Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bourbonnais East Bradley By Ihg

The rooms were clean, nice, and smelled really good. The housekeepers were super sweet and helpful, and the front desk folks were friendly. The manager was great and very accommodating. Gie, the little lady, was absolutely the best. She made us feel at home. I loved the full hot breakfast. Holiday Inn was amazing, and it’s the best hotel we’ve stayed in. We’ll definitely be back.

I left feeling hustled and regretting that I chose this hotel for my mom’s 65th birthday. I’d considered three places and planned a relaxing day of massages, dinner, and a suite for her and her partner, with another room for me, my daughter, and my young granddaughters. We drove two hours through freezing weather. When we arrived, the front desk said I was flagged, couldn’t check in, would get no refund, and had to leave. The worker said he’d heard the word “party” and had to put us out and report us. I didn’t understand what he meant. My mother’s room would have had only two people, and mine had four, including an infant and a seven-year-old. Being told I’d simply lost $450 felt insulting. My husband paid another $150 so we could supposedly bypass the flag and check in. At the pool with the kids, every staff member on duty seemed to show up. Nobody else got in while we were there. I spent the rest of the stay in my room, feeling profiled and wishing the night would end. The trip meant a lot because many people don’t still have their moms, and it was basically ruined. I work too hard to be treated like some party animal. I’m 46 years old, for Christ’s sake. I felt I had to stay invisible so they wouldn’t find a reason to keep my husband’s extra incidental fee on top of the room charge. I wish I’d left, but it was the coldest storm in history, below zero, and I felt I had no choice. If you’re Black or a minority, be careful choosing a hotel in Bradley, especially Holiday Inn Express. After checkout, they charged another $120, saying my mother’s room had “blood on the duvet.” I asked for pictures and believe they came from someone else’s room. I checked the rooms and was surprised my mom had only used the refrigerator, ice bucket, and one face towel. She is 65 and wouldn’t “bleed” on a duvet. They sent a towel with multiple colors on it, but she hadn’t used towels other than a face towel. In the low temperatures she didn’t want to shower and then go outside, so she planned to wait until home. It looks like a case should be opened with the BBB. After speaking with the GM, I concluded the hotel wasn’t going to hear guests out or take their concerns seriously. They sent bogus pictures, which I maintain were not from my rooms, and I stand by what I said: the staff profiled my family. We were allowed to stay only after my husband offered an additional $150 deposit per room, $300 total. Calling that reasonable is insulting. They said staff monitored the pool because of high traffic, but my family were the only ones there. I’ve reported this to Corporate and the Better Business Bureau so they can look into practices that encourage staff to profile guests, which could harm an already fragile economy. Stay at your own risk.

The rooms are quite oversized, and the facility seems reasonably new and clean. There’s a large lounge, a pool, a fitness center, laundry on site, two elevators of different sizes, and event rooms on the first floor. The elevator on the left has more capacity. My room key didn’t open the laundry door. The breakfast milk was spoiled. Both the chocolate and regular milk cartons were about a week from their expiration dates, but smelled and tasted bad. One sip turned our stomachs.

This weekend left me convinced my family was unfairly judged and targeted. It’s disappointing this can still happen in 2026, though other reviews of this property make me less surprised. My wife booked two rooms for her mother’s 65th birthday. We planned dinner, a relaxing evening, and some swimming. Her mother lives locally and tried to check in before we arrived after our two-hour drive. On the road, we got a call saying she’d been refused. When we got there, my wife was told both reservations were canceled, we had to leave, and we’d still be charged $450. Staff said someone had mentioned a possible “party.” We weren’t having a party and had never heard of such a policy when booking. While my wife was in tears, I read the rules posted at the desk. The front desk gentleman said that if staff suspect a party, or even hear the word “party” during check-in, they can deny the room and still charge the guest. He also said gift bags, cake, cupcakes, or a cooler could lead to cancellation because staff can assume a party is planned. We had none of those things. I asked whether bringing a cooler into a room after a beach trip would be enough to trigger that assumption. He said yes. It felt like profiling. My mother-in-law is a dark-skinned country woman in her 60s, and I strongly believe assumptions were made about her without any facts. When I asked for the general manager’s information, the desk agent offered a deal: if I guaranteed there’d be no party, we could check in by paying $150 in incidentals for one room instead of $50. I accepted, though I probably shouldn’t have, and agreed to pay $150 for each room to show good faith. My wife and I have over five years of hotel experience between us, including Marriott, Courtyard Marriott, and Best Western. We try to break stereotypes, clean hotels and Airbnbs very well, and tip generously at restaurants. We’re respectful guests. I knew we’d leave the rooms cleaner than any other guest, so I didn’t mind the extra $100 per room for incidentals. That evening, staff came into the pool area three times in 15 minutes to “look around,” I guess. My family left after just 25 minutes because they were uncomfortable. As we left, my wife noticed the same two front desk staff coming down the hall, seemingly about to make a fourth visit. She said they turned back when they saw us leaving. It seemed like they saw Black people leaving and decided the fourth trip wasn’t needed. Their repeated monitoring made us feel more targeted. The next day, while driving home, I noticed an extra $120 charge. The hotel said housekeeping found blood on a duvet. That was absolutely false. I asked for pictures, and Jeremy, who made the decisions, sent them. They look like marker and burn marks, not blood, and I know they weren’t from our rooms. My mother-in-law didn’t even shower because she felt uncomfortable. I also know how clean we left the rooms. I’m extremely disappointed in IHG for allowing this behavior and leadership. Holiday Inn seems to tolerate profiling and false accusations under its brand. Other reviews suggest this isn’t an isolated incident. If you’re a person of color, this is not the hotel for you. Stay away!