I did not think this place was so bad. Despite the July review of this property, I reserved a king bed room, double occupancy, for two nights September 28-29 for $62 per night. This is the third Exel Inn (the other two being Milwaukee north and Milwaukee south) that I've stayed at over about ten years so my experience with its consistency, for adequate facilities at a modest price, encouraged me to give this place a try. This Prospect Heights property is the nicest of the three that I've seen. The hallways smell a little like cigarette smoke. The room smelled fine.
Wife and I like firmer beds and slept well. We had a room on the second floor facing away from Burger King (out in front). It seemed plenty clean to me. The windows open and it was a comfortable quiet location.
Bathroom seemed plenty clean too. No reluctance going in there.
On first entry, a light bulb in one of the lamps next to the bed popped. I immediately swapped it with a light bulb from another lamp in the room that I wasn't going to use as much so I forgot about it so much that I never told the management.
Mini fridges are available for a fee.
The breakfast was kind of meager. But for $62 per night what else can you ask for around here? bagels, toast, muffins, juice, coffee. There was no cereal like other Exel Inns might have. There was no butter either, just a margarine like substance, peanut butter, jelly and cream cheese. The juice comes from concentrate. On our second morning, the orange juice wasn't mixed very well. It tasted like a skim milk version of orange juice. yecchh.
Milwaukee Ave has a center divider so that one cannot turn left out of the driveway or left into the driveway. If you want to turn left onto Milwaukee Ave from the hotel, it can be a bit tricky finding a place to do a U-turn. Wilcox, Wilson or whatever that main road was getting to I-294 has a bunch of construction going on it just to the east of I-294 at the moment, constricting down to a single lane each way with sometimes heavy slow traffic.
The people at the front desk seemed plenty competent and friendly.
We'd stay here again if we had to be in this part of town again.