Our family of 2 adults, and 3 teens stayed here for a week at the end of April. We paid $199 per night for the first 5 nights, and $279 for the last 2 nights. By my calculations we still saved money (there are hotels that sleep 5 to a room for less per night) because of the buffet breakfast every morning and the evening buffet Mon thru Thurs.
Breakfasts had scrambled cheesy eggs every day, and some mornings included french toast & bacon, or potatoes, biscuits & gravy. There were always two or three kinds of fruit, oatmeal packets, 3 cereals including fruit loops, breads like bagels or muffins, yogurt, cottage cheese, juices, tea, coffee.
The weekday M-Th dinners included a main dish like meatballs, hotdogs, brisket, or baked potato with toppings. Sides varied with combos of mac n cheese, soup, chips and salsa, macaroni salad, potato salad, green salad, green beans, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and more. I thought the weekday meal would be minimal, but it included so many choices and you could return and get more from the nicely organized buffet. Evening beverages included serve yourself wine carafes and beer.
At busy times, you wait at the entry and a staff person seats you. At other times, you seat yourself. We only had to wait for a table once and only for a few minutes. It is a large carpeted room with nice, substantial upholstered chairs and plenty of tables that seat 2-6.
Let me tell you, with 5 of us, even with 3 of us on the small side (me, plus my youngest who are 7th grade twin boys) every meal at a restaurant was about $100, so these meals saved us a lot.
Our room faced the back, looking over roofs, but with views of skyscrapers beyond. We had no problem with too much traffic noise, even with open windows - so glad for the fresh air. There is always a bit of noise in a huge city - to be expected.
The bedroom had a window, two double beds, a tv set on a chest of drawers, a full size closet, and a wide-counter sink with mirror and the entry to the super spacious bathroom. The living area, separated from the bedroom with a door you could close, had another window and another flat screen tv, a double-size sleeper sofa and upholstered chair, a small table with two wood chairs, and a kitchen stocked with 4 serving sets (haha! good thing all 5 of us didn't eat all at once). It was great to bring back leftovers from our restaurant meals, store them in the fridge, and buy extra groceries, and eat them for lunch or our Friday night dinner before departing the next day. More savings! Coffee and tea are provided with a coffee maker in the room, too.
Pros: LOCATION! Set just 2 blocks from the red line which we rode multiple times each day, and Michigan Ave. with its bus lines and things to do. Close by is also Pizzeria Uno and Big Bowl thai/chinese and Weber Grill and we enjoyed all these restaurants. SERVICE and CLEANLINESS: The staff are wonderful, friendly, and the room, lobby, buffet, pool, were always so clean. POOL - my kids swam twice and said the water could be just a tad warmer, but the warmth of the room helped.
Cons: The sofa sleeper mattress was thin and felt wiry. And, there was a door to the next room, so someone could have adjoining rooms. It was safely bolted, however we could easily hear all the neighbors' voices which was a little distracting. We would be watching tv and it sounded like we had guests. I couldn't always hear the actual words they were saying, and thankfully this only happened 2 of the nights so either just those people were louder or the other 5 nights the room was empty. Also, thankfully, all was quiet after 10pm. And, there is no fan in the bathroom. The room's spaciousness meant the good distance from the bathroom door to the bed, where someone might be reading or watching tv, helped, but we made sure to have the tv on if someone was *ahem* using the bathroom, in order to minimize embarrassment.
We used two laptops with the free wireless connection. It was slower in the evening when I suppose so many guests were online at once. One of our computers performed better than the other with the connection. The business center, with free printing of our boarding passes, was great.
All in all, a very satisfying, comfortable stay and it was even better than I'd hoped. We would definitely recommend Homewood Suites.
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