Gurnee Motel — Hotel in Gurnee

I really wanted to like this place. It’s wrecked looking from the outside and there is no “Gurnee Motel” sign so I missed the turn. No problem, I thought. Chin up. The portico outside is closed off. There is scaffolding all around it but I don’t think it’s for construction. There was no evidence of work. I think it’s just gonna be that way forever.

The man at the desk was very friendly and suggested I see the room before I signed on the dotted line so to speak. I should’ve known at that stage to run. He was very nice though.

At first glance, the room wasn’t terrible. I was excited. There were two beds, a microwave, and a fridge. It didn’t look too shabby… Well let me tell you the tale of The Gurnee Motel motel room.

There were eight lightbulbs in the room, three of which worked. The bedside lamps were supposed to plug into the wall, but the plug end was wrapped loosely white electric tape. Against my better judgment I plugged it in anyway and tried to turn the lights on. Surprise, surprise - it didn’t work. (2 down) Either way I would imagine it wasn’t safe. Of The four lights (which are presumably supposed to be fancy) over the sink and mirror, only one worked. (3 more down). The three that worked were the bathroom light (yay), the one over the mirror, and one on the wall opposite the heads of the beds. The sink was in the room, not the bathroom, - so two of the working lights were in the room. With both lights on, the room was dim - not in a mood-lighting way.

The bathtub looked a bit old and dirty, but I figured all I have to do is stand in it and the shower water is clean so I’ll be grand and clean. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the curtain was filthy with mold and dirt. I’d rather be dirty myself than go near that shower.

We found bugs, thankfully deceased, in three of five drawers in the room. The beds were comfortable enough. I just hope I didn’t get a disease from them.

There were two chairs in the room, which was exciting because in all the rooms we’ve been in recently there have only been one or none. We both like to read in the evening and chairs are good for that kind of activity. Chair number one was an office chair. I love office chairs because they spin and lean back and stuff. Fun times. However, it was stained with something awful. A large stain, or three. (See photo) It didn’t smell thankfully. God knows what it was. The other chair was an armchair, which was reasonably comfortable. However, the fabric was all ripped off where the calves of one’s legs hit the chair.

The AC was noisy. Some people sleep better with white noise so not too much of a negative. Part of the plastic is broken but it seems like only a cosmetic problem. (photo).

The good - the front desk man was great. Heart of gold. Just a lovely wee lad. Very helpful. The cost is extremely cheap. The nightly rate we paid was $45 before tax which is the cheapest I’ve come across since my travels began a whole four days ago. He said it was $300 for a week. Which is galactically lower than anything else we’ve looked into. After we had checked-in and had a quick look at the room I told myself I could put up with this kind of crap for $300 a week. I could Lysol the room, launder the sheets and be comfortable enough. But I don’t think I’m quite up to the challenge of staying here again. Oh - I wasn’t murdered in my bed so that’s good too.

I’m giving it two stars (instead of one) because there was a lovely man (did I mention that?) and I didn’t die. I didn’t see anyone selling drugs in the parking lot, or even doing drugs!!! No one shouted in the middle of the night. The police were not called (as far as I am aware).

ETA: This is the following morning. The Lovely Man was not enough to keep that second star. Just as we were about to head to bed we came across four bugs of three varieties in three different locations. There was no way we were getting into those beds. We bolted just before midnight. I am not picky at all. Please don't do this to yourself. Just don't. We slept in the car last night off the highway...

I have never given this bad of a review, but it is necessary. We get there and a few hours later my husband and I want to shower, they only put one wet and disgusting towel in the room that my husband said smelled like it was used. I called for another towel and more toilet paper because the barely there roll was sitting on the toilet with an empty one on the roll. I am then arguing with the woman at the front desk because she doesn’t want to give us anymore tp or another towel. She finally sighs and says okay and after 15 minutes my husband just went to get it himself. I open the shower curtain and there is a used bar of soap sitting right there. I refused to touch it and left it sitting there. The shower curtain looks like it was apart of a crime scene with how much gunk was on it. There was so much mold on the bottom of it I almost threw up. My husband and I showered again this morning and as he went to dry his hair there was a dead cockroach in the hair dryer holder. There is a reason why this room is so cheap. If it is your only option then good luck. The chain lock was broken off our door and for being a non smoking room there sure were a lot of cigarette holes in the blanket. Right when we walked into the room it smelled like someone tried to cover up the smell of cigarettes with very strong cheap cologne that immediately made my asthma act up. We will never be staying here again and they need to get checked by the BBB or something. I woke up to get water and there were cockroaches just having a party in the sink. I drowned them all. Absolutely disgusting. I took another shower at my friends because I...

There definitely needs to be a negative rating for this disgusting place. I honestly don't know how they're allowed to legally remain open. I booked off of Expedia thinking it would be ok enough sheet having driven 1700+ miles for a job relocation (of which I started the next morning and needed a good night's sleep). This place was the things that nightmares are made of. 1st, there is no signage indicating that this is the motel, 2nd, we parked to see that there are rooms with broken window glass & 1 that had the blinds just hanging out of the broken window on the outside of the building, 3rd, upon going up the stairs to our room there was a horrible odor throughout the place, 4th, entered the room to find the wall mirror with a large crack in it and a piece of tape over the crack, the door to the bathroom had no knobs on either side, just the inner parts sticking out, 5th I sat on the edge of the bed and felt like I was practically on the floor, 6th, the curtains are falling off the rods, 7th upon leaving after contacting Expedia support on this, we noticed a roach on the door of the room. I contacted Expedia about a refund and they contacted the property, 6 days later they got back to me stating the property would not issue a refund. I paid $77 just to walk into this horrorendous property, get disgusted and leave not 20 minutes later. The pictures looked ok enough online, but PLEASE do yourself a favor and avoid this place...