Black Hills Hideaway Lodge — Hotel in Lead

This lodge is a nice property and great for large groups. The location is good, and it is relatively easy to access all the parks and attractions in the area. The house is large, clean, and well-maintained. The kitchen had everything we needed to cook for a group. The outdoor space was a nice, family-friendly area to hang out and play games. Overall, we had a great stay there.

There were a few things we wished we had known in advance, however. There were no toiletries provided in any of the bathrooms, not even a trial size or small bar of soap. Also, there were no extra towels in the bathrooms, nor a mid-week clean or towel exchange. There is a washer/dryer in the house, but only one for a large group, which made for some laundry challenges.

We also wished we had understood in advance about the bunk room. Many of the beds specified in the listing are actually pull-out sofa beds in the bedrooms. Our group had older teens who wanted their own space to hang out and didn’t want to share a room with their parents. Upon arrival we discovered that the bunk room was locked and contacted the property manager to see about paying the additional fee to have it unlocked for us. We had a lot of difficulty connecting with the property manager, some of it was connectivity and communication challenges in the area, but not always (texting seemed to work, but she did not answer voice calls and her voicemail box was full and not accepting messages). When we did connect, we asked about getting access to the bunk room, but were not clearly responded to about whether it was available or if we could use it. We were more than willing to pay the extra money to access it even mid-week and offered to go pick up the key from her, but we seemed to get a lot of pushback about it (she questioned why we needed it-- the main house technically slept enough people for our group—as opposed to simply saying yes or no). Instead of working with us, management really made no effort to address our request. Also, to the extent there were connectivity issues, there was no alternative point of contact or number to use to reach someone. It would have been helpful, especially in the case of an emergency—we felt that if we had really needed something during our stay, we might have...

While a lovely home at first glance, with great spaces and potential, the lack of cleanliness is appalling. We had also rented the bunkhouse at additional cost and, along with filth, discovered mice droppings. After 45 minutes of trying to clean it ourselves we gave up and contacted the representatives, explained the situation, sending pictures with mouse droppings circled on the bed coverings. Explained we had tried to clean it up, gave up and were going to now rent hotel rooms for some family members. We were told “someone” would be out the next day. When she (?) finally, about 3pm came out she told someone in our party she saw no evidence of mouse droppings!! Well, had she told me when she would be here, as I had requested, I or someone in our party would’ve been happy to go down with her and point out such evidence. I have stated that I expect a refund of all fees associated with the bunk house but get no response. The communication is essentially non-existent. A dishwasher was leaking and we received no response to that either. Filth, no amenities that you would typically expect (soap, shampoo, etc). Another alarming fact; checkout instructions are to strip the beds of sheets but not the mattress pads, blankets or bedspreads. That indicates to me that those are not washed after each guest. For a cleaning fee of $330 for the main house and $150 for the bunk house (basically a room with bunk beds and a bathroom) we should have a clean home. White glove is not expected, but basic clean is. These cleaning fees should...

Our family has stayed at the Black Hills Hideaway Lodge for at least 10 years, and it WAS a beautiful facility with a great outside area to gather. The last several years, however, we have noticed the cleanliness and general upkeep and attention to detail have gone dramatically downhill, getting successively worse as the years have passed. We have had three occasions in which our reservations were either cancelled or double booked, forcing us to make alternate last-minute arrangements for our family reunions. Every room had remnants of mice feces, the counters and floors were not cleaned, and the bedding was haphazard at best. When we stayed at the lodge in 2024, at least half of our party ended up getting violently ill, which we erroneously assumed was due to a bug being passed around. But then again in 2025, at least 75% of the guests ended up violently ill again, within 12-24 hours of arriving at the facility – nausea accompanied with severe diarrhea and violent vomiting. One year may be an unlucky event, but two successive years of 20+ people getting sick is too coincidental – and is likely either a water or airborne issue (we researched the possibility of food poisoning, and have ruled that out as a possible cause). And on top of this, the grass was not mowed, weeds were growing everywhere, the outside grill was very dirty, and every propane bottle was out of gas. We will NEVER be...