Candlewood Suites Chambersburg by IHG — Hotel in Chambersburg

We arrived at the hotel at 2am from our long flight and there was no bottled water available for purchase. They said it would be restocked in the morning which is fine but this was just the beginning. We open the door to our room and we were hit with a terrible smell of dog urine and cigarettes. Exhausted from our trip we dealt with it until the next day. The next day, still no water by the way, and I spoke with the front desk about this room. They looked for another available room and only had a double queen bed room which I declined because my wife and I wanted the separate bedroom from our teenage daughter for the duration of our week long visit. Instead I was patient and the front desk recommended coming in and shampooing the carpets the next day. I told myself ok, we can last one more day in this awful smelling room. The next day I get a call from the manager saying she was in there cleaning the carpets herself and it will be ready for our return in the afternoon. We get back and the smell is still lingering, a little better but now it is dog urine, cigarettes and cleaned carpets smell. Obviously, you can’t get the full experience of a smell like that in a review but it was awful. The manager came to check on us and I told her that it didn’t work and that we need another room which she was able to make available the next day and she also said she would give us a discount on our stay. The same type of room just a smaller bed which I was happy to take. The next day I go to check out the new room and make sure it is to my liking. There is no smell, awesome I will take it! So I move my family from the smelly room to the next room and we are all happy about the non-smelling room. Once we get in there we noticed the toilet wasn’t cleaned very well, you can tell someone shaved body hair over the toilet. At this point I am just happy the room didn’t smell and we dealt with the toilet. Later in the night we find out that none of the lights work in the bedroom. At this point I’m just done dealing with issues and we only had a couple more days on our stay so we dealt with it. The room doesn’t smell so I don’t care about lights not working. There were other things I noticed about the room, like mold, paint pealing and oil stains on the wall but you can chalk that up to an older hotel.

After our stay, after being so patient and nice with the staff about the issues I get the receipt which has a very minimal discount on a week long hotel bill. Wow, thanks so much! I don’t write reviews to often, I don’t complain to often and I definitely don’t look for discounts if they aren’t deserved, which this was well deserved. I shouldn’t have had to pay for the first two to three nights in that terrible room. The staff was helpful on doing what they could to accommodate my needs. My needs are minimal, I don’t expect much on my hotel stays. I need a clean room(one that doesn’t smell), a place I feel comfortable for my family and customer service is good. This review is to show the hotel owners that it is time for an upgrade to the hotel, you have a great staff that cares for the guests but the state of the hotel is the issue here. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone until repairs/deep cleaning...

I forget a very valuable item at the hotel, I called front desk as soon as I got home when I realized something was missing. I have to say the hotel staff was not at all knowledgeable, helpful or did they seem concerned. I was told to call the next morning and speak to the hotel manager at 9:00am, I called and was told by another staff member to call back at 10:00am, I called after 10:00am and still no manager on call. After calling again to find out what was happening, the person I spoke to said she got in touch with the manager and I was promised my item would be mailed to me by the end of the day. I called around 4:00pm, spoke to another staff member who informed me that my item was still sitting at the front desk, nothing was mailed to me and he had no further information and didn't seem to care and told me to call back the next morning. Finally I took matters into my own hands and did not rely no anyone there including the manager whom I finally did get to speak to. Note, she did not call me even though she was aware of the situation, I got lucky and caught her on her way out. I called UPS and made arrangements myself to have them pick up my item the next day. I created a prepaid label and emailed it to the email address the manager had given me. After doing this I let them know to expect UPS the next day. All they had to do was put the item in a box and print the label and I was worried that that wasn't going to get done so I called later that evening and I was told that the label could not be printed for some reason. That concerned me because common sense told me that without that label UPS cannot obtain the package, but again, spoke to the staff member who seemed irate when I expressed my concerns and assured me that they do this sort of thing all the time and not to worry, the label doesn't matter and I will get my package as scheduled. Low and behold, the next day when UPS was there to pick up my package, it could not be pickup due to the missing label. Thank God the lady at the front desk called me to tell me while UPS was standing there, I immediately faxed over the label that I was smart enough to print at home and sent it to them. I verified that it was received and as we speak UPS has my package and it is on its way to me. So there is a happy ending to this horror story. By the way, if you are wondering what the item was that I unfortunately left behind, it was orthopedic pillow that was designed to adjust neck and spine discomfort when sleeping. I had it for so long that I do not know where to begin to get it replaced besides that fact that it is very expensive. The sum things up, my experience was not good at this hotel regarding...

Stayed here for a month for military training. Before I booked I asked about the rate and rooms (had family with me). Because I was military on orders, they knocked the price down to $91/day, and said that all the rooms were the same, just bed setup being different. Got here with family to find out I had 1 queen size bed for me, my wife, and twin 3 year olds. Slept on the floor the first night, then talked to the front desk. I would have liked a room with a separate bedroom so my wife and I don't disturb the girls' sleep, but they said that would cost extra, and I could have a fold away bed. Tried that for about 2 more nights and just wasn't worth it, no floor space at all. It was a nightmare to navigate with a whole family with you. Ended up sending my family to live with relatives so I could actually sleep well.

Room setup: The drawers in the kitchen slide open on their own, I had to borrow take to tape the sides shut. The TV and chair are along the same wall, with curtains jutting out, cutting off 1/8th or so of the TV (more if you're reclining). My room was on the back side of the hotel, and the setting sun came peeking in. It made working with natural light (no ceiling fan, and the lamps don't light the room as well as sunlight, and have horrible glare on the TV) a pain, especially when sitting down for dinner.

The internet is a regular game of "what's wrong now?" Between constantly having to sign in (especially if you were in the middle of doing something), sign in passwords being changed weekly, the pleasant surprise of an area wide internet outage, and only getting ~200KB/s, entertainment was increasingly frustrating. I'm a cord cutter, so i consume more internet than cable television. It was very trying.

Other services: The washers are not HE, which was a disappointment because the prior hotel i was staying at in Virginia (more military training) had all HE washers. The gym had a stationary bike with a stationary (i.e. broken) seat. The machine for doing presses was horribly off center. I suppose that's good if you have a weak left arm and need to get strong. Room service comes once a week. I'm used to a daily tidy up (take out trash, make bed, check to restock supplies and towels) and a once weekly good cleaning. My key card expired twice (locked out of room). Pretty much i had to renew it every week because the people at the front desk just set it for one week increments. After the second time somebody finally set it to expire after I left. Finally, there was no free breakfast.

The one good thing (and honestly, only thing that prevented me from choosing another hotel) is that it had a kitchen with most (not all) of what you'd need to cook...