The Google star rating categories don't quite cover this experience. I'll say this place is perfectly fine as an option for those stays where you just need a bed to crash in. Especially for those who don't want the high prices of central Duluth hotels. If you're looking for a place to chill for an extended period and enjoy the pool with your kids, I wouldn't recommend it.
The staff were friendly and said hello whenever we walked by. No problems whatsoever with the service. The staff are doing their best with what I can only assume is an old building that isn't doing them any favors.
The room itself was clean and perfectly fine. There was a weird dip in the floor that caused the whole room to shake, but I've had worse. The place is old, but there's been an obvious effort to update it. In that sense, it is what it is. The beds were comfortable, there wasn't a ton of noise from other rooms. There was a strong smell of pot wafting towards our room at a few points but other guests are more to blame for that than the hotel itself. If you need true blackout shades, this hotel doesn't seem to have them.
The stairs on the way in have shifted over the years, earning the name "death stairs" by the time we checked out. If we had less stuff with us this probably would not have phased me as much. The breakfast was reasonable--- not sure if there's more on weekends, but our weekday options included a waffle station, various breads for toasting, cereals, yogurt, some sad-looking bananas, and the usual coffee/juice machines. Lots of carbs and sugar and no protein.
The basement where the pool is has an awful smell that hits you as soon as you get to the bottom of the stairs, almost like the ice machine that's right there was unplugged and went moldy. The smell is somewhat better directly in the pool room but the pool is dated and either very dirty or at a point where it's so aged it will never look clean again. There was grit and sand on the bottom as though it was falling apart. There are also rooms with direct pool access so it felt like we were illegally swimming in someone's backyard pool. We stayed 20 minutes in the pool before the chemical smell was unbearable (and we all felt the need to shower immediately). The smell is something like pine sol, mold, and smoke/pot all at once. Not the usual chlorine smell. Possibly a sewage issue masked with chemicals.
Overall, I probably would have been fine with this place if we skipped the pool. I can live without eggs in a hotel breakfast. I could not, however, live long with the smell of that basement/first floor. I feel horrible for anyone who gets a...
  Â
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
