Holiday Inn Gurnee Convention Center

I love this actual hotel. I love the location of this hotel for the business that I am in. I have never had worse service in my entire life.
No one returns phone calls in the catering and sales department. Ingrid the previous catering sales manager never returned emails or phone calls. She was finally let go.
I left 3 messages in voice mail for Morgan, I then left a fourth message with the front desk on a Saturday in case she her voice mail wasn’t working. She never called me. I called on Monday and got her on the phone and she admitted that she got my voice mails and never called back. She had company name and contact name wrong in her computer system and we have been doing business there for 2 years. I inquired about two dates that my company wanted to host at her hotel and she asked me if she could check on them and call me in 15 minutes, She never called back. I called her 2 days later and she said she would email me available dates for my event since we had some wiggle room. It is 2 days later and I still haven’t heard from her.
I got upset and called the General Manager Steven. At 9:00 a.m. he was in a meeting. I never got a phone call back. It is 5:05 and the front desk manager said everyone has gone home for the day.
The front desk manager is supposed to be calling the general manager on his cell phone and will get back to me. I am not optimistic.

We had our annual auction to benefit the special needs kids at the school I work at, in early May. Over 400 people. We had it there for the first time last year and a lot of things went wrong. This year the kitchen and banquet staff was completely revamped, and we were promised that things would be better, so it was decided to give them another try. We sampled different salads, chicken entrees, vegetables and desserts in advance and made our choices.
I must say, the venue is beautiful and perfect for the amount of space we needed. That is the only positive.
Things started out badly when they ran out of appetizers. Chips were not being refilled, yet there was a huge bowl of guacamole. Many people never got the chance to even have any at all. We were promised three different bar stations, and they only provided two, with only one bartender at each station. There were constant lines the whole night, with the wait sometimes 20 minutes long in line. When the management was told we were promised three bars, they did nothing to fix the problem. There were not enough servers to provide for all of the people that were there. Some people were just getting their salads as others had already finished their meals. There was not enough salad dressing to go around the whole table, and when the server was told we needed more, they never brought any more out. Chicken served was sometimes pink, and when it was sent back to the kitchen, you never received it back again. The vegetables we sampled included asparagus, zucchini and carrots. We received the standard broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. The mashed potatoes we sampled were made with fresh potatoes. We were served boxed potatoes.
Needless to say, the ladies in charge of the event complained when it was time to write the final check. Guess what? The Holiday Inn did not take a single cent off the original agreed-​upon price. So guess what? We won’t be back.
Hopefully you took the time to read this whole review, so you won’t have to go through the same disappointment we had.

I never expected to find anything like this in Gurnee. It really is a decent convention center out in the far suburbs. There meeting rooms are big as is the concourse.

The lady and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Gurnee just because. When we walked into the lobby, we noticed the bar right away and figured we would have a few drinks before we went to dinner. Well, the bartender, Jonathan was AWESOME, and I don’t give that compliment our very much being that this is what I have done for twenty plus years. This guy is good. Personable, funny and for a brief period, made us reconsider where we ate. This is currently a very great experience for us.

If you are looking for a comfortable place to stay the night this hotel has great comfortable rooms. If you are looking for an evening hanging at the bar with friends and having a meal it is not where you should go.
It seems like they are trying to create an atmosphere to hang out in, but they don’t do a very good job at providing the services. Other places like indigo do a much better job at providing bar service lounging areas games and a social atmosphere.
We have stayed here half a dozen times or so and the bar always runs out of some standard items and service is slow. Bottom line, great place to get a great nights sleep and it is located conveniently close to the mall.

Great location and kid friendly but not clean at all. Missing basics in the room like soap and washcloths. Received a text after checking in to find out how the room looked. I responded the room was not clean. They responded that someone would follow up but no one did.

Moldy bathroom and overcrowded. The only saving grace was the free shuttle to great America.

My husband and I stayed here for Valentine’s day/​night for an event for 95 wiil rock. Everything in that hotel was nice. The bathroom was a bit small but it was still really nice. The only problem we had was that we could hear people through the walls. I’m sure it was only loud because everyone had been drinking from the event so it didn’t bother us too much. But that’s the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Very nice, clean and great staff.

Our wedding guests stayed at the Holiday Inn Gurnee last year and we had a pretty good experience. The hotel is great and was very hospitable to our guests. The only downside is that they need to work on their communication.
We stopped in unannounced and one of the managers gave us the overview of the hotel and wedding booking. He told us we’d need to contact the room manager on Monday. We called a bunch and never got her and ended up emailing her. She eventually responded and we booked a block. We also booked a honeymoon suite, of which there are two. The manager also told us they had a shuttle but it only goes to the mall. They said they had contacts to help us book guest transportation to/​from the reception, but that didn’t seem to pan out. They gave us the number for a shuttle company but their rates weren’t competitive and we went somewhere else.
After that, we had various times we tried to email the manager about our block and never seemed to get a response. She seemed to always be out. We started calling instead and it was about ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ whether we got someone who could help us. In the beginning, we would often get her voicemail or an assistant that would tell us to talk to the manager, who we could never find. Later on, we started getting an assistant every time who was able to access our block of rooms. They were also supposed to send us a monthly email so that we could get updates on the block, but they never did. Fortunately, they let us make the initial block quite large so we didn’t really ever have a problem.
Once the wedding weekend came, everyone was on the same floor and the rooms were great. They passed out bags for our guests and let us hang out in the lobby socializing pretty late a few nights. Our guests were able to go to the mall for last minute stuff. It worked out really well and we were very happy with the experience.

