We recently stayed at the Holiday Inn Chicago North Shore in Skokie, IL, and unfortunately, our experience was far below expectations. The property was consistently dirty, with trash overflowing from bins throughout the interior of the hotel both morning and night. A strong, persistent smell of urine lingered in the hallway outside our second-floor room for the entire weekend.
Due to the way each room’s air conditioning unit is vented into the building, the indoor common areas were uncomfortably hot—especially surprising for a hotel. This may have even contributed to the building’s fire alarms going off twice in the middle of the night (around 2 a.m.) on consecutive days, forcing all guests to evacuate until cleared by the Skokie Fire Department.
The hotel’s gift shop was shockingly overpriced. Thankfully, there's a Walgreens nearby for any basic needs.
Adding to the frustration, a staff member walked through our hallway knocking on doors—twice—to ask if guests planned to check out on time. This occurred once at 9:45 a.m. and again at 11 a.m., despite the official checkout time being 12 noon. It felt very intrusive and was conducive to the overall lack of hospitality experience throughout our stay.
Overall, we were very disappointed by the conditions and management of this property. I would not recommend this hotel to others and will be choosing different accommodations next time we visit the area.