Residence Inn by Marriott Chicago Oak Brook — Hotel in Oak Brook

Our room was clean when we checked in. Eddie, the man at the front desk in the evening is wonderful and very helpful. He really went out of his way for us as much as he could. The pots and pans were very nice, good quality stainless steel which was very nice. |The ice maker kicks out 7 cubes every two hours so if you want ice your first night, ask the front desk. We did and Eddie was happy to get me plenty of ice to get us through until the ice maker caught up. |I requested a general handicapped accessible room (my husband is disabled) and stressed that we did not need a roll in shower when I booked the room. When we arrived we were told our room wasn’t ready (it was before check in time so we were willing to wait until check in time), and that we were booked into a room with a roll in shower. The woman said the previous guest had just checked out (it was several hours past check out time so they should have been told to leave if the staff knew another guest would need that room) and that we had to have that room since it had a roll in shower. I told her again that we did not need a roll in shower, just a general handicapped accessible suit and that my husband would be fine in the bathroom with just grab bars. She told me I had to have the room with the roll in shower because another staff member had booked it that way and there was nothing she could do. We waited until after check in time and were told that our room was still not ready and we’d have to continue to wait. It had been over an hour and was now past check in time. This was NOT acceptable. If a guest is expected to be booked into a room and that is the only room they are allowed to have then the previous guest in the room needs to be told they have to check out by check out time. There is no reason that we should have had to wait well past check in time to get settled into our room. We should have been reimbursed points for that since we were not able to use our room through no fault of ours. |My daughter asked the woman why we HAD to have that particular room and was informed again that it was because it had a roll in shower and the room was booked that way and there was nothing she could do and we HAD to have THAT room, we could not have any other room. My daughter explained again that we didn’t need a roll in shower and asked why we had to have THAT room, and that we would be perfectly happy with a different room that was ready. She then asked if my husband could step in and out of a bathtub and my daughter said he could. I had already told the woman this. She finally got us into a room that was a general handicapped room, with a regular tub, which is what I had requested both when I booked the room and when I attempted to check in. |The living room curtains were on an automated system to open and close them from a switch in the wall, but the track was broken and the curtain hung limply at one end. We were not able to operate the system because of this so were not able to open or close the drapes. The room was very dark for our entire stay because the lights in the room are not very bright and we were unable to open the curtains. ||The tub had a wall mounted shower bench and of course it was at the opposite end of the tub from the shower head. The shower head did reach to the shower bench but there was no place to attach it to let go of it once you had it to that end. So it had to be set on the floor if the tub for soaping up, causing water to go everywhere. The shower gel, shampoo and conditioner bottles were mounted on the wall so that they’d be behind the head of anyone sitting on the bench, rendering them useless for anyone sitting on the bench. I gave it a try to see how hard they would be for my disabled husband to use from the bench. It was difficult to reach the two on the ends and impossible to reach the one in the center end to dispense product onto the hand. Since you can't see them, you have to guess which one you’re using. I ended up washing my hair with shower gel and my body with shampoo because I mixed them up. Even if they were directly in front of me, I’d have had a hard time reading them because the lettering is in pale green on darker green background. Anyone with the least degree of nearsightedness will not get able to read them. I asked at the front desk and Eddie very kindly gave me a bar of soap and bottle of shampoo so my husband could set them on the bench next to him and do his shower independently.||The bed frame in the room was broken and we spent the first night sleeping with our feet elevated higher than our heads because the mattress would sink down to the floor at the head end because the frame did not support it as it had become separated and required soldering or spot welding. There was no box spring. Just a fabric covered piece of plywood the was supposed to be a box spring resting on a thin, metal box frame. |I requested a repair and it was repaired before our next night so sleeping was better, although that plywood piece liked to slide around on the metal frame underneath. It was fine if we kept still in the bed. |The pillows are TERRIBLE. They are stuffed with large lumps of rubber foam. So uncomfortable, especially since I'm used to using a down pillow. The pillows were smaller too so it was not possible to sit up against the headboard to read in bed. Trying to do this also resulted in the mattress sliding around on the metal bed frame. ||The parking lot has no curb cuts near any of the handicapped parking spots so I had to wheel my husband against traffic from our parking spot to the front door every day. The third night we were there was New Years Eve and when we got hack to our room every handicapped parking spot had been taken. I had to pull partially into a regular parking spot, transfer my husband to his chair and then wheel him past several parking spots to find a curb cut and leave him on the sidewalk in the cold while I then went back to the car to pull it into the parking spot. It was the last available spot that wasn’t on the other side of a median, which would have been even more difficult to maneuver around. We had to pay for parking and it was substandard for anyone who uses a wheelchair or other device for mobility. The curbs are too high to tilt a wheelchair back to get up onto the safety of the sidewalk and there are no cuts in them to wheel a wheelchair up on to the sidewalk. |Our final night there I noticed the air vent had been unscrewed from the wall. It had not been like that earlier. I have no idea how it happened but it creeped me out a little and I was glad to leave.||The room layout is not the best. The light switch for the bathroom is across the hall from the bathroom door so you have to turn on the light and then walk to the bathroom. It's just a few steps but since the light from the bathroom shines directly onto the bed, it wakes up anyone in the bed when someone else has to use the bathroom during the night. If you travel with someone who gets up frequently to use the bathroom during the night, bring a sleeping mask or you'll be woken...

