Homewood Suites by Hilton DuBois, PA — Hotel in Sandy Township

First let me state that I travel for work. I'm on the road 342 days out of 365. Hotels are pretty much my home. That be said, I'm sure my rating system is much more strict than say someone who may stay for a night or a weekend. I average somewhere between 5-7 nights every stay, so I have much more attention to detail than most as my list of things to look for only grows. Now, for the review. Homewood Suites is conveniently placed in the city of Dubois. A literal 3 minute walk to the Walmart that sits in front of it. Plenty of options for dine-in or take-out. The traffic around the hotel never seemed to get bad at all; probably a 5 min drive to the nearest interstate; I left the hotel at 8am and returned around 5pm every day and it was never a hassle. The hotel seems pretty recently built, maybe in the past 5 years? Meaning it is fairly modern which is a plus. The staff were all nice and accommodating, check-in fairly simple. The lobby and dining area are huge with spaced out seating, another plus. The breakfast was always hot. The fruit was always FRESH, another plus as a lot of hotels will leave out rotting fruit. Only one elevator seemed to be working at the time which caused long waits at times which, believe me, can become annoying the more days you're staying. The overall public parts of the hotel seemed to be clean. I did not use the public restroom, gym, pool or laundry room during my stay. I used the side door for the majority of my stay here as it was much closer to the elevators than the main door. It became very obvious that this was where guest and staff alike smoked their cigarettes. For one, smoking near an entry door is rude and they should establish a smoking area if they don't. Also, ALL the cigarette butts were on the ground; buy a cigarette receptacle, save the clean up, it's filthy out there. NOW, to the room. Here is where things count the most, especially to me. Yes, I know countless people have spent time in this room before me, but I should not feel like they just left when I arrive. Housekeeping service probably plays the biggest part in ratings for me. When I arrived I noticed a smell coming from the kitchen area that I couldn't pinpoint at first. I thought it may be the sink dispenser still had some left over food in it. However, it turned out that it was coming from the dishwasher, which was filthy and still had dirty dishes in it. I tried to run the cycle and turns out the dishwasher doesn't work. There was soap scum in the corners of the shower. I wasn't made aware at check-in what's the cleaning procedures for the rooms. Since covid many hotels have either changed it to extended stays (over 4 nights) your room will be cleaned every 4 days or you have to request your room be cleaned. My room was never cleaned during my stay, but one day my towels were changed. This was weird because that was the only thing they did. My trash cans weren't emptied and my bed wasn't made. Speaking of trash cans, I don't get why hotels with kitchens don't provide larger trash cans. I had to empty my trash can at least twice everyday because I cook. The details are extremely important and play a big part in my rating. The two star is NOT to make it seem like you shouldn't stay here. It seems to be one of the better choices in this town. But as I stated, I look for many things when considering rating. Overall, the pros are that the staff is great, breakfast is delicious, the rooms have kitchens which is a great thing to have if you'd rather not eat fast food and a great money saver if you're staying awhile. The cons are that housekeeping has to be more attentive, these hotels are home to some of us and we want to feel like its our new home when we first arrive. The smell should've been noticeable and resolved before I checked in and the soap scum just makes it feel I'm getting in a shower right after someone else...that...

Below is a copy of the email sent to general manager of property several days ago- no response!

Our family was in DuBois recently for a family Christmas gathering and stayed at the Homewood Suites on the nights of December 26th & 27th (3 rooms). Other than the initial "check in" where the front desk person was very kind and accommodating, the rest of the experience was unpleasant. My son's family, traveling with a 1 year old, was in an adjoining room. To be honest, I find it difficult to believe that other than clean sheets and towels, any other cleaning had been done to the rooms in quite some time. The room my husband and I stayed in had numerous issues.

Shower had both black and "pink" mold and could not have been cleaned in the last month at least. When I requested kindly the morning after checking in at the front desk if housekeeping may be able to use something a little stronger to try to remove the mold (giving them the benefit of the doubt that anything at all had been used recently), the response was "did you want that done today?". Are you kidding- no, I wanted to have a moldy shower. We returned 10 hours later and nothing was done.

There was food left in our refrigerator from previous guest. Lampshade was broken/crooked in room. Food dried on to picture frame above sofa. Arm on desk chair was broken, quite obviously.

The dishwasher in adjoining room was loaded with dirty dishes that had food caked on them. Had been there for quite some time as well. No sheet was available for the pack and play portable crib used in the room also. We were offered a set of queen sheets...

Probably the most discouraging thing was at breakfast on our first morning, there was quite a bit of cereal on the floor in dining area, apparently where a toddler may have eaten breakfast, I assumed that morning. When we arrived at breakfast on the following morning, the same cereal was still there. The area had not been cleaned in at least 24 hours! So disgusting.

The facility did not measure up to the standards of the Hilton brand or Homewood Suites- many of which we have stayed at in our years of travel. Future stays in the area will be...

The hotel has a lot to offer with the design of suites with kitchenettes and a door separating the bedroom from a living area with pull out sofa. The sofa bed is thin and uncomfortable for probably anyone other than children. There is a pool but no hot tub.

There is a complimentary breakfast with hot foods, such as eggs, meat, potatoes, waffles, fruit, pastries and cereal. The kitchen staff was unaware of food ingredients to inform regarding food allergies, but kind to interact with.

Mostly this hotel received a poor review because of horrible management leading to poor service.The hotel has the capability to be nice, but not until management equips the staff more effectively. The lights in the parking lot were out for both nights we were here. When we checked in, the room was poorly serviced. There was no bedding for the pull-out, a dirty pillow, dust in multiple places, and the previous guest's hair still around the sink. I could not contact the front desk despite multiple calls. Even after going down to it, I was told there was no more bedding and provided with only flat sheets but not blankets. The next day, our room was not serviced when we returned after 5 PM. I notified the front desk before leaving for dinner. She informed me housekeeping was gone. I told her we still needed service, especially for towels and the linens we did not have the night before. When I returned from dinner, the room was still not serviced.

Upon checkout, I told the associate of my experience and he apologized. He told me he would pass my information along to management, but I did not hear anything. As a result of their poor management, I strongly recommend...