LAZY, lame and unproductive group of peoples work as a staff here. Tried to call them for 1 week to book banquet hall. No response. Tried to call there reservation dept and ask for manager. Was put on hold for 10 – 15 mins 2 times in same day by some girl name Erika. Then someone name Steve came on line and was so rude that he hung up on me. Hope the real manager get the time to read the review and see his $ 5000 worth of buisness walking somewhere else…

I’ve stayed here on two separate occasions. Great restaurant, the management let us have an all day business meeting and class without making us feel unwelcome in the breakfast area.
The rooms are clean and being an IHG gold i got a fridge and microwave.
IHG are a little pricey, but this was the best location for several of the business things that I had to do.

If I could give this hotel negative stars I would! We stayed here for a group wedding booking, so at least we weren’t at the hotel much at all. The rooms weren’t clean, no general upkeep to speak of and the guests the hotel attracts were low class to say the least. The breakfast was terrible! We sat down to eat, took one look at the haphazard faux breakfast item substitutes and left due to our sudden loss of an appetite.

I drive by this hotel all the time and finally decided to book a night just as a mini getaway. It’s a fairly large hotel since it contains a convention center for meetings and such. The lobby is quite spacious too and there is a restaurant/​bar inside as well. The staff are very very friendly and accommodating. The room is average sized; with a desk and chair besides the bed. The bathroom is quite nice too, the only negative part was that the hair drier could use a cleaning and have a «cold» setting. The location is perfect, right on Grand Avenue across from Gurnee mills and right by the highway ramp. This is a great place if you need a night or two to relax or just rest before that big trip.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good a stay I had at this Holiday Inn. I’m generally not a fan of this chain, but it really is pretty much the nicest hotel in Gurnee. I was nervous, but this place met the mark and then some. The lobby was surprisingly grandiose with a wide open space, high ceilings, a nice seating area, a bar, and café. The customer service rep was very, very nice – checked me in quickly and politely. The room was clean, modern, and clearly updated in the last year or two. The windows to the interior rooms look out over the lobby – which is kind of odd – but not a huge deal. If you’re looking for natural light, be sure to ask for an exterior-​facing room. But my wife and I were pleased. This hotel is right across the street from Gurnee Mills, so if you want to do some shopping it’ll take you less than 3 minutes to get there. Should I ever need to stay over in Gurnee again, this hotel will be my first choice. Beware of the prices in the café! If you don’t get the buffet a small, pre-​packaged bowl of cereal will run you $ 6 and the milk to go with it is another $ 6. So either be ready to eat the breakfast buffet or bring your own breakfast. There is a roomy fridge and small microwave in the room.

We stopped at the restaurant. was empty. but the service was great [linda] and the food was great. I had an Indian dish that was fantastic.
took some time to find the restaurant. guys at the front desk of the hotel were not at all helpful.

We were worried about staying anywhere in gurnee because of all the bad reviews at this and other hotels. we took a chance and picked this holiday inn. we were happy with our stay. only thing that disappointed us was that they were out of king bed rooms, so me and my husband had to get a room with 2 beds. our room was clean and the beds were comfy. would have liked to have a little fridge for our pop, but not a deal breaker. overall we were happy with our stay.

Stayed here for exam review course.
Good: B fast lady was nice.
Awful:
Flea vs bed bug bites on arms and legs. I would’ve checked out if it weren’t for the course

We booked an overnight stay at the Holiday Inn this past weekend. That way, we were able to go to Six Flags for two days. Our expectations were not met, and staff were not courteous at all.
We arrived at 9am to retrieve our two day passes to the park. For some reason they were not ready and we were not taken to the park until 11am. Nearly two hours waiting for tickets and our shuttle was a bit much for my liking.
The room was very nice and clean, so we had no complaints there. The television however appeared to be broken as the color kept going in and out and there was a bright white line across the screen while the television was on.
The following morning, I woke up to see a piece of paper half-​way shoved under our door. It was our express check-​out paper work. Upon looking at it, the wrong credit card was charged. I went downstairs to inquire about the matter. Tim, the overnight staff was rather ignorant of his job duties and clearly did not want to deal with hotel guests. He proceeded to tell me that the original card ran was declined and he attempted to place the cost of the room on the second charge card, which was declined. He then told me «What are we going to do about this?»
First off, the first card ran DID go through and the amount of the room was already deducted from the account. The second card was placed on file for incidentials only.
I was asked if I wanted the first card ran again and I said no, because it wasn’t my card and that the cardholder should be the one to authorize that. I let Tim know that I would be back within a few minutes. When myself and the cardholder returned, Tim had left for the day.
We spoke to another staff person who assured us that the proper card was ran and that there were no issues. She said that Tim does in fact print up the express check-​out paperwork overnight, and he must have entered it incorrectly. She did apologize and comped us breakfast. This may seem bad to say, but I was glad to not pay for breakfast; it was awful. Bacon was harder than the dining room tables, as were the French toast.
Even though the hotel did attempt to make up for the issue we experienced, if staff were trained in their duties to begin with, this wouldn’t have happened. Tim could have been a lot nicer about the matter. I couldn’t even imagine what he would tell a guest whose card may have actually declined! This one experience pretty much ruined my time, because I had to wait until Monday to make sure that my credit card wasn’t charged in addition to my friend’s card.
Needless to say, we will stay at another hotel the next time we visit Six Flags.