I love Marriott's Residence Inn offering. It's similiar to staying at a luxury apartment, but for a much cheaper rate than you'd pay at most places. The cornerish room (edge middle room between two corner rooms) they gave me looked to be recently remodeled. It looks like everything in the building is recently renovated so things for the most part seem newish. No cobwebs or dust in sight (aside from the top of the fridge being a bit dusty, but alas I don't think 6'+ housekeepers are common.) Rooms are equipped with dishwashers, full size electric ovens (some don't have an oven so you have to request it,) a toaster, microwave & a fridge. They feature stand-in showers & low height toilets. Pretty much everything in the rooms is low height which is perfect, especially for those with disabilities. The Residence Inn offers a free all you can eat breakfast buffet from 6:30 am to 9:00 am Monday thru Friday & from 7:00 am to 10:00 am on weekends. There is a pool, jacuzzi, laundry room & gym. It also has a small "marketplace" next to the front desk that consists of a few items you can grab like soda, TV dinners & snacks along with personal care items. Since the hotel is small, all of the amenities are scaled to match. This means things like the marketplace & breakfast buffet have nowhere near the selection of other busier Residence Inns like the one in downtown Phoenix which also includes things like salisbury steak, chinese food & whatever they felt like cooking for breakfast alongside the standard waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, meats, cereal, etc. The breakfast here is a measly eggs (cage free,) bacon, muffins (jalapeno cheddar biscuits in muffin form so not sweet dessert muffins,) & oatmeal. Even though the breakfast ends at a certain time they do have mini fridges that have fat free milk & yogurt along with coffee/water dispensers that are always available (they shutdown the juice dispenser once breakfast closes.)

There are several cons though. My room preferences were completely ignored when they assigned the room. Since the edge room they assigned me was on a lower level & near the exit...hearing the frequent slamming of the exit door as people took the stairs was not ideal. Speaking of doors...my door was defective & wouldn't close all of the way naturally so I had to push it until it clicked every single time otherwise anyone could literally just push the door open. The view was also terrible as it overlooked the parking lot & had trees, street lights, etc. blocking the window. The ice maker on the fridge was way too loud. It produces ice at a super slow pace & the buzzer seems to go off every 30 minutes or so. When the ice is done it makes a loud bang almost like a bomb went off as it dispenses the ice into the bucket. The second con is the lack of in-house food options. Third is that there's no shuttle that'll take you to nearby places which is a missed opportunity to earn a lot of extra business from traveling professionals & tourists. For some reason there were no baking pans even though my room had an oven although they did have utensils, plates, pots, etc. The rooms are also not as soundproof as they should be... with me being able to hear people walking outside in a hallway as well as them coming in going from their rooms. I also occasionally heard my neighbors upstairs & adjacent to me moving around or snoring all of which is concerning as it leaves me wondering how much they heard from my room? For a place geared towards business...privacy should be a priority. There was also whisper levels of strange electrical noises that seems to have come from the minisplit HVAC system.

I was told house keeping cleans every other day, but they didn't touch my room for the first four days even though I saw them in the hallway. It took me sitting my overflowing trash cans outside of my door for them to go inside & clean the room. Even then they didn't actually clean anything, moreso just replaced the towels as well as made the bed after taking out the trash (of which the recycle bin was returned with large bits...

My daughter almost died two weeks ago from asthma she was in the hospital for 2 weeks

All she wanted to do was come relax with a few friends and all I wanted to do was make this possible at where I thought would be the best place to take her but no, the absolute worst experience of my life. The manager is rude, very unapproachable and condescending. He is unwilling to tend to the needs of his guests. He stated to me that his priority was the guests that stay for week's at a time. No one told me you couldn't have parties there, even though I related several times during booking that I was having a party. I understand it's rules and regulations everyone has to follow. But delivery is everything!!! He made my children and guest uncomfortable. I had 20 minutes to make a decision if I wanted to leave or stay. Mind you I never stated I wanted to leave so I couldn't understand why that came up. Then I was told my guest had a few minutes to leave or the police would be called. The party had 10 little kids mostly little girls. All under 9 year's of age. How was I expected to take swim suites off and put regular clothes and pack in such a short time. The police was threatened if I didn't hurry up between the time of being told my guest couldn't swim, up until me getting back to my suite. All im saying is the websites should state the rules so we don't have to deal with people in customer service who really aren't interested in customer service. He stated he has been with the company for 8 year's I would think he would have the common courtesy to know that all guest matter. I come a few times a year throughout the birthdays in my family and this is the second time I've been treated nasty. The pool had no clean towels the laundry /house keeping attendant yelled at my daughter because the pool door got stuck and she needed help. He yelled would you wait im busy!!!!!! I've just NEVER seen customer service like this in my life. The ONLY bright side to this visit was the upfront attendant "Darlene Gonzalez" She has a bright ENERGY and smile. She apologized for my distress even though it was nothing she could do about it , she was pleasant and approachable.. That's so important these OMG days. The manager even stated that he was going to scold her for not telling me all the rules when in all honesty the rules weren't the issue it was the way he handled it. He talks to people with hands and is aggressive and thinks its ok to tell guest's he's in charge and can scold people. The kitchen staff was pleasant as well bright smiles and very accommodating THANKS for that we appreciate it. I won't be back which is unfortunate!! But I think EVERYONE needs a...