Homewood Suites by Hilton Chicago-Lincolnshire — Hotel in Lincolnshire

We had a 3-night stay with family of 6 people including 2 kids and 2 grandparents on a family vacation trip at the beginning of July. We stayed at the 2-bedroom 2-bath suite, which is the biggest suite in the property. We recently had great experiences with Homewood brand and thought to switch to start using Homewood properties for all our future travels, because their spacious 1-/2-bedroom suites that are really great for family, you have the extra living room space and the separate bedroom(s) for the convenience and spaces needed for the family to stay together. However, this stay at Lincolnshire property definitely changed our mind.||||The Incident||Let me talk about the problem we had there first and then I can give you my normal review contents. I am again trying to be as objective as possible. We were arriving on Saturday after a full day of driving, I checked in on the app around 1:30pm in the afternoon as I always do, and arrived at the hotel around 6:30pm, and I asked a couple of extra keys from the front desk because I know the Hilton digital key does not always work (which I verified it didn’t work well at this property). We went out for dinner and came back around 9pm, after putting the kids to bed, the grandparents are in bed, we took showers and were ready to go to bed. We smelled urination in the bedroom, searched around for quite some time and finally figured out it was from the carpet area in between the two beds. Not sure if it was from kids before or from pets before (this property is known to have a LOT of pets staying, go read other reviews). ||||It was almost 11pm and we just couldn’t sleep at all (we tried but the smell was too strong). It is hard to believe the hotel room service/cleaning staff didn’t smell it and didn’t clean it before letting the next guests check into this room. We then got up and went to the front desk, I explained and asked to switch to a different room. Then the surprise started, the front desk person first questioned why we didn’t tell them earlier and said we checked in at 1:30pm and gave us the face that we did something suspicious. At 1:30pm we were still 300 miles away, he then saw we actually arrived around 6:30pm (I am glad I asked for the extra keys when we arrived, otherwise I couldn’t prove we arrived at that time, that’s a lesson learned for sure and will need to make sure I do that every single time in the future so I can prove when I arrive at a property.). ||||He then told us there is not a single room left (which I really doubted) that he could switch us to, which was still okay, however the next couple of sentences shocked me. He said we could check out now (after 11pm already) and find somewhere else, I said it is too late and we have young kids and older grandparents, he then said “it is never too late!” We were stunned and speechless for a whole minute!! We were helpless and couldn’t do anything else, we asked if he could give us some cleaning spray and he said they don’t have, and then we asked for several shower towels and went back to the room to cover the carpet, and back to the bed…… What a night of not sleeping! ||||The next morning, around 8:30am, we went to the front desk again (he asked us to come back in the morning) and they already had the new suite ready for us and we saw there was a written note on the desk with our old and new room numbers on it. Well, I cannot confirm there was no guest checking out early Sunday morning and there was no room cleaning done early Sunday morning, but again I really doubted there wasn’t any room available 9 hours earlier. The rest of our stay was okay, no additional event or drama!||||Well, I don’t have to tell you how we feel about this property now. Is this really a Hilton property? Asking your guest to check out at 11pm on a Saturday night to find somewhere else to stay due to the hotel’s own problem??!! Stunning! ||||Following is my normal property review content. ||||Location and Parking||The hotel is next to an exit off I-94 in the north suburban of Chicago, so it is kind convenient to go anywhere. There isn’t much in the close by area though, the closest restaurants and centers are several miles away. It is not inconvenient, but you would need to drive to everything else you needed. There were always spaces in the parking lot, which is good. We picked here because it is close to friends and family we are visiting. Going to Chicago downtown from here took about an hour on the Sunday we were there. You would need a reason to stay here, if you are just a tourist visiting Chicago, you wouldn’t stay here for sure. ||||Facility and Room||The facility looks much older than what some sources stated it was built in 2005 (it might be last renovated in 2005). Most Homewood properties we saw in other locations are fairly new, this might be a conversion from an older property. You can tell there have been newer renovations especially in the lobby area. ||||We had a two-bedroom suite, which is very spacious comparing to a one-bedroom suite we had before and definitely much bigger than a standard hotel room. There are very few two-bedroom suites at this property as when we checked in there was only one available, and with the incident happened we were told there was none others available. The suite has kitchen area where you can actually cook if you want, it has dishwasher, full size refrigerator, full size microwave, etc. Also, there are two bathrooms for this suite, which was very nice so the grandparents could have their own bathroom. The living room and each of the two bedrooms each has its own TV, so there are 3 TVs in this suite, which is good as our kids could watch something different while we watched other programs.||||There was no switch/control for the exhaust fan in the bathrooms, didn’t figure out how that works. The light switches, outlets, things in the rooms and bathrooms, etc. are all very old from decades ago, they appeared all functioning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were not. Beds were comfortable and no other issues in the room. In general, we wouldn't pick old properties like this regardless. ||||We noticed a lot of other reviews complained about the pets they encountered at this property. We didn’t encounter any pet here, of course except the incident, which might be caused by a pet earlier or something. This is a “pet friendly” property, just keep that in mind when you book. ||||Hot Breakfast||Hot breakfast is definitely a plus when you have young kids and grandparents, so you don’t need to look for breakfast every morning. This hotel has the typical very simple “hot breakfast” that Hilton offers at lower hotel star level. We thought Homewood brand has a little better “hot breakfast”, which was not the case here. Everything was premade and reheated from frozen to be served and there were only two or three “hot” items. Nothing’s fresh, very simple things, so set up your expectations before you go. The breakfast area was not crowded in the mornings for the 3 days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) we were there in July, which was good.||||Staff||Hotel staffs are okay in general, nothing special. The front desk normally did not have anyone there except in the morning, for other times during the day you have to stand there for several minutes for someone to show up. Didn’t really encountered other staffs except the incident described earlier. ||||Overall||This is a little bit more expensive hotel comparing with other hotels in the area, but with the spacious suite it is worth the extra money spent IF you do not encounter any incident. We probably would not stay here again as we won’t want to try to find another hotel at...

