Crowne Plaza Lombard Downers Grove, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Glen Ellyn

I made my reservation directly with the hotel even though it cost more because I was trying to have a trip that would not have any hitches.

Unfortunately this did not work and I paid substantially

more for the inconvenience.

I did add to the reservations with one more day on my daughter and grand daughters room.

When we arrived I was told 'we had won the lottery" and were being upgraded to a suite. The suite was very nice.

I was not told at anytime on the phone or in person that I would need to change rooms.

The next day we went down to the restaurant and spent 25 minutes after being asked if we wished to have coffee and talking to 3 servers before we got coffee.

We were meeting relatives who are from the area and relatives coming form out of town on Saturday.

My wife has stage 4 cancer and we had very limited time to see people she may never see again.

We were late but all was going well until I received a call form the hotel sometime around 1 pm telling me that I had to move rooms. I explained that I was nowhere near the hotel.

The woman said that did not matter our room was rented and we ad to move out. i asked for a manager and was told one was not available and they would have to forcibly move us out if we did not come back. i told here I have a c-pap and we have cancer meds and she should not touch our stuff. After a 20 minute argument I headed back to the hotel to pack up and move. The new room was not handicapped so my wife could not shower. and the outlet for plugging in the c-pap was an overtaxed power strip screwed facing backward to the night stand..

We went down to breakfast the next morning and found out the buffet that they told us about the previous day was not there.

That would be fine except there was only one server. We spent over 2 hours getting breakfast and we had to extend our check out time which made us late to meet my brother who was stopping on his way through O'hare airport going back to Arizona. our visit was cut to 90 minutes, another person my wife may not see again.

I forgot to mention DO NOT ORDER THE OATMEAL TASTES LIKE WATERY INSTANT GROATS.

i HAVE BEEN TO THIS HOTEL IN THE PAST BUT WILL NOT BE RETURNING.

The assistant manager did give us some coupons as a consolation prize, i wish i had not used them.

They blamed third party booking people as the cause and lack of kitchen staff.

We were there August 3rd to 5th, 2024 not the incorrect dates I clicked on to do...

The good: no bugs (roaches, bedbugs, spiders, etc.)

The Ok: Facilities overall are run down (except the resteraunt is in good condition). The beds are ok, but not great. Everything is outdated and worn. There are outlets around, but not enough if you've got electronics.

The bad:

The room layout: in my room, they hung the TV above the desk, so if you need to use the desk, you block the TV for others or are very distracted. lighting was very low. They really could use more lights. extremely small communal microwave. the tiles in the gym are practically popping off the floor or are very warped, which is big safety concern no luggage caddy, had to put our luggage on the couch, bed or floor. expensive food in resteraunt, especially for a breakfast. Wouldn't suggest going there based just on price, but more issues noted below.

The worst: they didn't honor our reservation, which included medical accommodations. This caused significant issues for our party. the communication was horrific: They upgraded one of our rooms, but didn't tell us that it was just for one night. Then the next day, they called mid-day urgently needing us to move and wanting to go in the room to move our stuff (which was unpacked and had medication and medical devices set up in it). When asked to call a manager, the staff refused. They manufactured an urgent and stressful situation for a disabled person. Downgraded room. Initially there was an upgrade, but then we were not brought back to the level of room which we originally reserved. There was an additional downgrade to the room. Instead of a king room, there was a double queen. Very understaffed: the waitstaff in the resteraunt was not able to keep up with demand: 20 minutes for a cup of coffee, about 2 hours for breakfast. She was pleasant and professional, but they needed 3 more of her. Kitchen orders slow and wrong: wrong meal brought, took 30 min for an omlette. Didn't bring toast that was supposed to come with the meal. Food coming out separately from other orders at the table.

There are probably other issues I'm not thinking of.

While one manager was apologetic, the level of disruption to the trip was significant, and a food voucher (while appreciated) was simply not enough to improve the experience (especially given our service and food issues in the resteraunt).

I would not recommend...

The website pictures are pretty much a fabrication in my opinion. I arrived on a Monday (July 18th) for two night business stay. Upon pulling up to the hotel I was disappointed with the exterior. My VP, who also stayed at this hotel described the exterior as looking like a prison. I think his description hit the nail on its head. Check-in was uneventful, but we were informed that the on-site restaurant was going to be closed for the two days that we were there. This was unfortunate as one of the reasons we chose this hotel was due to the fact that it had an on site restaurant with a bar (strike 1).

Upon exiting the elevator on my floor, I noticed that although the carpets were fairly dark, they looked pretty dingy. I don't think shampooing could save them (and I saw staff shampooing said hallway carpets on Tuesday of my stay). They need replacing and have seen their fair share of traffic. I enter the room and I swear this was the oldest feeling hotel room I've been in and I have seen a lot of hotels. The thermostat to control the climate was rotary/manual...turn left for cooler, turn right for warmer and switches for low, high, medium. So it took some getting up and down out of bed to get the temperature just right which was a pain as I am used to simply choosing a temperature and letting the climate control do its thing (Strike 2).

On my second night (Tuesday, July 19th). I was rudely awakened by the fire alarm at approximately 12AM. I smelled no smoke and I realized at that moment that the room phone was dead (they use cordless phones) but it was sitting on the base the entire time I was there. The alarm rang for over an hour and I learned the next day through my boss whose room was next door to the culprit that a drunken visitor pulled the fire alarm (Strike 3). I don't necessarily fault the hotel for this third strike, but I think it was pretty clear that the fire alarm was tripped and to have it ringing for over an hour in the middle of the night was just terrible.

All in all, I think the staff were pretty competent, but this hotel needs a total renovation. I get it, its in Lombard, but I don't see myself staying here again when I make another...