I hate consumer reviews. Half the time people have a bad experience and dog things and half the time it seems like the people may have been too drunk to actually determine if something was good or poor. This hotel supports my opinion.
I read every good thing that everyone had to say, and then a couple negative things as well. ALL WRONG. Let me give you my take on things.
The location is great and not hard to find at all. It is right outside O'Hare Airport and surrounded by many fast food places, gas stations and grocery stores. It is also right next to the highway that takes you in and out of Chicago in about 15-20 minutes.
The exterior look of the hotel is very nice. Almost looks new with the exception of a few minor flaws.
Customer service was rather poor on my trip. I had to wait for the receptionist to stop playing on the internet to actually check me in. Then later, she was unable to answer a few questions that I had in reference to the hotel.
We had booked a regular, which unlike the pictures consist of a small desk, full kitchen, one queen bed and a lazy boy. Unfortuntely we were there with the entire family and could not fit in the small room. So, we upgraded to the larger room, which like the smaller room had a larger desk, a private bedroom with one queen size bed and a couch bed in the living area. This upgrade was around $40/night.
The air conditioning is on a "motion detector" so if it doesn't detect motion then it doesn't cool. So, it was as hot as it could possibly get. We decided to turn it on and wait for it to cool off, which took about 4 hours. We contacted customer service to let them know the air had only cooled the living area not the bedroom and their reply was sorry, the air conditioning units that were built with the rooms are actually too small. Get over it. So, for four nights we took the mattress of the bed off and everyone slept in the living area where we could at least get through the night.
The kitchenette was interesting. A very big help for us, especially with a baby, but it didn't contain everything you needed to cook. Even worse, the receptionist couldn't tell us where the nearest grocery store was, so we could even get food.
On the positive side, there is a dvd player and vcr. They have free movie rentals downstairs but they go very fast so you have to be early. There is also free internet, but it is very hard to set up if you have no computer experience.
There is a small "gym" downstairs. It consist of a threadmill and a stair stepper. A laundry area is next to it. Down the hall is the "Pantry" which is like the food section of a gas station, pretty neat. No pool though. Kind of bad considering you would normally chose to stay at a hotel like this for serveral days and more than likely have a family with you.
Overall, we had a bad time. I would have rather stayed in a tent on gravel. But, it could be just me. I did take the time to shop around hotels while I was there and I would defintely recommend finding another hotel in the area to stay at. There are plenty around that offer lower prices and more ammenties.
