Playroom Cafe Hoffman Estates — Attraction in Schaumburg Township

They need far better customer service. I took my kids here to check it out in June as I was looking for a place to host my sons 1st birthday. My sons birthday is in October and they have a 50 person limit on parties during the winter months because of the demand, which is understandable. I asked the girls at the front desk about the birthday parties after having looked extensively at their website because I had a few simple questions following my research. My intended guest list was less than 50 people, but I wanted to know if I had 1 or 2 extra, if that would be okay, and I wanted to know a little more about their food & decor options. Both ladies told me that the couple extra guests shouldn't be an issue and to fill out the online form for the food & decor questions, which i did immediately upon leaving their location. It took 3 days to get back to me with a 2 sentence reply saying their calendar for October wasnt open without answering any of my questions about their party add ons. I responded within an hour asking about the strictness of the head count. I again got a 2 sentence response 3 days later saying a couple over 50 would be acceptable but no more than that, still nothing about my other questions. I had then followed up almost weekly (3-4 seperate emails) asking about their October calander and received ZERO REPLY. I finally just filled out another form online to see what was going on and simply asked for someone to help me. Again, multiple days go by to then get a 2 sentence response apologizing for their lack of responsiveness and saying their only availability is at 10am on the day I requested. Who has a birthday party at 10am? Also, why are those inquiring about parties in later months not notified when the calendars for that month open? So now, 2 months have past and i have to scramble to find a new venue for my sons party because they have zero professionalism. I truly think that they didnt respond simply because they were worried about the guest count, which baffles me, because they are not hosting private parties. You are renting the party space and the rest of the business is open as usual. Realistically, people could book their party and then just have extras come in through regular means. It also seemed like their main concern was the number of adults at the party which doesnt make sense because out of 50 guests, i would only have 10 kids playing in the play area and the rest of the guests (minus the parents of those children) would be contained to the party space.

But who knows what's going on there. 2 months later and I still have no idea about their party add ons or the decor that requires 4 weeks notice when it takes 2 months for them to tell me about a calendar opening. I keep seeing responses from the owner that they are new and adjusting, but they do have 2 other locations that have been open for longer, so im not sure what the problem is. In my opinion, anyone that hosts a party at this venue must be emailing/calling them 24/7 in order to get a response. Ive never received customer service this bad when I am coming to a business trying to spend possibly thousands of dollars after all the add ons I was looking for.

EDIT AFTER OWNERS RESPONSE:

YOU ARE TRYING TO ANSWER IN THE ORDER REQUESTS WERE RECIEVED. MEANWHILE I SENT SEVERAL EMAILS WITHOUT ANY RESPONSE. ALSO CONSIDERING I SENT A FOLLOW UP EMAIL AT 9AM THE DAY YOU SAID YOU EXPECTED YOUR OCTOBER CALENDAER TO BE OPEN, I FEEL LIKE I SHOULDVE HAD MORE OPTIONS THAN 1 TIME SLOT ON THE DAY REQUESTED. STOP TRYING TO EXPLAIN AWAY YOUR...

I’ve never written a negative review of a business until today because I gave them a second chance and was left disappointed. First off I attempted to make party reservations back in early March for my daughter’s birthday party in June. I filled out their online form 3 times, called about a dozen times (voicemail only) then emailed them twice. Around may a woman named Maggie rudely explained that they were at capacity for the days I requested and had we reached out sooner we might have had luck. I told her I reached out 3 months in advance knowing it would be busy but could never reach a human being. Obviously I made a party plan else where. If they are so overwhelmed with interest in parties and it takes literal months to return an email that indicates they do not know how to handle their business properly and should have brought someone else on other than this single woman Maggie who claimed to be single handedly emailing every customer back. That’s just plain odd. And I’m sure when the company replies to this post they’ll lie and say they have no record of me contacting them when in fact I included screenshots to them in May showing proof.

Secondly today I witnessed something very hazardous that makes me think they’re being neglectful of kid’s safety. I’m a civil engineer and know how materials work. I design buildings so not to be rude but I’m sure I’m more of an expert than the people who built that playground. There is a netted climbing feature that allows kids to go up to the 2nd floor of the main play structure but the bolts became loose and 2 were detached from the side supports and hanging off the turnbuckles. I’m sure with use especially by the older heavier kids these bolts have gotten ripped out and possibly there should be a weight limit on these components. My daughter was climbing when I noticed this so I brought it to the attention of the employees who were super responsive and attempted to screw the bolts back in by hand only but after making several phone calls to I’m assuming management they decided not to block off that area and that tightening these I’d guess 3/4” thick bolts back into screw holes that were clearly too large was enough and allowed kids to keep playing. Kids climb on this net sometimes several kids at a time, also kids can pass below. I would hate for an accident to happen for something so easy to fix and just block this off until it’s repaired. I can only imagine what else is neglected here and honestly feel unsafe taking my child back. With the prices they charge you’d think regular maintenance on the equipment would be a priority. There were several other features that were broken as well, not unsafe just disappointing considering how expensive the entry is. Public parks are better...

The play area at the Playroom Cafe Social was beautiful, well built, and had a wide variety of activities for kids aged up to 12. The menu for drinks and food were both great, and they even offer milk alternatives to the milkshakes (I'm hoping this would mean they will be 100% dairy-free, for allergy reasons). However, the menu item was overpriced, which is unfortunate since they allow no outside food/drink. The baby play area set up for 0-3 years was relatively large and well built as well. A lot of play places tend to only have a few toys, cover the floor with foam mats, and call it a baby area, but this one was spacious, and had a full play structure and sturdy foam pieces for the babies to move around. My kids had a great time and I will come back again, maybe at a less busy time.

Couple things I'd noticed at the visit that I hope to see improvement:

Grippy socks. They ask you to purchase and put on their own grippy socks for liability reasons. I was totally fine with this until I saw bigger kids using the grip from these socks to climb on top of tube slides, climb up the slide while someone else is coming down, or running down the slides.

Another issue I saw, as it got quite crowded on a Sunday afternoon, was the scooters. Bigger kids (I would say 7 and up) were riding the scooters very fast, swerving around at high speed, and even bumping into other people. As this is a play area open to kids aged 0-12, they can easily run into (or even over) smaller kids and toddlers and cause serious accidents and injuries.

My biggest concern was the lack of interference by the parents and the staff. None of these incidents I'd listed had any of the staff members present nearby, let alone stepping in to stop the kids from endangering themselves and others. Sometimes, the staff member would see it, but walk on by as if they have nothing to do with it. If they're not going to be available to set and enforce boundaries to make sure this stays a safe and fun place for everyone, they need to remove the grippy socks policies and scooters.

Overall, it was a positive experience at the Playroom Cafe Social. We'll likely return, hopefully on a less busy day/time, and maybe after the traffic gets regulated, as this place just opened up less than...