All Star Inn and Suites — Hotel in Wisconsin Dells

We had high hopes for this motel. They are a sister motel of the Black Hawk, which we love and have stayed at many times. Unfortunately, we just had to make the best of it.

Pros: They take good care of the place. They have people around all the time emptying garbage cans, cleaning tables, picking up trash, watering the flowers, etc. everyone is super friendly and are happy to answer questions. The office is staffed during the hours posted.

The location is great. Just on the outskirts of town yet close to everything.

They have a large pool and a kiddie pool. They also have a nice playground, a nice picnic area with grills and picnic tables and a room where people can escape the late season bees.

Cons: Although they take good care of the place, we feel as though it’s a little too late. We rented 3 rooms. Two of which we had to move from due to a musty smell, a tub that the finish was rubbed off of and faucet covers that were falling off the wall. We had kids and needed the tubs. After moving once we decided we were just going to have to accept the 2 new rooms and ride it out. We wouldn’t be in the rooms much of the time anyway. The first night the bottoms of our feet were so black from walking on the carpet that we ended up just wearing socks the entire time or using flip flops any time we walked on the carpet. We also made a trip to Walmart for pillows and pillow cases because the pillow cases were yellowed and the pillows were very small. For each bed we got 3 small pillows the size of throw pillows. At this point we were wondering what we got ourselves into but we couldn’t afford to move since we had already paid for 3 rooms here.

The first night went good. Although there was still a faint musty smell it was tolerable.

The second day we came back from our daily outing and we noticed a more prominent smell. We didn’t know what it was. We looked under the beds thinking one of the kids left the baby’s dirty diaper and it got rolled under the beds (🤮). Nothing.

Day 3 we returned from our outing and the smell was even more pronounced. We left the door open hoping to air the unit out. This worked as long as the door was open. We moved the fridge thinking something fell behind it and was rotting. Nothing. Checked under the beds again. Maybe we missed something. Still nothing. Pulled out the drawers in the dresser. Nothing. We smelled everything in the room to check that it wasn’t any of the furniture. Nothing smelled bad.

Day 4 we asked for more towels and a vacuum (no one came to clean the room and restock towels unless we asked. This was fine with us. We respected the respect of privacy). When we returned from our outing that day the bathroom window was open - TONS of dead bugs in the sill - and the patio screen door was open (we didn’t even know this opened). Still the smell was prominent. It got cooler later in the evening so we had to close everything up. We then went outside to watch the kids play and enjoy our last night. When we came back the smell made me gag. I almost slept on the car.

We never did locate the source of the stench. When we bought new pillows and cases we bought Febreeze to freshen up the cases since we couldn’t wash them. We ended up using that throughout our stay to try to conquer the smell, but nothing seemed to work.

Kudos to the front desk staff who went above and beyond to make our stay comfortable. We are very disappointed that Black Hawk would claim this property as their own and not renovate it before renting. We were under the impression that the rooms were all renovated but we must have managed to get 3 (5 with the room switches) of the ones...

How this place was ranked #2 lodging in the whole city on TripAdvisor is beyond me. What I will say is that the facilities were clean, the service was okay, and the price was very good.

When we first arrived our room was COLD. VERY cold. I later found out that they had just opened for the season so perhaps this had something to do with it. The little heater struggled the whole weekend to keep the room at a comfortable temperature. It never did get as warm as we would’ve liked. If you’re going to be open in February in Wisconsin, do your guests a favor and upgrade the heating system.

Other than the heat, my other two issues were the maid service and the Kalahari passes. The free Kalahari passes were one of the main reasons we chose this motel. It turns out the passes are for the THEME park not the WATER park. The theme park still ended up being a good time, but if your heart is set on the water park you’re either going to shell out some good money or be disappointed (you can refer to my Kalahari review for more info on the theme park).

Our other issue was with the maid service. We were enjoying a leisurely start to our Saturday when the maid knocked on the door. We explained that we would be leaving within the next half hour and asked if she could come back after we were gone. She said that would be fine. However, when we came back at the end of a long day at the Kalahari, unfortunately the room was exactly as we had left it.

Now that I have aired my grievances, I will tell you what I did like. The room was very clean. The microwave, coffee maker and mini fridge all worked fine. The gentleman working the front desk was friendly and knowledgeable, and he aimed to please. All-in-all, I was satisfied with my stay. Not because everything was perfect, but because things were decent enough for the...

Check in was alright. I got a call at 8pm asking when we would be there because the office closed at 10pm. I didn't really think much about it at first, I just thought the staff was being thoughtful. But my interaction the next morning changed my mind. We got there around 9:30pm and the staff checking us in was nice but rushed through the check in because she wanted to go home. I guess they don't have the office staffed 24 hrs like most other hotels. The next morning I realized when I was getting ready to shower they did not have any washcloths in the room. I called the after hours number because the office didn't open until 8:30am and it was 7:45am. When I told them there wasn't any wash cloths she said "well do you need them right now?" Um, ya. We would like to shower to get around for the day. She said she would be right up with them. She came to the room at 8:35...when I answered the door she questioned me about the wash cloths like she didn't believe they weren't there. And said "I just can't believe the cleaners didn't put any washcloths in your room, we take pride in the cleaning". I offered to let her come in and check, but she declined. That was the only interaction I had with staff for the rest of our stay. The room was ok. You get what you pay for I guess. No bugs and the room was clean, but in need of repairs. Everything worked as it should but needs updating and new or steam cleaned carpet. I'm pretty sure the website said the pool was heated, it definitely was not, but it was nice. If I come back to Wisconsin Dells I will spend the extra money to stay at one of the resorts or another hotel. I'm not really sure how they are the #4 best place to stay according to trip advisor, makes me wonder about the other hotels...