Badlands Inn — Hotel in Wall

My husband and I stayed here on 7/8. When we showed up to check in to our pre-booked reservation, we were told that their system was malfunctioning and that they didn't actually have any rooms ready. There was one room, however, that was vacant, it just wasn't clean. They offered to give us fresh towels and sheets and to let us stay in the dirty room for half price. It was nighttime, we were exhausted from a day in the park, and there really aren't many other hotels in this area, so we agreed to stay in the dirty room for half price.

When we got our invoice via email the next day, though, I noticed that we were still charged for the full amount. I thought maybe the refund was just processing, so I gave it some time to hit the account. When we still hadn't received the refund nearly a month later on 8/5, I sent an email to the address on our invoice to inquire as to the status of our refund. I got a reply back the following day from the corporate Aramark team letting me know they had forwarded my email directly to the property, who would need to handle processing the refund.

On 8/14, I still hadn't heard back from either the corporate Aramark team or the property directly, so I sent a follow-up email. No one responded.

I tried calling the property directly, but I was never able to get through, so I called the Aramark number on the bottom of the invoice after a week-and-a-half of radio silence on 8/22. I spoke with someone on the reservations team, who eventually had to pass me off to one of her team leads. In total, I spent over an hour on the phone trying to resolve this, and at the end, the team lead said she would need to contact the property directly to take care of it. I was supposed to receive a follow-up call from the property within a day or two and should have received the refund within a week.

Today, 9/1, I still hadn't received any communication from the property or from Aramark, and I hadn't received the refund, so I reached back out. Again, no one answered at the property, so I called Aramark and spoke with someone in the reservations department. The person I spoke with wasn't able to help me, so I was put on hold for another 30 minutes while the team lead got involved. The team lead told me I needed to call someone at Cedar Pass Lodge because no one was working at Badlands Inn today. So I called Cedar Pass Lodge. The guy at Cedar Pass Lodge tried to process the refund, but he wasn't able to. He said I needed to speak to someone in Accounting. When I asked him to provide me that contact information, he didn't know what it was. So that call resolved absolutely nothing. I had to call Aramark back and again speak with another rep and another team lead to try to get the refund processed.

It's been almost two months, and I still don't have my refund.

The property itself is fine. Rooms are basic, but comfortable enough. Location can't be beat for Badlands NP. Just pray they actually have your reservation when you show up. And make sure you get a copy of the invoice when you check out rather than having them email it to you so you can resolve any billing discrepancies...

This is ok if you just want a place to sleep for the night and nothing else. There is literally nothing but the room and nothing nearby. We were hoping to get into their other property, the Cedar Pass Lodge, but it was full, and there aren't a lot of options near the Badlands Park. We arrived at 8:45 and left by 7 in the morning. It is basically a 2-story motel that is somewhat old and run-down. We usually stay at a Hampton or Holiday Inn, so this was quite a downgrade from that. There is no one staffed at the office, and you have to go into the park to the Cedar Pass Lodge to get your keys (or if it is after 9pm they are left in the drop-box). There was no prior communication to this effect but a sign is posted on the office door so we had to drive back into the park where we had just come from to get the key. There is no elevator, so you have to carry your luggage up the metal stairs at each end of the building if you have a 2nd floor room. At first glance into the room, it looks pleasant as the rooms have been partially updated with new beds and laminate wood flooring. The bed and pillows look nice and were clean and comfortable. The lampshades were old and had black specks. Plus many of the bulbs were burned out between our 2 rooms. The bathroom area hasn't had an upgrade in quite some time. The sink is at the end of the bedroom area outside of the bathroom and has older green vinyl flooring and a laminate countertop. The toilet and shower are in the bathroom with the old-style hollow wood door. The toilet is LOW, and the shower head is so low that you have to duck to get your head wet, even if you aren't tall. The inside of the tub was clean, though. The caulk on the floor around the tub was filthy with mold and dirt and there was something in the corner that at first glance looked like mouse droppings. Upon further inspection, I think it was dead bugs. We also found dead bugs on the floor by the beds. I was pretty freaked out by this point, but what are you going to do at 9 pm with no nearby options. After I thought about it, I do recognize that it is in the middle of the wilderness and bugs are probably everywhere, so at least they were dead. That meant to me that maybe they do treat the place? The view of the sunrise over the badlands was ok, but not worth staying there just for that, in my opinion. Bottom line for me, I would never stay here again. If I couldn't stay at Cedar Pass, then I would adjust my plans to finish seeing the Badlands so I could stay in...

We were here beginning October, so pretty late season. We had booked a 2 night stay. It seemed we were pretty much the only ones there. They therefore decided it wasnt needed to have staff on property (at least not active ones, there were some people in the trailers behind the property? But we couldnt find anyone when we needed someone..) and referred us through a paper on the window we should check in at Cedar Pass Lodge. It would have been nice to have gotten an email about this since our original email said we could only check in after 5 at the Inn, and the Cedar Pass lodge closed at 5.. So we were just in time to get our room key. The room itself was okayish, like the other people mentioned, lots of bugs and stuff like that, but the bed was comfy and the shower was fine. Breakfast wasnt also properly communicated, we also had to get that at the lodge, the people there werent really aware either, so it took some communication, but the people at the lodge were very friendly luckily. After hiking the whole second day we came back to find our key not working anymore. So had to get that fixed at the lodge again.. (luckily again this was before 5pm..) It then seemed they had somehow messed up a reservation saying we only had 1 night booked, but we still had to pay for the second night, so then upon checking out it was quite the hassle to not get overcharged.. All in all it felt kinda creepy and weird being there all by ourselves for 2 nights with no staff there and the lack of communication. The location was great, but thats all really! I would not...