Beacon Pointe on Lake Superior — Hotel in Duluth

We recently stayed at Beacon Pointe for a 2-night stay in order to visit with family and enjoy Bentleyville. We were with another couple and believed the hotel was fully booked. When we arrived, the young lady who checked us in was enjoyably polite and friendly. She checked in the couple we came with and let them know they were receiving an upgrade. While that was happening, we were enjoying the free hot chocolate bar which was very cute and welcomed.

We proceeded to check-in and were told we were also upgraded - to the room directly above our friends. Apparently, we were upgraded to a Deluxe Suite. It would have been nice had we been on the same floor but as I understood, and previously stated, the hotel was fully booked when we reserved our rooms. Perhaps they had some cancellations. We rarely saw or heard any guests during our 2 night stay that I questioned if the hotel was full.

To start with the rooms, ours was located behind what appeared to be a regular locked door. However, we unlocked the door, we found ourselves inside a small foyer area that served one other room, Room ###A and ours ###B. Because we were with friends, and their floor had an identical setup, it made it impossible to show up to our friends door unannounced. Not a big issue as we ended up giving each other one of the room keys we were provided with.

Our room was nice and appeared clean. While we did not require a kitchenette, it was equipped for 2 people with plates, glasses, flatware... an in room jacuzzi tub, large TV, and a gas fireplace - although the remote for our fireplace was set for 68F and could not be changed other than being turned off. During our first night, the fireplace turned on by itself at 2:00 am. I simply got up and turn it off.

The large bathroom had a decent shower and plenty of floor space. The suite was spacious enough for us and had a small view of the water when standing near the patio door. Our room had a view from 90 to 120 degrees (east to southeast). It really made us wonder where the original rooms we had booked were located before we were "upgraded". I would have preferred a better view and given up the jacuzzi and room size.

Parking was not bad as the hotel offered underground parking (which I did not attempt with my pickup truck), curb parking, and some spots next to the building. The breakfast bar had a few offerings for grab and go bites.

Location was great and we did not spend much time driving to the places we wanted to go to. Overall, I enjoyed our stay and really did not spend much time in our rooms except...

Stayed for a couples weekend and wanted to love this hotel, but it has some flaws that just can’t be overlooked. First, the good: amazing views, rooms are clean and well equipped as well as an amazing staff that were friendly and helpful, nice underground, heated parking (although limited number of spaces), fitness area and pool were more than sufficient.

Now the part that can’t be overlooked, and the reason we won’t be back nor can we recommend it to others. The rooms have shared entrances, so two or three rooms share a common main door and entry way, which slams loudly anytime it’s used. If you’re staying with a group or have a large family that needs several rooms this would be a great option. But having this shared with strangers is a huge negative, as you can imagine, people in and out all day and night with doors slamming at all hours doesn’t lend itself to a peaceful stay. That’s not even the worst part, the worst part is that these shared rooms do not have any soundproofing in the shared walls. Hearing strangers conversations, phone calls, and other noises (use your imagination) as if you are in the same room makes for a very uncomfortable and unenjoyable experience. I’m not complaining about crazy hotel guests or people being excessively noisy, but regular conversations are heard easily between the rooms. We could hear the person on the other end of someone’s phone call, as an example.

Again, the staff was amazing, apologized for our first miserable night with no sleep due to loud neighbors coming and going until after 1 am. They switched our room with an upgrade, champagne and chocolates. But the sound in the other room wasn’t any better... just quieter neighbors. We still heard everything they were doing in their room, and I imagine they could hear us as well.

So if you want to stay with a group this is a great place, but as a getaway for a family or couple I’d tell you to...

When we booked our room, we were so excited to be at a resort right on Lake Superior. We knew our room did not have a lake view, but did not expect to have a view if the street parking and the highway. The next morning a dumpster was delivered in our view as well. Our room did not have any lights by our bed. There were holes drilled for sconces, but no sconces. No lamps in place, either. Alrhough the online pucture showed sconces and a small kitchen table and chairs. Our room had no table or kitchen chairs. In its place was an upholstered livingroom chair. I had no place to eat the grab and go breakfast except for the upholstered chair or on the bed. No place to play a board game that were available, nowhere to sit to put on my makeup. The air conditioner vents had black mold/mildew inside them. Fortunately the windows opened and had screens so we could get some air movement to sleep, but were rudely awakened by the delivery of the large construction dumpster. I did call down to the desk and the staff did bring up a table lamp to sit on a nightstand but could not bring a chair or table. He did offer to bring us a plastic pool chair for our room. We were told the mngr would be available the next morning at 10 am. We went down at 1030am the next day, no mngr in yet. The staff did arrange to have a table and chairs brought up to our room and had maintenance clean the a/c vents. This is truly not the experience I anticipated when we booked our room. I knew we wouldn't have a lakefront view but thought it would be a greenspace view or urban art, not a highway and a dumpster. The staff were friendly and did bring up the missing furniture that was pictured on the website. Our room was clean, modern furnishings and fixtures but definitely not what I anticipated. Even with remedying the issues and oroviding a discount, I likely won't return. My advice? Book a Lakeview room or...