I needed a place to stay on a last minute trip to the Chicagoland area. I usually stay at a competing hotel a bit closer to my end destination, yet this time they were sold out. A friend recommended Homewood Suites by Hilton Chicago-Lincolnshire, I called and got Natalie Lagori, who was both professional and accommodating to my needs for a late check in. To my surprise, as I'm walking up to the counter, Noel Anama welcomed me using my first name, YET I HADN'T INTRODUCED MYSELF YET! ! ! Impressive! He made the check in a breeze and I was up in the room in no time. The rooms are clean, modern and well equipped with a cold refrigerator (this has been a problem at some Suite hotels), and crisp, sheets and pillowcases (this is a 'thing' of mine.)

Of all the things that could go wrong when you need all the sleep you can get in 5 hours ... the "Low Battery Chirp" for the smoke detector started at 4am. I was able to suppress it till morning. I mentioned it to the Morning Crew member Andres Galves when I left for my meeting. Upon returning, I checked with the Front Desk about the Smoke Detector Issue and Andres had the solution already remedied.

The people at the front desk not only give a pleasant greeting when coming and going, but they go the extra step to be sure any question has a thorough answer or solution. Even the staff that takes care of the breakfast station say hello or Good Morning every day.

I am impressed with the clean hallways and rooms and service of a hotel that accepts pets - as well as the staff mentioned above.

Although this hotel is a little farther from the people and Doctors I'm here to see, I will make this my destination as this hotel experience is worth the extra few minutes of travel.

Thank you: Natalie, Noel, Andres and the Breakfast...

Overall, a great stay. The rooms were spacious and it was nice having a kitchen w a microwave, small stovetop, pans, silverware and dishes. (No oven). Great water pressure and water was always hot! Beds and couch were comfortable and there were extra pillows for those who need 20 to sleep! (Me!)

We were there for Navy graduation and it was about 10-15 min drive to get there. Great shopping and restaurants within 5-7 mins of the hotel. (Not much super super close)

I can’t say enough about Nina (usually works night shift at the front desk) but I saw her during the day on Saturday. She truly went above and beyond for our group. I had misplaced my purse, with all my belongings. Nina was informed by another guest who found it, and Nina took every step possible trying to track me down…. Down to asking people if they knew someone w my last name….as I was not on the reservation in the room. All my cash, cards, medications and belongings were there. I was very lucky and again, I can’t thank her enough for saving me from a catastrophic disaster.

Breakfast was great, many options for hot and cold breakfast.

Swimming pool was open until 10pm and enjoyable. Not over crowded even on a night the hotel was fully booked.

My only complaint…. Our AC Unit had frozen up. Maintenance was there within 20 mins of letting Nina know, but unfortunately, it didn’t get fixed, so it was stuffy and slightly uncomfortable in our room. We were leaving the next day, so we opted not to ask for a new room.

I would stay here again if I was ever in the area, and I would highly recommend the hotel. The property was nice, clean, and spacious…but, above all else, I truly can’t say enough for honest, genuine employees (for me, that was Nina) who go above and beyond for...