Best Western The Hotel Chequamegon — Hotel in Ashland

TL;DR: Located in the center of the city right on the shore, the hotel really is located in an ideal location. Overall I felt the value was fine for my purposes but I'd likely not stay here again, at least not in winter. Rooms/hallways are unacceptably hot in the middle of Winter and I don't feel the hotel has enough "good" going for it to make up for that. Details below:

Service/Hospitality - can't speak much to this since I just left up the Do not Disturb sign throughout my stay (I can tidy up after myself). Interactions I had were acceptable but nothing particularly positive stood out. At the end of my stay for checkout no one asked how the stay was; I just gave them my keys and got a "thanks." which was a bit off-putting.

Rooms - I had a King Suite facing the city on the second floor and it was.. fine. There was one aspect of the room I felt completely unacceptable: the temperature. Even with the A/C cranked (in February mind you), I could barely get the room down below 80 Degrees... just ridiculous. Judging from the fact I could hear other A/C units running at all hours tells me this is likely a common issue for this hotel. Regardless, after staying up late taking pictures of the stars each night, I never got a good night's sleep due to the temperature and generally woke up already exhausted for the day. Other items with the room: Room was clean but felt a bit empty, especially the "living room" area which consisted of a love seat, a coffee table, a wardrobe, and a breakfast table with two chairs; just felt like it was an afterthought. Speaking of afterthoughts, power outlets are quite scarce so bring a power-strip or extension cable if you have a few items to plug in. Even with all the lights on the room was really dark and honestly a bit depressing to be in. Bathroom was cramped and shower head almost fell off when I turned it on for the first time and even after I secured it back on, half the water just dribbled out the bottom of the shower head. The way they divided the "living room" from the bedroom is also weird. There is a door between the two rooms, but then the wall separating the rooms has a big opening where they installed a counter on the back of the sink for.. I dunno.. parties I guess? Regardless, the door then provides no privacy if someone is sleeping on the pull-out sleeper.... why bother with the door at all then?

Parking - My first night was a Saturday night and I got back to the hotel about 11pm and got the last spot. The parking lot is small.. I can't imagine it can accommodate all guests if the hotel was fully booked but perhaps they have a secondary lot somewhere.

Decor - Main lobby is actually super cool; very warm and inviting on a cold winter day and has this super nice early 1900's architecture style. It's a shame these design elements didn't carry over into the rooms.

Free Breakfast: Standard Best Western free breakfast and nothing particularly special. Eggs/omelettes were just fine but potatoes were always dry and tasted old and bland; decent tea selection though so they have that going for them, which is nice.

Overall I don't feel like my standards are particularly high, but they still...

Walking through the front doors was like taking a step back in time! I loved the Victorian-era feel to it with a very (and I mean very very) subtle steamship feel. The room number placards outside the doors look like they came from an old steamer ship, something I doubt many people took the time to notice and appreciate. I couldn't walk across the lobby one single time without staring at the architecture in amazement. I'm super into history and historical places, and like everyone else probably has done, I had to ask how old the building was. Best Western, you did an amazing job on the scale model replica of the original hotel! It was too easy to imagine the walls, molding, ceiling, and even some of the furniture were early to pre-1900s. It's November so all the boats were out of their harbor slips and on shore for storage, but being able to see the lake (Chequamegon Bay) was still really neat. Yeah there were some cobwebs and bugs outside the windows, but come on, it's the 3rd floor of a hotel with a basement and windows that they can't open for cleaning without a screwdriver, so what do you expect? It's not a huge deal. Just enjoy the view for Pete's sake. I wasn't expecting there to be real plates and silverware at breakfast, and the fact that this location took that extra initiative to make it that fancy was really neat. As a bonus for those interested, there was almond milk at breakfast as well as regular milk, so if you're an almond milk kind of person, you've found the unicorn of hotels here! Best Western has always had great rooms no matter the location I've stayed in, but the fact that this location looked like it had been standing for at least a century made it a place I'll never forget. I would love to find a reason to be in Ashland again so I could go back and stare at the...

My husband and I had stayed a this hotel 10-15 years ago and were happy with our stay, so we booked it for this trip - even though we were somewhat hesitant to do so at the high price for the room. Turned out that the hotel in 2024 is "okay," but, we were a bit disappointed as it is looking somewhat worn and in need of TLC. We understand that the property is "historic" and supposed to emminate old world charm, but I think a bit of updating would not harm -- and only enhance -- the old world charm feeling. I do have to say that our room was clean and bright (we had a corner room with 4 windows!), though the outside of the windows had MANY cobwebs covering them. The beds were very comfortable. Unfortunately, our bathroom fixture had a burned out light bulb and the sink was clogged so that we had to be mindful of not running too much water. Neither of these were enough to complain about during our one-night stay, but we did advise the staff upon checkout so they could remedy them for the next guest. Sad to say that we will likely stay closer to Bayfield (or in Bayfield) next time as we discovered that there are lodging options that were very similar in price - and Bayfield was our overall destination this trip and probably for...