stay that crosses two windows is charged night by night rather than averaged. The arithmetic is set out on rates and policies.

When am I charged, and who can book?

No card is taken on the booking page yet. We hold your dates and email you to confirm.

We charge the full stay when you book, refundable under the cancellation policy below.

You must be 18 or older to book a stay here. The booking page prices your exact dates, night by night, before you enter a card.

What is the cancellation policy?

Cancel any time before 4 PM on your arrival day and we refund you in full. No fee, and we do not keep the first night. Refunds of $1,000 or less go back to your card automatically; anything larger is approved within one business day and settles within 30 days. Cancelling is self service from the link in your confirmation email, at any hour, with no call needed.

If you booked three or more days ahead, California gives you a second and separate right: 24 hours from your confirmation to cancel free for any reason. Whichever of the two gives you longer is the one that counts. Both, with worked examples, are in the booking terms.

House rules

Is there a minimum stay?

One night in a motel room or on an RV site, all year round, with no end date on that. The house takes two nights, and three nights over Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

How long can I stay?

Twenty eight nights, counted per guest across one continuous stay, room changes and consecutive bookings included. California treats a stay that runs past the thirtieth night as something other than a hotel stay, with a different set of rules for both of us, so we stop short of that line rather than sit on it. If you need longer, email us and we will arrange it one at a time as a separate agreement. The reasoning is in the booking terms.

Can I smoke?

No. There is no smoking.

When are quiet hours?

10 PM to 6 AM.

The rooms, the house, the sites

What is the difference between a king room and a suite?

There are seven rooms, named for national parks rather than numbered. Three are king rooms: one king bed, sleeps two, with a fridge, a microwave and a coffee maker in a kitchenette nook that has no stove and no kitchen sink. Four are queen and bunk suites: a queen plus a bunk, a separate living area with a loveseat, and a full kitchenette with a gas stove, an oven and a sink. Suites sleep four. Both have a private bath and their own door onto the lot. Photographs and the full fit out are on motel rooms.

Does booking the house book the whole house?

Yes. Three bedrooms, two baths, six beds and room for eight, with the kitchen, the laundry, the covered deck and the fenced back yard, and nobody else inside it. It has its own entrance and its own driveway. The motel and the RV park keep running while you are here, so the turf lawn, the picnic tables and the treehouse are shared ground. More on the house.

Do the RV sites have full hookups?

All fifteen do: 30 and 50 amp power, water and sewer at the pad, on gravel, put in new in 2024, open every month of the year.

Can I choose which RV site I get?

Not yet, and we would rather say so than pretend. You book an RV site rather than a numbered pad, because which numbered site sits where has never been set down on the ground. Tell us your rig length when you book and we will not put you on a pad it does not fit. What we have measured and what we have not is listed plainly on RV sites.

Is there air conditioning?

In the house, yes, along with central heating. In the motel rooms, no: each room has a portable heater, a ceiling fan and portable fans, which is enough for most of the year up here and not enough for a hot July afternoon. Highway 36 also runs past the property, so you will hear traffic. We would rather you read both of those here than find them out at nine at night.

Is there Wi-Fi, and what else is included?

Wifi, parking, picnic tables, a turf lawn and a treehouse with a ladder, whichever of the three you book, at no extra charge. The three compared side by side, with what each one does and does not have, is on three ways to stay.

Where we are

Where exactly is Cedar Lodge?

1487 County Road 324, Chester, CA 96020, where Highway 36 meets Highway 89, about three miles west of Chester at the north end of Lake Almanor. The turn in is County Road 324 off Highway 36. The house is on the left with its covered porch, the motel row is on the right under its metal roof, and the parking is the gravel between them.

How far is Lake Almanor?

About half a mile to a mile, from our own property record. Every distance we publish carries the source it came from, and the ones we could not source are named rather than guessed: the whole list is on getting here.

How far is Lassen Volcanic National Park?

Two entrances go in from our side of town. Warner Valley and Drakesbad are roughly 17 miles from Chester by Plumas County's figure, up what the Park Service describes as a 13 mile partly unpaved road whose last three miles is dirt with steep sections. Juniper Lake is 13 miles of partly unpaved road. Neither road is maintained in winter. We publish no drive time to Reno, Sacramento, Chico, Redding or the Southwest Entrance, because we hold no sourced figure for any of them, and a made up number on a mountain road is worse than none.

Are you open in winter?

Yes, every month of the year. What closes in winter is the road through Lassen Volcanic National Park, not us. The park itself is open all year; the Park Service says the road through it typically closes for the season in mid to late November and names December through March as the winter season. Highway 36 and Highway 89 are Caltrans roads and chain control is an ordinary winter fact here. We do not publish a road report or a snow report and we will not tell you a road is clear: check Caltrans and the Park Service on the morning you drive. Both links, and seven years of recorded park road opening dates, are on getting here.

Access, booking direct, asking us

Is the property accessible?

Nobody has measured it, so we are not going to tell you that it is. No doorway width, threshold height, bathroom layout or slope across the lot has been written down yet, and an accessibility claim we have not checked is worse than no claim at all, because you would make a decision on it. If you have a specific access need, email us before you book, tell us the exact thing you need to know, and we will go and measure that thing and write back with the number. The full list of what has not been measured is on accessibility.

Why book here rather than through a listing site?

The rate on this site is the rate we charge, with nothing added between the price you see and the price you pay, and a cancellation you can run yourself from your confirmation email at any hour. What booking direct gets you, and the one thing it does not, is set out in why book direct.

My question is not on this page.