DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Chicago - Arlington Heights — Hotel in Elk Grove Township

4-star hotel my left foot. Here’s my summary of the Doubletree in Arlington Heights while using my best restraint from sounding like an absolute Karen.

First off, there was no issue with the staff. All staff I encountered during my stay were consumate professionals in the service industry and zero problems with that. Now let’s get into it.

We stayed at this hotel for a large scale family event recently. Check in was decent, staff was great. Then we check in into our rooms. The room me and a family member were staying in had no mini fridge. Not a big deal, I’ve stayed in many other hotels with less amenities. Where I draw the line is when every other room my family had booked that I had been in (about 6-7 other rooms) has a mini fridge. Okay, maybe the explanation that they’re currently implementing mini fridges in a room is in its infancy. I can handle it.

Then we get to the hotel pool. Maybe it’s by virtue of being advertised as a 4-star hotel on Google that the hotel pool is lacking, but this is where I cast doubt. The pool was fine, in fact the pool itself was interesting since the design was very unlike what I’ve seen, unique I guess. However, despite the spacious area, there was no hot tub. That was rather shocking. I’ve stayed at Super 8s that have both. It only seems like common sense that if there’s a pool at a hotel you would think there’s a hot tub as well. Oh well, maybe the designer of the pool room got his interior design degree from Devry.

Where I draw the line is with the breakfast. Now at supposed upscale hotels I can see the breakfast being a surcharge. In this case, it was complimentary because of the amount of people in our party staying there. The breakfast was nothing to write home about, which is usually the case with hotel breakfast. At the end of the day, it’s usually complimentary, I can’t set my expectations too high with a free breakfast.

To have the nerve to have a staff member come out with a bill for the breakfast that is to be excused by our free breakfast voucher, for a run of the mill, nay, a bad hotel breakfast that couldn’t keep up with foods on the hot spot, mislabeling foods on the hot spot, and just because they filled up our coffee when we needed some rather than having a self serve dispenser the staff expects a tip as a result, is absolute BS in my honest opinion.

I have a couple more problems with this hotel, but I would be bordering Karen territory. So I’ll just leave my final gripe at this. Despite being about 5 miles from O’Hare, we weren’t even insulated from the noise. I’ve been at the hotel right by the convention center in Rosememt (I think it’s the Hyatt, I’d have to double check) directly under the flight path from takeoff and I can’t even tell there’s an airport nearby.

I highly doubt a google review will bring change to an establishment that’s making money hand over fist like a hotel near one of the busiest airports in the world. However, I would not recommend staying here unless you have either been comped by the airline that got you in late for your connection, or it’s the cheapest hotel in the area once the Bears eventually move out to Arlington Heights...

Let me preface this by saying there is NO HOT TUB. There’s a post on here with a picture showing a hot tub from 5 years ago. After staying here one night I can confirm it doesn’t exist.

Pros: Location. Close to interstate, shopping and food options. Room was clean. Good price. Only paid $125 for one night on a weekend. For this area that’s pretty decent.

Let’s get to the cons, and there are more than pros:

Upon checking in last night at 6pm, no eye contact. No warm greeting. No acknowledgement. My partner and I waited for a good 30 seconds for her to look up from whatever she was doing, to realize that we were giving her ID for confirmation that we checked in on the app. Thank goodness we checked in on the app (actually, that part is a pro), because I can tell she would’ve been difficult. No discussion of pool hours, fitness center hours or breakfast. We had to ask an older gentleman early this morning about the breakfast.

Whoever was at the front desk last night 3/1/25 around 6pm gave the vibe that she really didn’t want to be there. She asked us if we wanted a cookie but it was the way she asked which was off putting. I can’t explain it but she was very rude.

Hallways look dated. Elevator has a weird smell to it.

Again, NO hot tub! Apparently there was one a few years ago. Now it’s gone? What the heck?

No water pressure in the shower. No exhaust fan.

No microwave but there is a fridge. Make that make sense?

Temperature control is weird. You get freezing cold or super hot air.

Bed is hard as a rock and bouncy. Pillows could’ve been firmer. No extra pillows or blanket in the closet.

Also, teenagers and whoever else running up and down the halls above us and on the 4th floor, and slamming doors late at night. You guys have cameras in the hallways, should be able to see what’s happening right? Quiet hours should be enforced - there are people that stay here that aren’t here to party. Some stay here because they are visiting family and need to be up early the next morning.

Breakfast was ice cold! I got French toast, potatoes and bacon (all supposed to be fresh and hot) at 6:45 am upon their opening and nothing was hot, except for the oatmeal. Honestly I think the three items mentioned that I tried to eat was leftover from the day before. No way was that cooked this morning. Talk about a food safety issue, the health department needs to know about this. I’ve previously worked in restaurants and delis and I will repeat what has been taught to me, and apparently needs to be taught to restaurant staff: cold food needs to be kept cold, hot food needs to be kept hot!!

Then who I think was the restaurant manager came back to my table, and said loudly they changed everything over in front of other people eating. That was inappropriate, they could’ve just changed it and left it at that. Also, it’s not continental and you have to pay $17.95. Way too high for what you get - I was comped but my partner was charged.

This was mediocre for one night but I expected more for a Doubletree. I stayed at a Doubletree in Milwaukee years ago that was fantastic. I wouldn’t stay here ever again, even if...

Because I haven’t received any answer from the hotel to my email complaining about these issues, I will go public with the problems I faced there.

I stayed at the hotel with my family between the 24th and 25th of April 2025. We had several issues during our stay at the hotel.

1 - The WiFi in our room never worked properly. With our devices, only one was able to connect to the WiFi during the whole stay, and it was only a short period it worked. When we first complained about it at the reception desk, we were told that there is some work going on with the WiFi routers and that the WiFi works, but it is slow. When I told that we can't even connect to the WiFi, the advice was to choose "forget network" and then try again. The next morning the situation was the same, and at the reception I was told once again, that the WiFi is working, although slowly; I corrected that from the customer's point of view, it is not working if we can't even connect to it, to which the answer was that the WiFi is working. I told once again that it was not working, and the answer was "sorry". Because we needed the WiFi connection, we had to come down to the lobby to be able to access it in the morning. Maybe the hotel was full and there was nothing the reception could have done, e.g. offered another room, but at least they could have mentioned that. Let me just emphasize that WiFi is one of the biggest criteria when choosing the hotel.

2 - On 24th, I tried to get the shuttle bus to pick me up at the airport when I returned the rental car there. I asked the reception, when I left the hotel, if they could send the bus there and pick me up, but they insisted that I need to call the hotel and wait at the airport (I had checked in already and I was in the hotel asking this). After I had returned the car, I tried to call the hotel, the very number the reception told me to call, but there was no answer and the call went to voicemail. During the next 10 minutes I tried about five times to call, but the result was the same every time. Then I realized that if I ever want to get back to the hotel, I need to take a taxi, which I did.

3 - When we checked in, we were not told where the breakfast is served next morning, at what time it will be open, or that we would need a coupon for that. So, the next morning we asked at the reception where the breakfast room is, and kindly answered. However, when we wanted to eat, we were given a menu with different choices and prices. I told them that we have breakfast included, but they were demanding coupons for that. otherwise we would have to pay. So, I went to the reception to ask about the coupons, and got them, and we got our breakfast. My point here, as a paying customer, is that these things should be done when checking in, not when one is already sitting at the restaurant.

4 - The checkout process was far from being friendly and warm, probably because we were “difficult customers” and the receptionist was the same to whom I complained about...