MainStay Suites Northbrook Wheeling

The place was disgusting from the lobby, which smelled worse than my dog's bed, to the room. The photos are totally misleading. The hallway smelled like Marijuana, and the chair was so badly stained and wrecked that I had to put a towel on it to sit down. The couch looked like it had been pulled from a dumpster. The bathtub resurfacing was peeling, and the restroom sink was clogged with hair. I’d give it negative stars if I could.

I’m a platinum Choice hotel member, and I’m ashamed this is one of their hotels. Checking in at 8:30 p.m., I waited about five minutes for someone to come to the desk. She seemed barely awake, was rude, and made me feel like an inconvenience. The lobby smelled as if someone had just smoked a joint, and she didn’t answer when I asked where the elevator was. The hallway reeked of weed, too. My room smelled horrible, with stains on the chair and bugs in the shower. Absolutely horrible.

After two nights we left this place, having booked six, and got no refund. Our clothes smelled so badly that we washed them twice, even though they’d stayed in a closed suitcase. We tried to get back two days’ payment through the booking agent, who called the manager several times, but she refused and said we could come talk to her and she’d change our room. She never knocked to address the problem, and whenever we looked for her, she was nowhere around. There was no night manager either. The receptionist spent evenings in the parking lot with friends in a car. The room smelled like something had died, the toilet kept clogging, and the receptionist gave us a broken plunger and told us to fix it because “we broke it.” Saying I was a paying guest didn’t persuade her. She said there was no maintenance or cleaning staff. The room and building were run down and dirty, with stained hallways, clothing on the grass and bushes, holes in window screens, and dust on door frames. I also saw police there every day arresting people who lived there full-time, and the clientele seemed very sketchy. The receptionist was rude and rarely at the desk. This isn’t a 2.5-star hotel. Stay away.

The rooms are actually pretty nice, but the photos make the place look better than it is. The shared areas and hallways were nasty and smelled like animal urine. I couldn’t find a way to control the room temperature.