Having already spent about 7 weeks in Illinois while on our 5 year, 50 state road trip, our final stop in the state was Litchfield, a small city of ~7,000 people.
We’d picked this location specifically because the Hampton Inn Litchfield offered great value when staying on points. When doing some research, we also found that part of historic Route 66 runs through Litchfield and there were a few fun things to do in the area.
We ended up staying there for five nights, so here’s our review of the Hampton Inn Litchfield, Illinois.
Check-In
I’d already checked in online and chosen our room, so the check-in process was quick and smooth. We had to complete a pet form seeing as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles, so once that was complete we were given our keys to room 307.
On a few days of our stay – including the day we checked in – there were free cookies available at the front desk, so we helped ourselves to a couple of those and headed up to the third floor.
Bedroom
I’d chosen a room that was close to both an elevator and stairwell to make it easier to take Truffles outside. Despite being so close to an area with more foot traffic, it was always quiet in our room which was nice.
When entering the bedroom, the bathroom and closet were to the right, while the bedroom was ahead and to the right.
We’d booked a room with a king bed which was comfortable and we slept well on it. There were bedside tables on each side with power outlets located behind them. There wasn’t a spare outlet behind the right side, so I had to unplug the clock to charge my phone overnight. We never make use of hotel clocks though, so that wasn’t an issue.
Also on the bedside table was some popcorn and a couple of Hershey’s Kisses – I’ll never say no to free food. Well, I’ll say no to Hershey’s Kisses as they taste mank, but Shae likes them.
In the corner of the room to the left of the bed was an armchair and ottoman.
The view out of the window was perfectly fine, albeit not particularly scenic.
Opposite the armchair was a desk and office chair, along with a fridge and microwave – two things we value highly seeing as we live in hotels nowadays. The fridge was an OK size, but it was a shame that it didn’t have a small freezer compartment so that we could refreeze our freezer blocks.
To the left of those were a couple of dressers, with the room’s TV on top of one of them.
Something great about the Hampton Inn Litchfield is that the rooms have DirecTV. That not only means you have a good selection of TV channels, but you can easily see what’s on right now and what’s upcoming, saving you from having to flick through channels one at a time in order to see what’s on which is the case with many hotel TVs.
There was a channel guide provided in the room, but there were plenty more channels in addition to the ones listed below.
Next to the bathroom was the closet which contained a thick and heavy blanket, luggage rack, iron and ironing board.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity were on the right, with the toilet in the middle of the room. The countertop was fairly long on both sides which is always handy. A slight downside was that the toilet tank took forever to refill after being flushed.
The toiletries were Neutrogena brand and good quality.
The bathroom had a bathtub and shower. The shower was a little disappointing as the water pressure wasn’t great.
Breakfast
Breakfast is included with your stay when staying at the Hampton Inn brand. Something I loved about the Hampton Inn Litchfield is that they served breakfast until 10am every morning which meant we didn’t have to be up early if we didn’t want.
There was plenty of seating available which also doubles up as lobby seating the rest of the day.
There were three different hot options every morning. The morning I took the photos there were ham & cheese scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and seasoned potatoes. Other days there was bacon, French toast sticks (I think), regular scrambled eggs and more.
There was hot oatmeal with a few different toppings, along with a selection of breads, English muffins, bagels and muffins.
A toaster was next to those, along with a waffle maker, preserves, cream cheese and more.
The breakfast area had an island with additional breakfast selections including fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs and yogurts.
In addition to the whole fruit, there was freshly cut canteloupe, grapes and pineapple each morning.
On the other side of the island were three types of breakfast cereal and a couple of pitchers of milk.
Beverage-wise, there was a juice machine…
…and a coffee and tea station. This was available 24/7 rather than just at breakfast. They also kept it incredibly well-stocked – I stopped by there once or twice a day to grab some English breakfast tea and there were always those teabags available in addition to other types of tea. I don’t think we’ve stayed at a hotel before that keeps on top of their coffee and tea station so well throughout the day and night.
Amenities
We made use of their fitness room a couple of times during our stay. To be honest, it’s fairly sparse as it only has a couple of pieces of equipment, along with some medicine balls and a yoga ball.
That said, they do offer complimentary access to a local gym which is a great feature if you’d like something more comprehensive.
The hotel apparently has a guest laundry room, but I hadn’t realized at the time and so didn’t get any photos.
They also have an indoor swimming pool and whirlpool. The pool was an OK temperature, but not the warmest we’ve experienced.
The lobby area had a business center consisting of one computer and a printer. They also had a shredder which was helpful as I needed to shred a couple of documents.
Each floor had vending machines and an ice machine, although the ice machine on the third floor didn’t work for the last few days of our stay.
Pet-Friendliness
The Hampton Inn Litchfield is a pet-friendly hotel with a $20 per night pet fee. When booking the hotel though, we were under the impression that it was a $20 flat fee rather than per night as their website didn’t mention it was a nightly charge.
When checking out, they therefore tried charging $100 as we’d stayed five nights. After discussing the rate listed on their website, they kindly agreed to waive $80 of the pet fee and only charge the $20.
The hotel didn’t appear to have a specific pet walking area, but it was surrounded by grassy areas.
Service
Service at the Hampton Inn in Litchfield was very good. Their staff were all friendly and it was nice that they agreed to honor the pet fee advertised on their website rather than insisting that we pay the $100.
Wi-Fi
Their Wi-Fi was free, had a good speed and no connection issues.
Location
Litchfield isn’t a large city, so the Hampton Inn is close to everything in the city. It’s just off I-55 and is within walking distance of several restaurants. St Louis MO is an hour away to the southwest and Springfield IL 45 minutes to the north.
It’s also less than a mile to The Ariston Cafe and the free Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center which is worth checking out.
Cost
As I mentioned at the start of our review, we’d decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Litchfield as it was great value when staying there using points.
It cost 20,000 Hilton Honors points per night; Hilton offers the 5th night free on award stays to members who have status, so our five night stay only cost 80,000 points.
If we’d paid for our stay, the cash rate per night was $136.51 including tax. That means we got 0.85cpp (cents per point) of value from our points. Many people value Hilton Honors points at around 0.4cpp, so we effectively got double the standard value.
Having said that, it’s doubtful we’d have stayed in Litchfield if there hadn’t been this good option when using points, so it’s not like we’d have actually paid that $136.51 rate.
Final Thoughts
We enjoyed our stay at the Hampton Inn Litchfield. It was a quiet hotel, our room was comfortable, breakfast was tasty and it was available later in the morning compared to other hotels.
On the negative side of things, the shower had poor water pressure and the pet fee isn’t as cheap as their website suggests.
Overall though, the hotel is a great place to stay if you’re visiting Litchfield or just need somewhere to crash overnight when driving along I-55 or Route 66. If you have enough points with Hilton, that might provide better value than paying cash.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! She liked what ended up being a cheap pet fee as it means we can spend more money on treats for her, while she also enjoyed having so much grass around the hotel.
The property was also quiet which meant she didn’t feel the need to woof at unexpected noises to protect us.
Our Rating
Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.4 / 5
Service = 4.7 / 5
Overall Value = 4.4 / 5
Total = 4.43 / 5
Address
Hampton Inn, 11 Thunderbird Circle, Litchfield, IL 62056
I just realized you guys stayed in my hometown!! I grew up in Litchfield…dangit, I wish I would have known about your site back in 2018, I would have met up with you and showed you around!
Hopefully our next car is a DeLorean.