Best Western Ramkota Hotel — Hotel in Rapid City

Severely short staffed when we stayed. We were in a Suite(one of the most expensive rooms) and had called ahead at 10am to see if we could check in at 12. We were assured that this would be fine. Upon our arrival we were told that the room was not ready and it would be available in another hour or 2. We drove around the area and up to Deadwood then back, taking about 4 plus hours, arriving back at 4:45 or so which is 45min past "Regular Check-in." Our room was STILL unavailable, we were not told of the short staff at all during this time, nor that they were entirely booked full(extra stress on already short staff) -Now if this were my hotel, I would be making sure the Suites especially were turned as soon as they were vacated, as these rooms cost the most and likely have the most "particular" guests. Just saying- Ok, so we at least have keycards to the room..we just want to check in and go rest, we'd been driving all day from NE Iowa, and we REALLY wanted out of the car. When we got the keycards we were assured that the staff would get on the room straight away. We unloaded our car onto a cart and pulled our stuff into the hall near our door and proceeded to wait.. 45 min go by, and no staff..we wander around to the gas station next door, and smoke a few cigarettes in the smoking area watching the sun beginning it's decent..by this time it's near 6:30.. still no room turn, no staff, no manager to be found.. My adult son is wicked frustrated by this point and goes hunting the hotel for some form of management, which he actually finds! She comes outside to speak with us after getting on the walkie(my son overhears staff swearing about customers wanting in the suite-"what the fk do they expect me to do? Can't they fking wait!?") for staff to get straight to the suite. She apologies sincerely,(we don't know about the cleaning staff swearing about us until later) and explains the issue with the staff and hotel being booked full. We explain how, had we known this was an issue, we could have gone to the Alex Johnson instead (both paying less and being closer to our work destination) and cancelled the reservation due to the issue. We spoke for quite a while and she was friendly and regretful of the experience we were having with their hotel. By 7pm our room was finally ready. Thanks to this manager... other guests we spoke with didn't get in until 8&9pm so we definitely weren't alone in our frustrations. We discovered they close the water park part at random times, both nights closed before 9pm(first night closed before 8pm, which was a real gear grinder as we didn't even get into the room till after 7) Also they are awful at restocking the towels to the pool or water park. The hot-tub had scum ring around it, which was entirely unappealing. The pool looked nice, but we didn't get past the hot-tub/water park issues. We found a few issues with the room- the courtyard door didn't lock properly unless you deadbolted it, it's keycard reader was dead as well(dead battery). The faucet to the whirlpool tub flew off at one point, shooting water everywhere (highly amusing, also very wet and a mess). We managed to get it back together and usable but it needed to be tightened up and a new grommet installed for the leak. We informed Head maintenance (I believe his name was Bob- he was awesome) when we were leaving, he was surprised to hear about the issues, as cleaning staff is supposed to check these things, apparently. We were comped by management for one of the nights, by notification through a slip of paper pushed under the door at 6am, the morning of checkout, between my trip to the car for pack-up and my husband's trip(maybe 10min gap). No other communication with management.

Since our horrible stay, management has reached out to my husband, and made very sincere apologies. He also explained the situation with staff and being booked full. This is the General Manager, who happened to be in Chicago for corporate reasons. We suggested he work with his staff some more, targeting...

I had a much more detailed review to post, but it exceeded the character limit so here's a summary & I'll find somewhere else to post the full thing.

I would generally not recommend this hotel to families with school-age children traveling on vacation.

First thing is positive: given the purpose of our trip, the location is fantastic. Plenty of stuff to do & places to eat.

The hotel itself didn't match the excellence of the Best Western brand of hotels that I've come to expect as I travel both for work & pleasure.

Booking online was messy & we wound up paying a rate comparable to what I've paid at 4-star hotels in major cities downtown. Long story short, we waited to the week of our trip to book on the Best Western website, the rate went way up, we called and were quoted even higher, then it went down after we booked.

I don't begrudge them the price. They can ask as much as they want, and I can pay it or not. But once you set a rate you need to deliver on it. I don't want to publish the exact rate & wouldn't even bring it up except to add perspective.

