Red Lion Inn & Suites Elk Grove Village

We like the location and one of the workers is always nice to my boyfriend and me, which made this stay especially disappointing. We were put in the wrong room, and after we'd used the bathroom they wouldn't move us to the one we booked. The bed was called a queen but felt more like a full, and it didn't fit two adults and our child, so none of us slept well. I have family in the hotel business, and they said staff could have marked the room out of order until housekeeping cleaned it again, then moved us. That felt like poor customer service.

The room was clean, and it was fine for one night. The place could use renovation. Breakfast was available, but there wasn't anything I wanted, so I just grabbed coffee.

I was so worn out from traveling back from vacation that I didn't feel safe driving, so I stayed despite how awful this place was. Getting there was stressful too: I waited over an hour for the “shuttle,” which I think was actually an Uber driver, and felt nervous getting in. The arrival itself went smoothly, but the room was disgusting. There were blood stains on every pillow, on parts of the sheets, and along the sides of the bed. The refrigerator and microwave looked filthy and at least 15 years old. In a drawer I found something that looked like evidence of drug activity. People I know who used to be addicts said it had definitely been used for doing drugs, making them, or probably both. I went to the desk, where a rude man first offered clean sheets. I asked for another room instead. He seemed angry, even though his employees were the ones who hadn't cleaned the room. He walked me to a different one, watched me go in, and told me to check whether it was “up to my standards.” He said he couldn't give me another room if I found anything I didn't like. I can't give this hotel enough negative stars. I really wouldn't recommend staying at this disgusting drug hotel with rude workers.

There isn't much food nearby, and the vending machine on our floor didn't work. We spent almost a week there and got no room service at all, so we took out our own trash and had to ask for towels, much to the front desk workers' chagrin. The room smelled pungent, so we kept the windows open and avoided using the AC. The bathroom lock didn't work, and the room lock looked like it was about to fall off. I'd recommend paying a little more for one of the other nearby options.