Prós: I love staying in a historic hotel. The prices were a bit hight due to Sturgis week, but I wanted to stay and enjoy the history and elegance of the hotel. The location being smack dab in the middle of downtown Rapid City was more then convient! My room was well outfitted and beautifully decorated. Additionally, during my short stay, the staff had been very helpful and friendly.
Contras: The room was filthy.
Now, I'm not at all a pick person and I understand "things happen" but in my mere 6hr overnight stay I encountered someone else's hair in the shower (stuck on the wall and in the drain), dirty bathroom mirrors (smears), a splinter in my foot from walking around barefoot, and dirt on my bed comforter. I rinsed the hair from the walls and ignored the drain, used other mirrors and kept my imagionation from wondering wild with speculations as to what the smears were, due to a lack of tweezers I had to squeeze and scratch the item out of my foot, and I shook the comforter out and brushed the dirt from the sheets. Oh, and I went to read the hotels room book, which offered a history write up of the hotel as well as points of interest in the area; the pages were stuck together and sticky. (I did get a bit grossed out by my sticky fingers).
Additionally, the water temputure in the shower was continually inconsistent. For 30 min it ranged from scolding hot to ice cold. Continually back and forth hot then cold, hot then cold, the water never seemed to stabilize. I had about 5min of luke warm water to wash up with. The rest of the time I'd been standing there at the end of the shower spray at the back of the tub, trying to take a sponge bath. Very annoying.
All of that aside, my final surprise came when I went to check out at 4a.m ,to grab a flight, and I inquired about a cup of coffee in the lobby. The (wonderful) front desk gal appoligised that they didn't have coffee in their lobby and that Seattles Best opened at 5 or 6. Not a big deal, but not what a traveler wanted to hear at 4a.m. :-)
I did not notify the front desk of my annoyances because I had been just passing through and only needed a bed for the night. Also, as I said, things happen and I'm not overly picky. Brush off the annoyance and move on.
Would I stay there again? Perhaps. I would check with the Adobe hotel down the street first and compare rates. If they were a bit more, I'd opt to pay the difference. If I did choose to stay at the Alex Johnson again, at the time of booking, I would mention my previous experience and ask that the room I reserve be checked by housekeeping prior to my arrival.