It was annoying that with the online booking system, the website said rooms were unavailable for two adults & three kids, but showed rooms available for just two adults.

The greeting at check-in was courteous & helpful. We were even allowed to check in a few minutes earlier than the 4 p.m. check-in time.

The first negative part of the stay was that we were assigned the absolute farthest room possible from the waterpark. I did specify at the counter we were two adults, three kids and all would want to use the waterpark.

I suppose maybe they're understaffed. I ran an errand at about 8 p.m. and the full cleaning crew was still out fixing up rooms for that night. We were only about 15 minutes early for check-in & got one of the least choice rooms possible.

The nearest door to our room didn't work with either keycard. Another minor annoyance but far from convenient when hauling food back to the room for five people.

Also worth mentioning: this is the only Best Western I've ever stayed with which doesn't have a full complimentary breakfast. I should have checked but since I'm used to having it at BW, it was unexpected, & when taking the nightly rate in perspective it seemed like it would be a given.

The room was pretty no-frills but clean as far as I could tell. The a/c was weak. We kept the thermostat 60 the whole time just to keep the actual temp at a normal 68-72. I really liked the pillows. There was a shortage of towels however.

Biggest negative on the room was lack of microwave & microfridge. For a place geared toward kids & families this seems like a no-brainer. And again... for the price. The vending machines, which I'm sure are outsourced, had microwave popcorn for sale. Figure that one out.

The waterpark was perfect for our kids ranging 5-10 years old. It was not so great for adults because it's 2 1/2 feet at the deepest swim area (3 ft at the slide drop). Slide was fun for everyone but you have to go across the hall for adults to actually swim. The bathrooms were adequate but small for the size of the park & how busy it gets, and no showers. I would pay for waterpark passes only for my kids for a small fee but would not want to play with them there myself.

Overall I would rate this hotel 3-4 stars if I were paying for a modest 3-star hotel. However that wasn't the case. If a common-sense booking system, personal attention at check-in, 3-star room amenities & access, and complimentary breakfast are too much value to ask for a 4-star rate (more than twice the modest 3-star rate), then adjust this review to your liking or...

The lobby was bright and eye catching, as my niece and I approached the polite receptionist. She asked us not to be mad as they only had second floor rooms available with no elevator, and let me know it was her first day as she checked us in. I knew she was reading our BW profile as she pushed a bag with water towards us and said “Diamond Select” out loud to herself. BW rewards loyalty program points are our goal so we use our BW card (on file) plus had purchased extra points with the room reservation--so when she asked for a card to charge the 20% incidental expenses to I was slightly confused as I saw the terminal read $288.00 so I asked how much was the room if 288$ was the 20% incidental fee? She turned to a female co worker for help and as they checked the screen and I was about to say “wait…is this the total bill charge? I would like it billed to the card on file for the extra points” a man wearing a BW blue polo who had been standing off to the side literally barged in between the two women with a clearly dismissive attitude to them, and to me. The man was demanding to know what the problem was. I was so taken aback by his mannerism and loud rude tone I stammered to say “what I was questioning was the $288.00 20% of the room charge, or…” and he rudely cut me off before I could say I wanted to verify the room be charged to our card on file instead of the card I provided for incidentals when he loudly was saying he would “show me” as he grabbed a calculator. It was a moment of profound embarrassment for me that my niece witness someone speak and act like this towards us. In that moment I tried to understand where this aggression from the man was coming from? Was this his attempt at a teaching moment, a helping moment, or was it a racist moment? Rapid City has been dealing with the fallout of racism towards Native Americans by a nearby hotel and my niece is Native American. In a split second I realized it wasn’t on me to figure out his motive, nor were the points worth this moment in hell, so I simply, firmly and clearly asked him to not speak to me. The polite receptionist didn’t know what to say as she observed my distress-again I thought, no points worth this-I just completed the transaction with the no points card and my niece and I left the lobby feeling angry and confused. We found the building our room was located in and stepped in the foyer to find piles of large particles resembling clay cat litter all over the floor, up the stairs, on the landing and continuing up the next flight and down the hall? Not a great impression here either. The room is ok, breakfast buffet lackluster, and I cannot wait for this hotel to be in our rear...