I spent a night here on business. The place is very functional and reasonably priced but absolutely unimpressive. It just felt like I was living in the 70’s again with older everything… linens, TV, décor, furniture. I’d just plain rather stay at a more inspiring place, so probably wouldn’t return.

Room was clean, staff was friendly, good value for the money. If you are planning on commuting into downtown the Naperville Metra station is about 5 minutes away. It takes about 40 minutes to get to Union Station and then if you're going to the North Side you can tack on another 35-45 minutes so while the public transit is nice you're going to spend a significant part of your day on subs/trains staying this far out from Chicago.

I stayed with Candlewood Suites in Warrenville, IL for approximately 5 months while I trained for a job. During this time, I received a special room rate due to an arrangement that Candlewood had with my employer. I was told upon checking in that if I stay for less than 31 days, I would be charged taxes on the room. Knowing this, I made sure to stay the required amount of time to avoid taxes. Then, toward the end of the 5 months, I decided to check out of the hotel for a week, while I went on vacation in another state. Two weeks after I returned from vacation, I lost my job. I saw no value in staying in a room in a city I no longer have business in 7 hours away from my real home, so I went to check out. I accepted that I would be required to pay taxes as I had only been here 2 weeks or so since my vacation, and they reminded me of this fact. THEN they told me, in addition to taxes, checking out prior to 31 days would mean losing my discounted rate and be expected to pay the standard rate (more than double what I was already paying) for every night I had been there!

I told them that I was not ever made aware of this policy and asked them to show me where I had signed something acknowledging this. They told me it was mentioned to me verbally. They LIE.

I explained that I had lost my job, and I cannot afford to pay double. AND if they let me out of it, they could easily rent out the room at a much much much higher rate as they were solidly booked with July being there busiest season. Win-win situation (I thought). They refused and told me they were a business and I was verbally told of the policy.

The charge was already on my card for the full month, and they refused to refund any portion. So I left the hotel, with a room that was technically paid for thru the rest of the month, yet, I would not be utilizing it. Approximately a week later, the thought occurred to me to call my room phone, and low and behold, someone answered the phone. They had actually sold the room that I had paid for!

Of course, this situation will not apply to everyone, and my 5 month stay did have other pros and cons worth mentioning:

The Good:
-Free use of washers/dryers.

-24-hour front desk

-Stephanie (front desk) was really nice, very approachable.

-Hotel is located in a safe area.

-Adequate parking

-Free access to movie library. (Selection is somewhat small, all within a cabinet behind the front desk, and choices are not the greatest or necessarily NEW...but it is FREE.)

-Free cookies often at the front desk...and they are delicious. =)

-One wing of the hotel smells reallly good.

-Free Internet


The Bad:
-Water problems - This occurred at least 5 times throughout my stay. There would be either incredibly low water pressure (barely a trickle) OR no hot water, etc.

-Fire Alarm testing - While I appreciate a safe hotel, they posted a notice saying they'd be testing alarms during business hours. This is great since they cater to business people. So on the day of the test, I assume the test was conducted as scheduled and by 7 pm or so, I'd be safe to take a nap. Nope. I awake to the loudest alarm I've heard in my life. It is positioned directly over the bed. I'm pretty sure I suffered hearing damage. Seriously. But I have no worries whatsoever that I'll die in a Candlewood Suites hotel fire. =)

-One wing of the hotel smells like mold/mildew

-At least 2 floors of the hotel during my stay ALWAYS smelled like Indian food. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper...didn't matter. Indian food.

-The heat/AC controls were problematic. Unit would kick off automatically even though I had it set not too. I would often wake up sweating or freezing.

-While they were free, there were only 5 or 6 washer/dryers available. Which is not nearly enough for the 120 (?) rooms available. One person could (and would) take up 3 or 4 of the available washers/dryers and just leave there stuff in there for HOURS....

-Workout Center - very limited, very outdated. It is actually joined to the laundry area and for some reason, ALWAYS feels like a sauna. I don't mean you work up a sweat exercising, I mean, when you first walk in. I am certain there were times when that area was at least 85 degrees.

- Garbage Disposal - in every room I tried, never seemed to work properly, always smelled. Ick.

-Loud Appliances - May not be an issue in the 1-bedrooms since the room is separate, but I stayed in the studio suite and the appliances often kept me awake at night.

-Charges - In addition to my big issue explained at the top of this review, I had numerous other issues with charges during my stay. They'd "authorize" my credit card for some random amount, promising me it would come off the card eventually but it never did. These "authorizations" were fairly substantial in amount $43.52, $78.31, etc....Once they even ran my card twice ($960!) , charging me both times. Keep a close eye on your account!

Front desk staff was friendly when I checked in. The parking lot and exterior were in good shape. Candlewood cupboard had adequate snacks and reasonalbe prices. the room was very clean. The internet was pretty slow, and the light next to the bed did not work. The desk clerk offered to give me a different room due to the light, but I declined that. Fridge worked fine. I didn't use any other other appliances. Overall, an older hotel but pretty well maintained and not a bad price.