Four Points by Sheraton Milwaukee North Shore — Hotel in Brown Deer

When we arrived, the front desk staff was very gracious and kind. We had our service dog with us, and they were very accepting and understanding. Later I realized I forgot some toiletries, and the afternoon staff was also very helpful. The late-night staff person, however, made me feel as if I were interrupting him while he was surfing the internet in the computer area.

When we arrived in our room, which we were told was a "newly renovated suite," I was literally speechless. The decor was dreary, in fact -- ugly, and the "suite" was anything but!! The "Suite" was a chopped-up claustrophobic room. It was no bigger than a regular room. Also, no privacy between sleeping area in living room and bedroom as bathroom walls were in the middle and did not go all the way to the ceiling! I assume this was for air flow, which was still inadequate. Living room was stuffy with its door shut. However, there was no door to shut off the bedroom!!! Awkward, to say the least.

This hotel is in the middle of nowhere. If this hadn't been a "free night" from SPG points, we would not have stayed there. And I was charged 1,000 extra points -- without a choice -- because I needed a refrigerator for insulin. Thus, we were forced to have this "pseudo-suite." I would much rather have been given the option to have a refrigerator placed in a regular room -- which was spacious, open, and much more cheery and full of light.

Also, we were supposed to have breakfast vouchers. I asked twice but never received them, so we left the hotel hungry and went elsewhere to eat. Would like to have tried the Bistro on Friday evening, but they close so early (9:00)!! Unfortunately, no "reception" either because it was a Friday night. We were supposed to stay a second night, but chose not to because it certainly wasn't worth the price.

When I took our service dog outside before bedtime, I counted all of the cars in the parking lot. There were only 20 -- and that included any cars belonging to staff! They are still doing construction everywhere, and you could hear it all over the hotel.

More attention needs to be paid to cleanliness and detail -- hallways were dirty, carpets were worn, gouges in walls, doorways, and elevators.

One big PLUS -- the indoor pool area was absolutely lovely!! We had it all to ourselves Saturday morning, which was a nice bonus. The hot tub was perfect, and the pool was clean and also perfect. (You could see that the outdoor pool is in the demolition process, so don't count on that being done...

The hotel itself is fine. But when I reserved my room three weeks before my stay, I made it very, very clear that my adult, mentally disabled, blind son who was traveling with me could NOT safely be helped into a tub shower. I said I would prefer a king bed with a bathroom having a step-over shower, or as a second choice, a roll-in shower. I was assured a king bed and stepover shower was reserved for us. The night before our arrival, I called again to be sure the room reservation was as I had requested, explaining again how important it was to us. I also added that we would be arriving between 8:00-9:30 pm because we were attending a wedding beforehand. I didn't want our room to be given away by someone thinking we were not coming because we were late. I was told by the reservationist that the room was ready and that she was adding the notes of our late arrival to the reservation. When we arrived, exhausted by two days of travel, I checked in and made it to the room after struggling into the elevator to go up one floor and down the hallway while trying to push a loaded cart and trying to guide my son. We walked into a king room with a tub shower!!!!! I was incredulous. I had to go down to the front desk again. The desk clerk was very kind, apologetic, and helpful, but still—what do you have to do to get the room you were promised AND NEEDED!! The only room we could have was a room with two full-size beds and a roll-in shower. I need a king bed so that my son knows I am with him. As it was, for the FOUR NIGHTS we were there, I got very little sleep because I was awakened several times each night by him crying out, afraid that I wasn't there. Almost every time, I had to get out of bed and get him tucked in again and settled down. When I'm in the bed with him, he can sense it and generally sleep through the night. If he does cry out, I can just reach out and pat him on his arm and he goes immediately back to sleep. I don't have to get out of bed. I found out later that they don't even have a room with a king bed and a step-in shower; they don't even have a king bed with a roll-in shower!! So BEWARE: If you have special needs, make sure you are talking to someone at the DESK AT THE HOTEL, not a person at a reservation place that books rooms for many states. I WISH they had a king bed with a roll-in shower because it is close to my daughter's house and would have stayed there in the future when we visit. Other than that deficit, it is a nice...

Overall a poor experience. We stayed here June 2023 so hopefully they do updates or renovations.

-There was clearly a lack of upkeep with buttons on the elevators broken and torn and tattered signs all around the hotel (see pictures; there were more but I didn't take pictures of every single thing either). -We got in late on Friday night and the front desk person didn't even greet us or say hello when we passed; were pretty rude when we left (the gal checking us out had earbuds in and hardly said a word). -Friday night when we got in late and when we got to our room there was old blood dried on the comforter and some other unknown substance on it which was super gross (see pictures). -The air conditioning was broken when we got in on Friday and was super loud so we just shut it off. Since we got in so late, we didn't want to have to deal with it. They were quite quick with fixing it the next day which was surprising since the list of things to fix that he wrote our concern on was quite long from the rest of the people staying in the hotel. -We used the app to get the key for our room and assumed that we could use it to order breakfast on Saturday morning, but when we got down there to eat, the woman checking people in to eat said "we don't have an app". So once i showed that there is an app with availability to order food, she said that it doesn't come to them. Definitely not her fault but why the heck would the hotel have an app with an option to order food if its not a thing? We did end up eating buffet since that was what was available. Fire alarm went off at 3am on Saturday night. Once it shut off, there was no communication on whether to continue to exit or stay so there was a bunch of people on my floor in the hall wondering if they should leave or not. I called the front and they said it was from someone smoking in their room so we could go back to bed. Thankfully my two young kids didn't wake up but I did see plenty of people just leave since it was so close to morning (again no apology or comment from staff when checking out either).

As far as hotel summary: it was hit or miss with staff whether we got someone friendly or someone completely disconnected. The hotel itself was poorly kept up and the rooms were just okay with dirty sheets when we got in; definitely not like the pictures on the website. I wouldn't...