Having stayed in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, our fourth and final stop in South Dakota was Deadwood. We didn’t originally plan to stay there, but when searching for accommodation in Rapid City I came across a really cheap rate at the Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood which piqued my interest.
As I looked into Deadwood more, it seemed like it would be a fun place to visit. In addition to that, there were other nearby attractions we wanted to visit, so I booked us a week-long stay there.
The Four Points was a decent place to stay. It’s in an excellent location for visiting the city as it’s just a few steps from the main stretch of Main St with most of the city’s attractions. Our room was quiet and comfortable and you get a number of perks when staying even if you don’t have status with Marriott (Four Points by Sheraton is part of the Marriott Bonvoy program).
There were a couple of negative things about our stay as parking was fairly expensive and the hotel has no cold water (really!), but overall we enjoyed our stay and would be happy to stay there again if we did ever happen to return to Deadwood.
Here’s our full review of the Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood.
Check-In
We’d gotten a slightly later check-out from the Residence Inn Rapid City, but it wasn’t a long drive from there to Deadwood and so we arrived about 2:30pm. That was a little earlier than the official 3pm check-in time, but the friendly front desk agent was happy to check us in a little early.
He gave us a small piece of paper listing the perks we’d get during our stay (more about that in the ‘Perks’ section below), along with coupons for free breakfast each day which we got as I have Titanium status with Marriott.
A couple of things to note regarding checking in. For starters, the lobby is on the second floor of the hotel rather than the first floor. Second, if you get to the hotel late at night there’ll likely be no one at the front desk. I stopped down there one night to ask a question, but there was no one there. Instead, there was a tablet where you could get assistance. If you’re checking in, you have to head over to the neighboring Hampton Inn hotel to get your keys. The two hotels are connected by the Tin Lizzie casino, so you can walk through there if you want. It was surprising though that they’ve cheaped out by only having one person covering two hotels overnight.
Bedroom
We were given room 449 which is on the top floor of the hotel. That’s something we always prefer as it means there’s never any problem with people stomping around in the room above us. Shae and I could deal with that, but our dog Truffles isn’t a fan when that happens!
When entering our room, the bathroom was off to the right through a sliding door, with the bedroom straight ahead.
The bedroom had a king bed which we found to be nice and comfortable. Both sides of the bed had side tables and lamps, with an armchair in the corner of the room.
Our room overlooked Dahl’s Chainsaw Art. There was someone working on art during our stay, but the window had pretty good soundproofing and so the sound of the chainsaw didn’t bother us.
Opposite the bed was a desk and office chair, with a large TV mounted to the wall above that. In the corner of that side of the room was a luggage rack.
Back by the entrance of the room was a large unit. This had a number of cubby holes for storage, along with a mini fridge, microwave and coffee maker.
On the left of that unit was a narrow closet which contained an iron, ironing board and railing with multiple hangers.
Also back by the room’s entrance was a mirror with a couple of small shelves.
The hotel was quiet overall, but at times we could hear the TV from the room next to us.
Bathroom
The bathroom had a sliding door rather than a regular door that opens in and out. I’m not a big fan of sliding doors like these because they tend to leak more light around the edges which isn’t great if the person sleeping in the bedroom is sensitive to light like that at night.
The bathroom had a spacious walk-in shower with pretty good water pressure. What wasn’t so good was the ability to get cold water from the tap. We noticed that no matter which direction we turned the handle, it gave water ranging from warm to hot. That’s not ideal if you like cold water when brushing your teeth and even less ideal when it comes to being able to drink water from the tap.
Thinking that it was an issue with the tap in our bathroom, Shae asked at the front desk if they could have maintenance look at it. However, the front desk agent said there’s nothing maintenance could do because the hotel doesn’t have cold water. She said that if we wanted cold water for drinking, we could get it from the water dispenser in the fitness room, but that otherwise the hotel doesn’t have access to cold water. That’s one of the most ridiculous things we’ve ever heard, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.
The Four Points has large bottles of wall-mounted toiletries in the shower.
Breakfast
Breakfast is available from 7-10am at the Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood. It’s not complimentary for all guests, although Marriott Bonvoy members with Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador status can choose free breakfast for two each day as their welcome amenity which is what we did.
The hotel doesn’t offer a buffet breakfast; instead, you can choose from a menu with various entrée options.
Seeing as we stayed there for a week, Shae and I tried a number of different options. My favorite was the breakfast burrito; this is made fresh rather than just being something they heat up in a microwave, so I was able to order it without cheese which I appreciated.
My least favorite of the breakfast options was the biscuits and gravy. The biscuits to gravy ratio was off (it needed more gravy IMO) and so the biscuits ended up being a little dry.
Here are the other breakfast entrées we tried:
Seeing as breakfast isn’t free for all guests, there were always plenty of tables and chairs available. Having said that, we also visited in mid-May just as Deadwood’s tourism season starts ramping up and so perhaps the breakfast area gets busier in the summer.
Perks
I mentioned earlier that when checking in at the Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood we were advised of a bunch of different perks we got with our stay. Here’s the piece of paper we received listing the benefits:
We didn’t take advantage of any of these perks until towards the end of our stay. It wasn’t until we went to redeem some of them that we noticed the small print at the bottom of the slip of paper:
Each offer valid once per day of stay
We’d assumed that we could only take advantage of each perk once during our stay, but that didn’t end up being the case. Having said that, I’m not sure if they’ll actually give you $15 of free play at Tin Lizzie every single day of your stay. We didn’t test that out, but both Shae and I did take advantage of $15 of free play each. I did it first on our penultimate night, then the next morning Shae got her $15 of free play too. When Shae got hers, the person taking care of that added a squiggle to the slip of paper listing our benefits, so that led me to believe that that particular benefit is only meant to be used once, but perhaps I’m wrong.
