Quality Inn O'Hare Airport — Hotel in Leyden Township

For context, this is the 2nd online review I’ve ever written. The 1st was 5 years ago because I moved to a new city and went to a local mechanic who went so above and beyond in his customer service, honesty, and integrity, that I wanted to make whatever efforts I could to direct folks his way. I continue to use that same mechanic today and the story of my initial interaction with him is something I still tell friends about when car issues come up. Unfortunately, this review is due to an experience my wife and I had on the opposite end of the spectrum.||||We booked our honeymoon through a travel agent, and she recommended doing a park-and-fly option near O’Hare, which seemed like a good idea as we’d be able to get a shuttle ride over to the airport and not have to pay for extended stay parking at O’Hare, and that’s how we ended up at the Quality Inn. When we arrived, we checked in and got our room key, but when we went to the room the key wasn’t working. We went back to the front desk and found a different guy running the desk from when we had first checked in a few minutes ago. I explained the situation and he said would re-run the key card, he just needed the room number. I gave him the number and he gave me a fresh key which then ended up working. At first I didn’t think a whole lot of the interaction, but as we walked back to our room I realized this guy had never seen me before, didn’t ask for even my name, and in theory I could have asked for a key card to any room in the hotel with the same story and he would have been none the wiser. ||||After we got into the room we began to get ready for bed as it was already pretty late. After we laid down we heard a child start screaming from a neighboring room. We have 4 nephews under 5 and when I say screaming, I mean wailing in the way one would when they’re in pain, not a sound of “I didn’t get my way and now I’m going to throw a fit”. This went on for a couple minutes during which my wife and I were uncomfortable, but the screaming did stop after a couple minutes, and eventually we were able to go to sleep. ||||About an hour later, now after midnight, we awoke to the same screaming, this time more sustained. At this point we were highly concerned, so I called the front desk guy and reported the issue and asked if he could investigate, which he said he would. Another 5 or so minutes went by, with the screaming continuing. I hadn’t heard anything in the hallway, so I then exited the room to look for myself. Once in the hallway I heard the screaming coming from within a room to my left. I then looked to my right and saw a white man with short hair in his 30s or 40s sitting on a staircase at the end of the hall and speaking in non-English on a cell while looking toward the screaming. I wanted to go to the front desk then to see if the front desk guy had investigated anything yet, which led me to walk past the man on the staircase. I’m conversational in Spanish and when I passed him I could tell he wasn’t speaking that at minimum, and I’d guess it was an eastern European language. ||||When I got to the front desk, I told the guy I was the one who called reporting the screaming and was checking to see if he had followed up on my request, to which he said he hadn’t, as well as mentioned the guy on the phone on the stairs. When I asked why, he told me that he’d seen a family come in with a couple young kids earlier in the night and everything looked ok, so he wasn’t concerned. At this point, it was abundantly clear this guy was not going to do anything about the situation, so I said ok and went back to my room. When I got back, the man on the stairs and the screaming were both gone. My wife and I were having trouble sleeping at this point due to how uneasy the situation was making us feel, and after a few minutes the screaming resumed. I then called the non-emergency police number and explained the situation and left my room number. In under 10 minutes an officer knocked on my door and I told him the same thing I’d said on the phone. The screaming was not ongoing at that time, but he said he’d hang around and take a look into it. ||||Eventually my wife and I were able to fall asleep for an hour or 2 before we had to get up at 3 for our flight. I don’t know if the officer ended up finding any more information as to what was going on behind that door. It was not a good experience obviously and I have a lot of regrets as well as concerns. I wish at minimum I would have walked toward the screaming when I was in the hallway, whether the guy on the phone was watching me or not, and at least identified the room number, if not knocked on the door to check in, but to be honest I was scared personally and justified to myself in the moment that going to the front desk and trusting that method of reporting was the right thing to do. ||||From the hotel side of the issue, in light of the screaming situation and the suspicious guy on the stairs, the idea that I could have walked up to a front desk guy who hasn’t seen me before, tell him my room key wasn’t working, and ask for a key to Room XXX without even a name is highly concerning. I don’t know the motives or disposition of the front desk guy, but at best, he lied to me by saying he’d investigate my report into the screaming when he responded with justifying not doing it because he’d seen a family walk in earlier that night and they looked ok. We had to park in the back of the hotel as the front and both sides of the parking lot were full, so even if he had seen a family walk in earlier that night, that’s a darn weak deflection to say my report wasn’t an issue because you saw 1 family, that at the time looked ok, walk into a full or nearly full hotel that evening. I sure hope this guy was not involved with the situation and had no additional knowledge, and was either apathetic, lazy, scared, or something of that nature, but regardless to lie saying you’d investigate it is not ok. Hopefully this was a situation of just 1 bad actor, and this Quality Inn happens to have a great culture and training for their employees to promote the safety of their guests, but that seems like a real reach based on the front desk guy’s actions with regard to the key card situation and the screaming. It’s easy for the mind to wander in a situation like this next to an incredibly large international airport, that offers park-n-flies, where the turnover of folks coming and going is likely very high. At minimum my wife and I will never be staying at this location, any Quality Inn, and likely any Choice...

