Hampton Inn & Suites Bolingbrook — Hotel in Bolingbrook

We (myself, husband, and two kids, 6 and 9) stayed at this hotel on the way back home to Ohio from Utah. We have stayed at various Hampton Inns in the past and never really had any issues. This one was no different. The facilities were clean and the room was as well. I appreciated that they were following CDC guidelines as well, more than any place we stayed on our trip. Masks were required and even the door to the room had a seal showing no one had entered the room since it was cleaned and disinfected. This was a big plus. The beds were comfy, the bathroom was spacious and clean. The shower was great as well. It was also in what appeared to be a safe area.

There are two issues that we ran into here and the reason why we gave 4 stars instead of 5. I have asthma which is triggered by allergens. When traveling, one of the first things we do is check the air filters in the air conditioners. This particular room was very dirty. My husband cleaned them off for me and I have included a before and after photo. This really should be part of the room cleaning - at least check them.

The other thing was breakfast. Due to those CDC guidelines I mentioned, they had someone serving breakfast. I don't have an issue with this except that the person serving was very slow to serve. This person was as sweet as can be but if a line would have formed, they would be waiting quite awhile for their breakfast. Thankfully, it was our family and another behind us. It probably took 10 minutes though to get through the 4 of us. As for the breakfast itself, on the surface, it looked delicious and fresh, but not all of it was. This particular morning, they were serving eggs, sausage, and French toast sticks. We all got each one. I asked for syrup for the French toast sticks. The person serving seemed confused and then another gentleman that worked there, who appeared to be a manager, said they don't have syrup. How can you not have syrup for French toast? I said okay and sat down. I figured I would just eat them dry. When I went to take a bite of one, they were hard and chewy, not fresh at all. Honestly, I think they were leftovers from the day before. Even my son, who loves them, didn't eat them. It was disappointing, especially since we had a long day of driving ahead of us.

All in all, it was a good stay and I would still recommend this hotel despite the issues we...

The room met or exceeded my expectations. It was clean and the bedding was comfortable. Things were very quiet, possible due to low occupancy, but since I was there only to sleep, I appreciated that. The staff was polite, even friendly. The reason I did not score my experience higher was because I was told by the front office staff when I arrived that the take out breakfast would be ready by the time I left each day before 6 am. In fact, I was told they were prepared very early in the morning so it should not be an issue. The next morning, I was told they were not ready until 7am. The associate behind the desk in the morning pointed out that it said so on the sign in the lobby. Although he was still very polite, I could not help but feel like his words were a little defensive. He was more worried about justifying his answer than making me feel better about the misinformation I had received the night before. It might be a little strong to say his defensiveness was patronizing, but he was clearly more worried about proving me wrong than making me feel positive about the interaction. In his defense, he did not give me the wrong information, but as an agent of the company, he missed an opportunity to make me feel like he had any desire to right a prior wrong. The other issue that I had is when I went to the fitness room to try and use the treadmill I was informed by a staff member (who had not been using his mask when I walked past him to the room) that due to COVID the fitness room was closed. If he was so worried about COVID, why was he not wearing his mask over his mouth and nose? Otherwise he was polite. If the room had a notice clearly posted on the door, I would not have tried to use it. (The notice was added the next day.) Again, to make sure the story is complete, there were two very long signs - that if you read all the way to the bottom, did inform you the fitness center was closed. Another thought, if you can program the cards for all the rooms, maybe program the fitness center to not open with the room keys. I have stayed at other hotels since the outbreak began that would open the fitness room for you and you could use it for a predetermined length of time, after which it would be cleaned thoroughly for the next person. I do not know the air exchange capacity of the room, so it may not...

Signs in the elevator and on the mirror in our room were peeling and looked worn, which indicated to me right off the bat that they don’t do much to properly maintain the place. Appearance and experience are everything for this type of industry, and those are very minor things they could easily fix. We also had a broken thermostat, so the room was very warm. The window in our room leaked during thunderstorms, which maintenance did come in to assess, but nothing was fixed during our stay. The room and bathroom felt grimey- not clean at all. The pillows smelled like oily hair, the vent in the shower area was full of dust, hair in the tub. Water pressure in the shower was awful. The shower head was positioned way too high and could not be adjusted to a more comfortable stream. Worst shower of my life. No extra pillows or toilet paper in room, and no one to bring anything we needed. We had to go downstairs to get everything ourselves, and when we did, the staff had bad attitudes and gave us a hard time about it. Why is it trouble to ask for extra toilet paper? They even rolled their eyes and questioned how many people we had in the room. We had 5 people staying for 3 nights- just give us an extra roll of toilet paper! Additionally, the pool was cold, dirty, full of hair and there was even a used bandaid floating around. The breakfast selection was poor, and a breakfast “monitor” stood watching our every move, making us feel uncomfortable enough to where we skipped breakfast altogether for the remainder of our trip. Of all the Hampton’s I’ve stayed in, this was absolutely the worst. Would never ever stay here again, not even for free....