A couple of benefits we did take advantage of a couple of times were the Buy One Get One Free drinks at Paddy O’Neill’s Irish Pub & Grill…
…and the Buy One Get One Free ichiban rolls from the Ichiban Express Sushi Bar at Tin Lizzie. Shae and I were both dubious about getting sushi from a restaurant attached to a casino in a Wild West town in South Dakota, but the sushi was made to order and so it was fresher than we’d expected. The ichiban roll had avocado, cream cheese and crab meat inside, with tempura batter on the outside and drizzled with some kind of sauce. It wasn’t the best sushi we’ve ever had, but it was better than we were expecting.
Amenities
Fitness Room
The hotel had a more spacious and better equipped fitness room than I’d anticipated.
It also had a water dispenser with the only cold water in the place.
Guest Laundry
There’s a guest laundry room with a couple of washers and a couple of dryers. I think they cost ~$2 per load which is very reasonable and had the added benefit of being able to pay by card rather than needing to have quarters.
Rooftop Patio
On the fourth floor there was an outdoor patio area. There were minimal tables and chairs out there, although perhaps they add more as it becomes warmer.
Bar
Next to the breakfast area (which is also just off the lobby) is a bar.
Dining
In addition to breakfast, you can order dinner from 3pm-10pm, although there are fairly limited options.
Business Center
To the left of the front desk is a business center with a couple of computers. I’m not sure if there’s a printer or not, but if not I imagine you can have the front desk print off documents if needed.
Pantry
To the right of the front desk was a pantry area with drinks, snacks, etc.
Lobby Seating
In front of the front desk there’s a fairly spacious seating area where you can hang out.
Golf Cart Ride
The hotel has a valet on the ground floor when you first arrive. They have a golf cart that they can give you a ride locally up as far as Cadillac Jack’s which is half a mile up Main Street. They can also give you a ride to the Deadwood Welcome Center in the opposite direction, so Shae and Truffles took advantage of that.
Pet Policy
The Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood is a pet-friendly hotel. There’s a $50 pet fee per stay (rather than per night) and they have a limit of two pets per room. I’m not sure if the pet fee covers both pets, or if it’s $50 per stay per pet.
The hotel doesn’t have any grass immediately outside, but if you head to the right when exiting the hotel there’s a grassy area to the side of the Hampton Inn. If you cross over the road from there, you’ll find the Deadwood Welcome Center which backs on to Whitewood Creek which has a nice walking trail alongside the creek.
Deadwood was also surprisingly pet-friendly. Several casinos (including Tin Lizzie and Mr Wu’s) are pet-friendly, as are several bars which includes Saloon No. 10 which does a recreation of Wild Bill Hickok’s shooting and The Nugget Saloon. Numerous stores and attractions on Main St allow dogs inside, including West River Whiskey, Deadwood Distilling Company and Belle Joli Winery that all offer paid tastings.
Service
Service was pretty good. The guy who checked us in (I didn’t get his name) and Ben the valet guy were both very friendly. Other front desk agents weren’t quite as warm and fuzzy, but weren’t rude either. As mentioned during the ‘Check-In’ section at the beginning of the review, they don’t have a front desk agent overnight.
Wi-Fi
The hotel’s Wi-Fi seemed to be good as the speed seemed fine and we didn’t have any problems with its connection from what I can remember.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time at the Four Points Deadwood is from 3pm, while check-out is at 11am.
Location
The hotel is in a great location as it’s at the bottom of Main St and so it’s a very short walk to all of Deadwood’s attractions there.
Parking
One of the biggest downsides to staying at the Four Points (and, to be fair, likely any other hotel in Deadwood) is that parking is expensive. The hotel charges $20 per night; Tin Lizzie next door charges $15 per night, but it seemed like there were few parking spots.
The Deadwood Welcome Center offers free parking and that’s only a five minute walk from the hotel, so we considered parking there throughout our stay. The biggest issue with that though is that you’re limited to parking there for 24 hours. I’m not sure how strictly they enforce that; in theory it might be possible to move your car to a different space in the parking lot every 24 hours. However, we didn’t want to find out the hard way that the parking rules are enforced strictly, so we just paid for parking at the Four Points for most of our stay and then parked at the Welcome Center on our final night to save $20.
Cost
The reason we decided to book a stay at the Four Points is because I came across a rate of only $55 per night before taxes and fees, $64.95 per night with taxes and fees. I think this was a discounted rate because we were booking an extended stay of seven nights. The parking fee of $20 per night meant that increased to $84.95 per night, but that’s still a cheap price considering how much hotels are charging nowadays.
Points Earned
We earned a total of 6,738 points for our stay. 3,850 were base points as you earn 10 points per dollar on the pre-tax room rate ($55 x 7 x 10). The remaining 2,888 points were bonus points from having Titanium status.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I enjoyed our stay at the Four Points in Deadwood. Our room was clean and quiet and the hotel’s location was in an excellent spot for exploring the main strip of Deadwood. The lack of cold water and expensive parking were downsides, but if we were to return to Deadwood we’d be happy to stay here again if the price was right.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! They had a very reasonable pet fee of $50 per stay, the hotel was quiet and there were lots of dog-friendly activities nearby including the Tin Lizzie casino which is attached to the hotel.
Our Rating
Room = 4.0 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.1 / 5
Food = 4.0 / 5
Location = 4.7 / 5
Service = 4.0 / 5
Overall Value = 4.6 / 5
Total = 4.23 / 5
Address
Four Points by Sheraton, 575 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732
[…] I walked from our hotel to the Days of ’76 Museum. I thought this would be more about the 1870s, but it’s […]