Staybridge Suites Wilmington-Newark, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Brookside

So, i have been an IHG member for a long time, we have ALWAYS stayed at the Holiday Inn. We actually just stayed every weekend for 8 weeks at the holiday inn, UNTIL..... One night there were NO Reward Nights available. You would think since i am a Spire Elite Member, who just stayed at your hotel for 8 weekends, youd make an exception, right? Well no they said nothing. So, since we had to stay 1 more night, i logged onto IHG and scrolled thru hotels. Staybridge was nearby and would take my reward night. Now, i have never heard of this hotel previously. I have to say we loved it so much that first night that we wished we had known about it and stayed there the full 8 weekends!! So that first night was a Queen Suite. The following Weekend, we were upgraded to a 2 Bedroom Suite. Can i just say Honey Im HOME!! It feels like home. Seriously, it is great. The staff are pleasantly helpful, especially Operations Manager Chris, and Reservationist Mike. These two helped me with anything i needed, and always wore a smile. The second night we were to stay, there were NO Reward nights, But the Operations Manager Chris, made an EXCEPTION for me. (Unlike the Holiday Inn) Hows that for good customer service! So, back to the room.... We walked in, first glance is a large living room area, with a small FULL Kitchen area. The kitchen has a full fridge/freezer combo, and it makes ice! Had a 2 range stove top (electric), A full size dishwasher, a large microwave, a sink, a coffee maker, and cabinets full of dishware, utensils, napkins, salt and pepper... EVERYTHING we needed except of course food. The living room has a sofa (sofabed) and a chair, coffe table, also a kitchen table and decent size Flatscreen Tv, and even a DVD player!! That was a plus for me as most of the time there's nothing to watch, unless there's a movie on that we like. So now we can bring movies to watch. So when you first walk in, theres a bedroom door to the right before walking thru the living room. This is the QUEEN Bed Room. Fresh, and inviting, with its own full bathroom and closet. After walking thru the living room is a door to the KING bedroom. With Full Bathroom and closet. Both bedrooms have night stands, dressers, tvs, and a desk. Both bathrooms come complete with a toilet, tub/shower combo, and a Large mirrored vanity/sink right outside the door thru to the bedroom. The suite is spotless, fresh, and clean. I have not a single complaint. The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast every morning, and it is pretty good. Last time, i had scrambled eggs and ham slices, with toast and juice. The hotel ALWAYS has FREE coffee, tea, and water all day and night. There is a little Grocery Room next to check in which is great for snacks or needs. And can i just note that the carts for luggage here are awesome. So much better than the holiday inn. We love this hotel so much, we will be staying there from now on. In fact, im already booked in May for 4 nights. If you havent tried Staybridge Suites yet, WE HIGHLY...

Here is the email that was sent to the manager (within 15 minutes of arrival), since he was unavailable. This is what I received from google 24 hours after sending said email:

There was a temporary problem delivering your message to gm.ilgsb@wm.staybridge.com.

Good Afternoon,

My son’s lacrosse team is here for a tournament this weekend, and we booked this hotel simply because it had an outdoor pool amenities, so the kids could have something to do after their games.

To our utter shock, we found out on arrival that the pool is closed, and the elevators were not working.

We all ** extra to stay at this hotel versus one of the xxx or xxx hotels nearby, (with the equivalent type rooms), because of the amenities.

We are beyond disappointed.

If the pool was closed, the website and app should have been updated to reflect that, or an email sent, that these amenities were not currently available.

Or even some type of compensation, especially considering that people specifically paid more for a hotel with said amenities.

Thank you very much.

After writing this email, we then discovered that the drawers in the night stand next to the bed would not stay closed, if you closed it, it would slowly creep back open. We had to get a bungee to hold it shut, so we didn't keep running into the side of it.

Then my 78lb son sat on the bed to put his socks on and then bed completely bowed in, and the middle of the bed buckled.

There were dirty socks by the side of the bed. The bathtub had rust spots. And the outdoor "ammenties" were atrocious. The door from the outside courtyard was broken, so they had an amazon box that propped the door open.

We were told that while we were out at dinner they would have someone come look at the room and check out the bed and fix the drawer. No one came.

I expected more from this hotel. I would discourage anyone from staying here. It is WAY too much money for it to be in this bad...

Very nice hotel I just loved their hotel suites! The only issue I experienced was confusion to where the entrance to the hotel actually was. Staybridge Suites share the same parking lot with Ramada hotel. I would recommend a sign posted on their entrance stating simply Staybridge Suites Also you can bring your pets along but be prepared for a pretty High pet fee. We loved their manager's reception, food, drinks and mingling. Overall I would stay hear again!

Update* Staybridge Suites is a nice hotel. Just please don't leave behind any of your personal effects because you will never get it back. In a hurry to check out to not be late to an appointment, I became fairly certain that I had left behind extremely important papers after checking out. So I called the hotel right away on 3 separate occasions to see if they may have found my information. Each time staff said they would look and then give me back whether they found the information or not. But no one ever called back. Anyway I thought that perhaps I was mistakenly left behind this info in my storage facility. Now 6 months later my storage is all cleaned out and no papers were found. It was obviously my fault trying to juggle way too many tasks due to the stressfulness of relocating to a different state, but I'm pretty sure I recalled having this information with me during my stay at Staybridge. Well this was my horrible lesson learned. I just thought that a decent customer focused hotel would contact their guest if find lost items are found, especially when you pay good money to stay at their hotel. I take it that their courtesy response is to just simply throw guest lost items away. I just really wanted...