Grand Gateway Hotel of Rapid City — Attraction in Rapid City

I would highly recommend going somewhere else. Like see if there is space at the county jail before checking in here.

At first (First five minutes) it was okay. Check in was strange and no one seemed to know what they were doing. Which I thought “okay everyone has bad days”, then it went south fast.

We have a family of six. So it’s important to find a place that sleeps six. That’s why we paid $230 for a suite. We quickly realize the couch didn’t pull out and there were only two beds. To rectify the situation we called the front desk to ask about a cot, roll away bed, pile of straw, something that a child could sleep on.

At that point I was informed that the rooms only sleep 5 (despite what the website said) and we shouldn’t have been allowed to check in, also we couldn’t get a roll away but they had sleeping bags for $10.

So, I asked if since we were violating fire code (despite there being a point of egress for each room of the suite, but we’ll just leave that alone) could we check out and get a refund to find a hotel that could accommodate our family. I was told no, that we were past the 24 hour cutoff to cancel our reservation and there were no cleaning staff to clean the room. We had been there about ten minutes at that point.

After we called out the complete BS of the situation we were told we could get the sleeping bag for free. What a victory. Like a cherry on a poop milkshake. But!!! I would have to go pick it up from the front desk, lucky me!!!!

So I go get it. No apology, nothing. Here’s your bag and blanket, thanks for playing.

The best part was the elevator was broken. So you either hike to the Fourth floor bags and whining kids and all, or you go on a magical haunted hike through the dated halls to the elevator that isn’t broken and then back to the other end of the building where your room is. It was truly magical.

The one thing that was good was the pool. The kids loved it. However if you want towels you need to bring your own. Unless you can dry off with the sign above the empty shelves that said “pool towels” or the other sign saying not to remove said towels from the pool area.

Oh, and, you want a breakfast. They have you covered. There’s a Perkins attached to the hotel. So you can pay top dollar for a truly magical experience and then go pay Perkins for the same breakfast all the hotels in the continental US would have given you for free.

So yeah, one star, photos are misleading, service is terrible, and no body I encountered cares about you as anything beyond a credit...

I'm going to start out with the fact that I rarely complain or give bad reviews but this experience was ridiculous enough for me to be motivated to write something. I am on a 6 week long road trip with my dogs. Primarily we are camping as we have a little camper van, house on wheels, that is very comfortable. But every few weeks we stay in a hotel to recharge or in this case, because my dog is quite scared of fireworks, to get inside, away from the 4th of July festivities. I chose the gateway because it was a reasonable price and seemed like a fairly nice middle of the road hotel that was pet friendly. For the most part, I was right. The staff were super nice when I checked in HOWEVER no one mentioned that the room I was in was a conjoining room that was connected to the next room through a flimsy and completely not soundproof door. I could hear the people in the next room talking, like word for word, until 2am. They weren't speaking loudly or partying, there was just literally no soundproofing, they may as well have been in the same room as me. At 1:30am I finally called the front desk to mention the problem. The front desk clerk said he didn't have anywhere to move me and that yes it was a conjoined room and he was sorry no one had mentioned that. Skip to 8:25am when the housekeeping staff knock on the hotel room door waking up myself and my dogs. I go to the door and they say they are just "checking rooms" AT 8:30AM THE DAY AFTER JULY 4....at this point I am like are you freaking kidding me??? Then they start vacuuming right across the hall from my room at 8:30am which may not have woken me normally but since they had just knocked on my door, I couldn't sleep through it and when I call the front desk to ask if they can wait for a while they stop vacuuming and someone starts drilling and nailing something at the end of the hall where my room is located. I used to work in a hotel and this level of complete disregard for guest comfort is staggering. So when I go to the front desk I tell the front desk girl what happened and (assuming that the manager has been informed of this mess) I ask if there is something they can do....they literally give me a TEN PERCENT discount on a $174 bill for barely providing me 6 hours of sleep. I am so utterly blown away by how awful this experience was. I'm sure if you stay there in a more soundproof room, your experience may be different, but this is one of the worst hotel experiences...

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER PLEASE READ|This has been the absolute worst experience I have ever experienced with a hotel. I stayed here for the 4th of July, from Wednesday to Sunday. I arrive after driving 6 hours, and at this point it's midnight. I made sure to check in to our king size room, which is located on the first floor, by the elevators, by the doors where everyone sits outside and smokes cigarettes. I'm thinking in my head, okay, that's fine, I am just so exhausted. I walk into the room, and the AC is broken and BLOOD on the sheets. I am horrified. I walk all the way back to the hotel, where we are changed rooms to the 3rd floor. At this point, it's 1am and my husband and I just want to get some rest. We wake up to housekeeping EVERY MORNING AT 8AM busting down our door, completely ignoring the "Do Not Disturb" doorsign posted outside. Furious, we get up every morning to say to please come slightly later, as we went hiking every day from 10am to 7pm. When we got back at 7pm, we realized there were no towels. I use the hotel phone several times to get in contact with the front desk, no answer. I walk to the front desk where I explain I need towels. Amanda says there are no towels, only "hand towels for washing the face", and proceeds to hand me "buy one get one drink cards". I don't need alcohol, I need to shower. Amanda writes down a note for house keeping to give us towels and to completely clean our sheets. We go to bed with no shower, feeling dusty and sweaty from our hike. Next day after our hike, no towels, no sheets. I went downstairs again, she apologizes and STILL doesn't have towels. This is an endless cycle throughout our trip, and we ended up going to Walmart to purchase towels. I demanded to speak to the manager, and Amanda says that he is not in, but will be in Monday morning, conveniently when we are leaving. I call Monday morning, the manager isn't working until the overnight shift from 11pm to 7am. Are you joking me? I need to be compensated for my horrendous experience, at least waive the cleaning fee. If this were the case, I would've stayed at an Air BNB to be able to BATHE myself. But hey, I got a drink card! Absolutely disgusting. Gross, but if you want a hotel with no towels and bloody sheets and a wake up call at 8am every morning with cigarette smoke by your...