My family of four stayed here in July. It has a great location with incredible views. The hotel is older and is showing some wear. However, our room was clean, breakfast was adequate and the location allowed us to attend ranger activities at the park at night and get back easily. It is an incredible place to watch a rolling thunderstorm, although I must admit to being very nervous climbing up the metal steps in the midst of a two hour storm

Staying here is a bit of a risk. Hopefully, for many it pays off. For us it did not.

This is a two-story hotel in the middle of the Badlands prairie. It has beautiful views and friendly, helpful staff. Its also convenient to the National Park and Cedar Pass Lodge.

Unfortunately, we had a very miserable night here. The friendly person who checked us in let us pick from a number of rooms. The downstairs rooms seemed musty, so we went upstairs. Some rooms had old air conditioners, some newer. We picked a couple of rooms for our group and hoped for the best. The view was spectacular, and people were sitting outside their rooms on benches, just gazing into the distant badlands.

We did a quick check of the beds, and cringed a little. The mattresses and box springs were older and not of a good quality. There were a couple of worrisome spots on one. The beds are located on carpeted platforms, and it did not seem like the maids had used the vacuum attachments to clean around the edges.

If you stay in the Badlands, you have to expect bugs, outside, if not inside. We saw lots of grasshoppers, katydids and other insects outside as we took off to explore the area. Several storms were moving through, and after darting into the Cedar Pass Lodge during one severe storm, we returned to our hotel room. It was late and the hotel staff was off duty.

That was when we discovered the beetles. They were black and of varying sizes, and they were very good at climbing up the carpeting onto the bed. There were 6 of them. At that point, no one wanted to stay in this hotel but we didn't know where else to go. We thought about the car, but more storms were rolling in, and we felt out of options. We tried to reassure ourselves that these were NOT bedbugs. We protected all of our belongings in plastic bags and then tried very hard to get some sleep. All night strong storms moved through and I felt very vulnerable in this hotel in the middle of the prairie.

In the morning as we checked out, I spoke to the person at the desk, who was wonderful. She did everything she could to make it right for us and immediately took the maintenance man to the room to deal with the situation.

I guess these types of things can happen from time to time in wild areas. The staff was wonderful and I hope this hotel is headed in a good direction. But people invest a lot of their time, money and hearts in trips to places like the Badlands, and they deserve to know what kind of experiences to expect. That's why I decided to share the details of our experience.

When we go to the Badlands again, I think we'll stay in places with glowing reviews, like the Circle View Guest Ranch, or maybe someplace in Wall. But hopefully things will get better and better at the Badlands Inn.

Great location! Motel is in need of some updating but comfortable for a short stay. Staff is very helpful and honest. Left my IPod in the room and when I called they had it and offered to mail it to me.

We spent two nights at the Badlands Inn as a part of a family vacation to South Dakota. I was very, very concerned about booking after reading some of the older reviews, but decided to take a chance anyway. We found our room to be clean and comfortable, and they are obviously trying to update this motel. Our rooms had comfy beds and plenty of bedding and towels. The nights we were there, most people were kind of hanging out with their doors open, since the weather was so nice, and it looked like most of the rooms had been updated, with maybe a couple they are still working on. It was amazing to go to bed and wake up every morning looking at the Badlands out your windows! This hotel really does seem out in the middle of nowhere, super quiet, and peaceful. The free breakfast was enough to get you started and off on your adventures, and if you needed a heartier breakfast the Cedar Pass Lodge is just up the road. We ate the free breakfast, then had lunch and dinner at the Lodge. The food was good and reasonably priced, considering you really don't have many options. The Lodge also has some convience items, but we liked the convience store up the road in Interior. The Badlands Inn office will provide you with a bag of ice if you need it, which is nice because there are no fridges in the room. Bring a cooler, you will need it for storing drinks for your days in Badlands!