The third of four cities we stayed in during our month in South Dakota was Rapid City. We stayed all 10 nights there at the Residence Inn Rapid City which is one of Marriott’s brands.
We’d originally planned to stay at an Airbnb, but that ended up getting booked up by the time I got around to making a reservation. That didn’t end up being a bad thing because we really enjoyed our stay at the Residence Inn.
We booked a one bedroom suite which meant we had a decent amount of space and it’s in a nice complex with a dog park. The complimentary breakfast was a letdown, but the service was absolutely fantastic.
Here’s a full review of our stay at the Residence Inn Rapid City.
Check-In
We’d stopped at a number of attractions along I-90 on our way there from Pierre, so we got there at about 6:15pm. Marcus was working at the front desk that evening and he was fantastic – very friendly and welcoming.
He shared more information about the property which included a map of the complex the hotel is part of that includes the Watiki indoor waterpark.
We were also given a sheet with information about breakfast times, housekeeping, the waterpark and restaurant on the complex and more.
1 Bedroom Suite
The base level rooms at the Residence Inn Rapid City are studio suites, but we paid a little extra for the one bedroom suite. Shae is usually up before me and I’m always up much later at night than her working on stuff, so having a separate bedroom meant I could work in our suite rather than needing to work in one of the public areas.
We were assigned room 402 which is on the top floor of the hotel. We always prefer being on the top floor as it means we don’t have any noise from people above us.
You enter into the living room which is straight ahead of you. The kitchen was on the left and the bedroom and bathroom were through doors further up to the left.
Living Room
The living room had a spacious corner sofa that was comfortable to sit and lay on; this also converted to a sofa bed. There was a small moveable side table, along with a shelf on the long side of the sofa. That shelf had power outlets in it which was handy, with further power outlets available on the other side of the sofa.
Perpendicular to the couch was a long desk with an office chair, along with a dresser and a fairly small TV on top. The TV rotated, so there was no problem watching it even though it wasn’t directly opposite the sofa.
Between the kitchen and the doorways to the bedroom and bathroom was a dining table with a couple of chairs.
Atop the dining table were items to make coffee and tea, as well as a bag of microwaveable popcorn.
Kitchen
Residence Inn is an all-suite hotel brand, with every suite having a full kitchen. This includes a full-size fridge-freezer, stove top, microwave and dishwasher.
The kitchen in our suite at their location in Rapid City was particularly nice because there was more cupboard space than you often get at other Residence Inn properties. It also had a full oven and four burner stove top; you normally only get a double stove top and no oven.
The kitchen cupboards contained plates, dishes, coffee cups, glasses, cookware, silverware, etc. Somewhat strangely considering there was an oven, there were no baking trays or anything else you could use to cook in the oven other than Pyrex bowls.
Bedroom
The bedroom had a really comfortable king bed. There were lamps on each side of the bed, with reading lights on both sides too. The bedroom’s blackout curtains worked well to keep the room dark.
Opposite the bed was a larger dresser than the one in the living room which also had a TV on top.
There was a good-sized closet that contained an iron, ironing board and bedding for the sofa bed.
Bathroom
The suite had a bathroom that wasn’t directly connected to the bedroom. While some people might not prefer a layout like that, I preferred it that way because it meant I could use the bathroom at night without needing to worry about waking up Shae by accessing it through the bedroom.
The bathroom was nice and spacious and had a bathtub with shower; the shower had good water pressure.
There were large bottles of toiletries mounted to the wall. A pet peeve of mine is when they’re empty when we arrive – that thankfully wasn’t the case here.
Unusually for a hotel bathroom, there was a window. While the view wasn’t amazing, it was nice having the option for natural daylight in there. A blind could be pulled down for privacy.
Breakfast
The hotel offers complimentary breakfast for all guests. This is served from 6:30am-9am during the week and 7am-9:30am at the weekend.
The breakfast offerings were the least impressive part of our stay. They only had two hot options each day – some kind of eggs and some kind of breakfast meat. They only had two types of bread – white and wheat – but no English muffins, bagels, muffins, pastries, etc. There was fresh fruit, but not freshly cut fruit which a lot of Residence Inn properties offer. The bananas were usually better for banana bread too.
The hotel also had a coffee and tea station that was available 24/7.
Amenities
Guest Laundry
Seeing as Residence Inn is an extended stay brand, they have good amenities for people who’ll be staying longer. That included a guest laundry room with four washing machines and four dryers, although one of the washing machines was out of order during our stay.
The machines accepted credit card payment which is always useful rather than needing to have enough quarters. It cost $2 per load in either type of machine which is reasonable enough.
Fitness Room
The hotel’s fitness room had a few pieces of cardio equipment…
…as well as weights.
Business Center
Just off the lobby there was a business center with a computer and printer for guests to use.
Outdoor Seating, Grills & Fire Pit
Outside there was a nice seating area with a fire pit, along with a couple of grills for guests to use.
Pantry
There was a pantry with a wide selection of frozen food, snacks, drinks (including wine and spirits) and toiletries.
