SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western Chicago Lombard

I couldn’t get the microwave in my room to work. I put in a maintenance request, but nobody came by. Luckily, there was another microwave in the lobby. Aside from that, I really enjoyed my stay. The staff were nice, the lobby was always clean, and you could smell how clean the building was whenever you came in. The free breakfast was spot on and worth it.

The breakfast had a surprising number of choices for the price: bagels, bread, desserts, waffles, pancakes, apples, bananas, steak, eggs, yogurt, Kellogg’s cereals, porridge, and chicken on one of the days. Coffee and tea were available all day too. The breakfast hours, 6-9 AM, felt too early for me, though. I also couldn’t figure out how to turn off the alarm clock when it went off at 6 AM. It’s an old-style SureStay, but we found it comfortable and secure, which mattered when traveling with family. The bathroom was very neat, the corridors were clean, and there’s a small gym for a quick workout. The pillows were flattened and uncomfortable. For the price, it was still a nice stay, and it’s about a 35-minute drive from Chicago if you don’t mind driving.

The room was mediocre but tolerable for the price, $162 total for two nights. We were visiting Glen Ellyn, and the location worked well. Breakfast was okay overall: the eggs were awful and didn’t taste real, so we guessed they might be powdered. They did have apples, oranges, and bananas to take along, and the waffles were very good. The fabric shower curtain let water cover more than half the bathroom floor. After we both showered, we had to use a floor towel and our shower towels to mop it up. We left the wet towels on the floor for housekeeping, but when we came back that evening, nobody had serviced the room. We had to get more towels at the desk and were left with wet towels on the floor until checkout. We tipped $20 at the front desk and left another $20 for the cleaning lady. Even with that, the total was reasonable, but I think we’ll look elsewhere next time.

The pancakes were absolute fire, and the utensil holder looked pretty cool. The eggs were definitely sus, though. Honestly, the place looks nicer than my stay felt. The room hadn’t been cleaned well, with popcorn on the floor and several long hairs. A lot of light came in under the door at night, so it didn’t feel very private. The alarm clock and shower temperature controls were the most complicated I’ve ever used. It took several minutes for the water to warm up, and then the temperature wouldn’t stay consistent. The tub was clogged at first, though it eventually drained, and the microwave clock was hours off. None of these things was a huge deal on its own, but together they affected the experience. You get what you pay for, and my expectations were probably raised by how nice the place looks.