Disturbing Lack of Concern for Guest Safety:

My wife and I booked our honeymoon through a travel agent, and she recommended doing a park-and-fly option near O’Hare, and that’s how we ended up at the Quality Inn. When we arrived, we checked in and got our room key, but when we went to the room the key wasn’t working. We went back to the front desk and found a different guy running the desk from when we had first checked in a few minutes ago. I explained the situation and he said he just needed the room number. I gave him the number and he gave me a fresh key which ended up working. At first I didn’t think a whole lot of the interaction, but as we walked back to our room I realized this guy had never seen me before, didn’t ask for even my name, and in theory I could have asked for a key card to any room in the hotel with the same story.

After we got in our room we soon heard a child start screaming from a neighboring room. This went on for a couple uncomfortable minutes, but the screaming did stop, and eventually we were able to go to sleep.

About an hour later we awoke to the same screaming. At this point we were highly concerned, so I called the front desk guy and reported the issue and asked if he could investigate, which he said he would. Another 5 or so minutes went by, with the screaming continuing. I hadn’t heard anything in the hallway, so I then exited the room to look for myself. Once in the hallway I heard the screaming coming from within a room to my left. I then looked to my right and saw a white man with short hair in his 30s or 40s sitting on a staircase at the end of the hall and speaking in non-English on a cell while looking toward the screaming. I wanted to go to the front desk then to see if the front desk guy had investigated anything yet, which led me to walk past the man on the staircase. I’m conversational in Spanish and when I passed him I could tell he wasn’t speaking that at minimum, and I’d guess it was an eastern European language.

When I got to the front desk, I told the guy I was the one who called reporting the screaming, and was checking to see if he had followed up on my request, to which he said he hadn’t. When I asked why, he told me that he’d seen a family come in with a couple young kids earlier in the night and everything looked ok, so he wasn’t concerned. At this point, it was abundantly clear this guy was not going to do anything about the situation, so I said ok and went back to my room. When I got back, the man on the stairs and the screaming were both gone. My wife and I were having trouble sleeping at this point due to how uneasy the situation was making us feel, and after a few minutes the screaming resumed. I called the non-emergency police number and explained the situation and left my room number. In under 10 minutes an officer knocked on my door and I told him the same thing I’d said on the phone. The screaming was not ongoing at that time, but he said he’d hang around for a bit.

In light of the screaming situation and suspicious guy on the stairs, the idea that I could walk up to a front desk guy who hasn’t seen me before, tell him my room key wasn’t working, and receive a key to Room XYZ without even a name is highly concerning. I don’t know the motives of the front desk guy, but at best, he lied to me by saying he’d investigate my report into the screaming when he responded with justifying not doing it because he’d seen a family walk in earlier that night and they looked ok. Hopefully this was a situation of just 1 bad actor, and this Quality Inn happens to have a great culture and training for their employees to promote the safety of their guests, but that seems like a real reach based on the front desk guy’s actions. It’s easy for the mind to wander in a situation like this next to an incredibly large international airport where the turnover of folks coming and going is likely very high. At minimum my wife and I will never be staying at this location, any Quality Inn, and likely any Choice...

Upon checking in late in the evening around 11:30 PM I asked the clerk at the front desk if I could schedule a shuttle for the following day at 5:30 PM because my flight was not until 7:00 PM. I was assured that that would be fine. I was given myreceipt from the charges that were put on my debit card. The total I agreed to pay by signing was $68.74. Upon entering the room, the smell was putrid! If it had not been so late at night, I would have walked out of the room, going to the front desk and demanded my money back! The room was very, very nasty and dirty. It smelled moldy and as if it was covered up with cleaning and sanitizing products. There was, some sort of residue running down the wall next to the TV. The wall on the side of the bed and the wall by the door of the room. After sleeping for a couple of hours, I was awakened around 9:47 AM by a call to the hotel phone. I did not answer it. After I return to the hotel from having breakfast, there was a knock on the door and I open the door and was accosted by one of the housekeepers who was a male. He proceeded to tell me that I need to check out because check out was at 11 o’clock. At this time it was Close to 12:30 PM. I tried to relay the fact that I talked to the clerk when I checked in and was told that yes I could take a shuttle at 5:30 PM. There was no mention of any additional charges that I would incur. The man would not let me speak and kept over talking me and harassing me and telling me that’s not how it goes check out is at 11 o’clock. You need to go you need to go so I proceeded to tell him I will be leaving. I will pack my things and get out of there. Closed the door and proceeded to pack my belongings and there was a another knock on the door shortly there after. At this time I was using the bathroom and whoever was at the door was another mail and he proceeded to call my name. I didn’t respond the first time and then he came back a couple minutes later and I said I’m in the bathroom. I will be leaving as soon as I finish. After about 10 minutes I got my things and walked to the front desk to check out. I spoke with the mail at the front desk and told him my concerns and he didn’t seem to care too much that I was harassed by the May housekeeper. I tried to explain to him. I was told that a 5:30 PM shuttle was fine and was not given any resistance or told that that’s not possible. He shrugged me off and I proceeded to wait for the shuttle. At that time there was still Nothing about being charged anything extra. Upon my arrival at the airport, I get a notification that my debit card is overdrawn because there was a charge from quality Inn in the amount of $115.14. I was totally baffled! I will be disputing this charge. There is no way that I would have ever paid this much to stay at this rundown quality Inn. I am very very upset and will be calling corporate email incorporate and anybody else who will listen. These charges were not...