Watiki Waterpark
The Residence Inn Rapid City doesn’t have its own swimming pool, but it is part of a hotel complex that has access to Watiki waterpark. Access to Watiki waterpark isn’t free though – it’s $16 + tax to use the water slides, Koko’s Kingdom and the Lazy River.
The waterpark is open from 4pm-9pm during the week and 8am-9pm at the weekend. Guests can get a couple of free spectator passes that let you supervise children or hang out with other people using the waterpark features. Those free passes also let you use the hot tub.
Walking Path
Another unique feature at the property is that there’s a 1.7 mile walking trail surrounding the property. This is well lit, so Truffles liked going for a walk on it at night, although we never ended up doing the full 1.7 mile loop.
Pet Policy
The Residence Inn Rapid City is a pet-friendly hotel. You can have up to two pets per room with a pet fee of $100 per stay. That’s a high fee if you’re only planning on staying one night, but for longer stays like ours it’s not bad.
In addition to the great walking path around the resort complex, there’s a dog park behind the hotel. This is next to the La Quinta hotel on site, but is seemingly available for guests of any of the adjacent hotels to use.
Service
Service at the hotel was excellent. We declined housekeeping throughout our stay other than for one day, so there’s not much to comment on regarding that, other than that our room was clean when we returned that day.
Where the hotel excelled though was with their front desk staff. Marcus was wonderful and incredibly friendly. He gave us lots of tips for things to do and places to eat in the area and so it was a pleasure seeing him on most days of our stay.
Margo was very friendly too, while Julie was Truffles’ BFF and gave her tons of attention which Truffles adored.
Wi-Fi
The hotel offers free Wi-Fi for all guests, with premium Wi-Fi being available for those with elite status in the Marriott Bonvoy program. The internet connection and speed was very good, so we had no problems with Zoom calls during our stay.
A feature that I like about Marriott properties is that you can usually select how long you’ll be staying when initially connecting to the internet. That prevents you from having to reconnect to the internet every 24 hours which is something that frustrates me at some other hotels because it always seems to disconnect when I’m in the middle of something.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Residence Inn Rapid City is from 3pm, while check-out is at 12pm. I’d hoped to get a 4pm late checkout seeing as our next destination was Deadwood which was a relatively short drive away. I have Titanium status with Marriott which gives guaranteed 4pm checkouts, but I was told that the latest they could do was 1pm. The hotel is part of a resort complex and Marriott resorts are excluded from that 4pm late checkout benefit, so that might be why.
Location
The hotel’s name is Residence Inn Rapid City, but it’s actually in the city of Box Elder. It’s only a 10 minute drive to downtown Rapid City though, so it’s not far.
It’s less than an hour to lots of other key attractions like Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Deadwood and more.
Parking
Parking is free at the hotel and there are lots of spaces out front. There are several spaces for electric vehicles.
Cost
We booked a paid stay at the hotel as the price for a one bedroom suite wasn’t bad – $89 per night before tax, although it came to $105.91 per night with taxes and fees.
I clicked through to Marriott’s website to book the stay from a shopping portal which was offering 6% cashback. That’s calculated on the pre-tax amount, so we should be getting $53.40 back once that pays out. We also paid with a card with a 10% Marriott Chase Offer loaded to it, so that got us another $75 back (that offer was capped at $75 back in statement credits).
Taking into account the shopping portal cashback and Chase Offer, that should reduce our net cost to $93.07 per night.
If we’d booked it as an award stay it would’ve cost 30,300 points per night, although that would’ve been for a studio suite rather than a one bedroom suite; the studio suite was $10 per night cheaper. Even so, redeeming 30,300 points per night would’ve been poor value which is why we booked a paid stay instead.
Points Earned
We earned 8,288 Marriott Bonvoy points for our stay. That’s because you only earn 5 points per dollar at Residence Inn properties rather than the 10 points per dollar at most of Marriott’s other brands. That includes bonus points for having elite status as well as 500 bonus points as a welcome amenity. Marriott unfortunately wasn’t running a promotion at the time, otherwise we’d have earned more bonus points.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I really liked our stay at the Residence Inn Rapid City. Our one bedroom suite was spacious as well as being nice and quiet. The hotel was in a good location for everywhere we wanted to visit and the service was truly excellent. The only negative about our stay was the lackluster breakfast selection, but I’d be more than happy to stay here again if we ever return to Rapid City.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles awards this hotel the much-coveted ‘four paws out of four with a Golden Tail wag’ which is the highest rating she can give any hotel.
There was a great walking path, as well as a dog park. Even more importantly than that though, she loved all the attention she got from the front desk staff, not to mention the tasty treats they gave her when stopping by to say hello.
Our Rating
Room = 4.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 3.5 / 5
Location = 4.4 / 5
Service = 5 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5
Total = 4.43 / 5
Address
Residence Inn, 581 Watiki Way, Rapid City, SD 57703
You should follow up with Marriott – this Residence Inn is not a resort hotel. Hopefully they throw you some points!
Thanks – I hadn’t actually checked to see if they were a resort hotel or not.
Ah! can not wait to hear more from Truffles (n’ yah both!)
Thanks!