This hotel on Chequamagon Bay, a large arm of Lake Superior, looks like a traditional grand Great Lakes resort hotel. But in fact it was built in the 1980s (opened in 1986) to look like one but include modern conveniences and design. They did an excellent job in imitating the classic; the interior design calls up an earlier era, and many antique furnishings help the illusion. Location: in downtown Ashland, a small but regional center town in a former mining, now mostly tourist-based economy. Rooms: the more desirable rooms face Chequamagon Bay with scenic views of the bay and Bayfield Peninsula across it. On the opposite side of the hotel rooms face the standard urban scene of busy streets and stores in Ashland. Our room facing the lake was nicely appointed, a very comfortable king size bed, with a desk, lounge chair, higher than normal windows to capture the excellent view. Refrigerator and microwave were handy. Bathroom well appointed, above average shower. Everything was spotless, super-clean, a plus. Facilities: nice dining rooms (I did not eat at the restaurant), gym, etc. The free breakfast is slightly above average in range of choices. Negatives: we had a very slow checkin due to a temporarily shortage of staff (turned out to be the local high school graduation night). In the room there were three negatives that mattered enough to me to knock off a star. First, insufficient outlets. I had an iPhone, iPod Touch, and computer to charge, it was a chore to find enough functional empty outlets (ended up putting the bathroom into service overnight). The usual outlets on the desk lamp only worked when the lamp was turned on, making them unusable for overnight charging. There were no dedicated USB outlets. Second, the windows are sealed shut and do not open. Want fresh Lake Superior air? - forget it. In a big city hotel with stinky traffic that would make sense, but in a resort-oriented hotel looking right out onto one of the Great Lakes? Makes no sense, and wastes an opportunity. Which leads me to the third issue: the ONLY way to get a change of air in the room is by running the window HVAC unit, which was very noisy, too noisy for us to keep it on at night; it had no low speed quiet fan-only setting. I know such exist, since I had a very quiet one in a Best Western in the Twin Cities later in this same trip (where sealed windows close to an expressway make sense). These 3 problems were enough to take the shine off an otherwise excellent hotel, so I knocked off one star. To some people these issues might not matter but they did to us. Otherwise, though, a very comfortable and inviting hotel.
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