Crowne Plaza Englewood by IHG — Hotel in Englewood

In order to celebrate my daughter's birthday on June 28, 2024, my family and I had made reservations to stay at the Crowne Plaza Englewood. However, this was the worst hotel I had ever been to. Since my daughter is currently enrolled in school in New York, we made the decision to pay her a visit and celebrate her birthday together. We reserved two rooms for the family's three-night stay. ||||When my daughter and I arrived, David, the front desk employee, who claimed to be the manager but didn't have a name tag on, welcomed us with tremendous rudeness and lack of assistance. The credit card that was used to make the hotel reservation and a picture of my daughter's passport were the only identification she had with her. David rejected us and would not check us in, refusing to collaborate with us to find a solution. David chose to escalate the situation and toss my family and I out on the street at 11 p.m., which made me feel terrified and concerned for our safety since I was in a new place. In addition, I was concerned for my autistic child's safety and wellbeing. David showed no interest in my attempts to convey this to him. ||||Two other employees who were not wearing name tags approached us and I requested to speak with the manager. Joseline, a staff member, identified herself and stated she was the manager. Joseline was unwilling to assist in fixing the problem, despite our best efforts to explain the circumstances to her. ||||We chose to travel back to my daughter's dorm, which is more than one hour drive away, to pick up her physical ID because we were anxious and concerned for our safety. Upon leaving the hotel David decided to cancel our reservation he informed us that we would not be able to stay there. Given that David escalated the problem, it is unclear why he chose to cancel our reservation. We voiced our displeasure to the staff member, who then chose to call the police. I was astonished to the way I was being treated. ||||Anticipating a "hostile" group of eight people, according to David's inflated story, to the police five police cruisers pulled up.||||It was shocking to have such a significant police presence for a family of five ladies, two men, and my underaged autistic son, most of whom were just standing silently waiting to check in.||||My autistic son was so scared and upset that he kept asking whether the cops were coming to hurt us. We were all deeply distressed by the entire affair.||||The staff's actions perplexed even the cops, who were gracious enough to suggest other nearby hotels. They were more kind than the employees of Crowne Plaza, who abandoned my family on the street after 11 PM in a city we were unfamiliar with and where we didn’t feel safe.||||The Staff informed us and the police that we will receive a reimbursement, but we haven't received it yet. We had two rooms reserved for three nights. It is terrible that the assistant manager Edgar subsequently informed us that we would only receive a reimbursement for two nights. Ben, the hotel manager, was of no help when we tried to get the problem resolved.||||This was a dangerous, needless, and embarrassing scenario. I would strongly advise anyone considering making a reservation here to reconsider. The level of customer service is appalling, and customers' safety doesn't seem to be a top concern. We will not make reservation for this...

Avoid at any cost!!!!!

Picture your worst hotel experience and multiply by 10 - that’s what to expect here.

Exterior and parking lot clearly not maintained. Lobby and common area same - so unbelievably dated. (we thought we saw the Brady Bunch on our way in).

One unfriendly “associate” to check in scores of guests, resulting in long check in wait. Once keys were issued, another long wait for the only functional elevator (all others were out of order), only to get up to our room and find the keys not working (same problem for all other incoming guests). Back down to the front desk and another wait.

Once in the room (about an hour after arrival) we find a very beat up decor from the 80’s, heavy musty smell, and soaked carpet around the leaking air conditioner. Bring slippers or hazmat footwear as no human skin should come in contact with the floor.

The highlight was the “free” breakfast in the morning. Typical breakfast buffet you find at many hotels these days, only these guys managed to turn it into a gastronomical nightmare. Way overripe, browning, mushy bananas complete with a dedicated settlement of gnats/fruit flies flirting about. The best way to describe the reheated eggs, bacon, sausage & potatoes is by inserting a throw up emoji here. After setting this aside, I opted for a bowl of stale cereal and warm milk and my wife an inedible apple that was discolored and soft on the inside. The end result of this waste of time was no calories consumed to sustain us for the next 4-5 hours until we could stop again.

We chose this hotel because of the photos depicted on their website , as well as all the 3rd party apps. Also its proximity to Manhattan as we were towing a small trailer and wanted to get into the city early on a Saturday morning. In retrospect, we should have paid attention to the reviews!

FYI - I rarely take the time and effort to write a review (positive or negative), but I couldn’t let this go. Consider me, and others describing this train wreck, as your lighthouses on the craggy cliffs warning fellow travelers to give this place a wide berth!

P.S. from 8/16/2025: I wrote this review about 2 weeks ago (our stay was on 8/1), and included it in the comments of the standard survey forwarded from IHG/Crown Plaza. Since then, the GM from the hotel and a representative from IHG contacted me via email. I also spoke to the GM on the phone and he explained that the hotel was recently purchased by a new owner and a top to bottom remodeling project was to kick off early next spring. That doesn't address the staff and food issues, but in my opinion it's a step in the right direction. He apologized and without me asking, insisted on refunding the cost of our stay. I would have updated this review even without that gesture, but it does seem they're willing to put their money where...

The only real benefit to this place is decent location. Rooms are average and outdated with slow and struggling elevator, poor aesthetics with cheap repairs throughout, and very poor lighting in rooms.

The kicker is that their ads through priceline are deceiving and their staff is near no help. Front desk staff here was so bad that the best service I got was someone who gave INCORRECT info in a polite way.

The short version of the story is that priceline sells rooms that include breakfast for a higher price. I went to retrieve breakfast vouchers in the morning as I was told at check in but upon doing so I was told we could get only 2 per room when we had 7 people in our group. I asked David where it states this and he inly repeated that it was their policy. After questioning him some more about where it says only 2 vouchers per room he goes on to say, "So if you have 12 people you expect them to all eat for free." This was clearly to spite me and totally ignorant considering that fact that he was doing nothing to show me where it stated 2 vouchers per room while it clearly states on the purchase free breakfast and nothing else. I asked for a manager and he said none was available and went onto say that I was raising my voice so he was not going to talk to me any more and not answer any more questions. The one staff that did "try" to help suggested that there may be a "i" icon that states the voucher count and that priceline purchases have a voucher limit, but looking at priceline and the hotels sot there is no such comment or notice of voucher limits per room. She was polite, but a good guess at best. I was hoping to speak to an manager because David stated she would be in an hour from the time I spoke with him, but when I reached out asking for a phone call she stated that I should email the hotel front desk email with my concern. No sense of responsibility.

Thanks to them 4 people ate and the other three decided to wait to eat elsewhere due to time constraints with our schedule and the time wasted with David arguing with me instead of showing me proof of where vouchers are limited.

I can accept me missing something when I make a purchase and they show me clearly where I am wrong but they couldn't show me nor could I find anything which leads to my frustration with this hotel.

Serves me right for taking my chances with this...