Black Hills Luxury Suites

We stayed for three days. Our accessible room was spacious, the hotel welcomed pets and had a designated dog-walking area, and breakfast was nice. The staff were friendly, too.

Our room had a kitchen, a nice living area, and one bathroom. Fortunately, it didn’t have the awful smell we noticed in our building. Finding the office to check in was a whole search. We went up and down stairs in a couple of buildings, then asked at Best Western, only to learn it’s all one property spread out across the grounds. There weren’t any signs to point the way.

Hill City is the sort of tourist town you’d expect, with sit-down restaurants, a mountain-town main street, and prices that feel high for what you get. We knew that going in. Rushmore is about a 20-minute drive, and Crazy Horse is even closer. The staff were terrific, very friendly and accommodating. The breakfast bar stayed fully stocked, which saved us from paying for breakfast in town every day. The setup is a little strange: check-in, the pool, and the breakfast area are all at the Best Western next door. We stayed in the rear apartment/suite building, with a path to the pool and then the main BW entrance and parking. Our room was clean and roomy, and the two rooms and beds were very clean, but we were in a basement unit with a powerful musty smell. I don’t know if it was from being near the pool or something else. The carpet and things in the room felt damp each day, and everything we brought in, including my daughter’s stuffed animals, smelled musty and needed a thorough wash. We knew the area was humid, but this was a lot. The staff cleaned daily, but came early, so if you slept in you missed service that day. The couch’s pull-out bed was old and worn, though usable. The interior looked like it hadn’t been updated since the mid-90s. There’s no phone in the room, only one in the hallway, so calling the front desk meant stepping out. The smoke detector was beeping because its battery needed replacing; we told the BW front desk, and it was fixed by the time we got back from dinner. I’d choose the BW over this property. I can’t say enough good things about the staff.

The room was clean, though it could use a little attention. Breakfast needs work too. The gravy was very watered down and flavorless.