We decided to stay six nights in Peoria on our 50 state road trip as we got a great deal at the Candlewood Suites Peoria at Grand Prairie using our points.
It turns out that six nights was about five nights too long as Peoria was pretty boring. Still, that’s not the fault of the hotel which was actually one of the better Candlewood Suites properties we’ve stayed at.
Here’s a complete review of our stay at the Candlewood Suites Peoria at Grand Prairie in Illinois.
Check-In
We had a very friendly front desk agent called Cedric when checking in. He was super perky and asked if we wanted bonus points or snacks as our welcome amenity (I have Spire Elite status), so I asked for points.
We’d booked a studio suite with a queen bed, but we were given an upgrade to a one bedroom accessible queen suite. This was greatly appreciated as it meant I could work in the living room with the lights on at night as we could close the bedroom door when Shae went to bed.
Room
We were allocated room 126 which was towards the end of the corridor. That was helpful as we’re traveling with our small dog Truffles and so were close to an exit door to easily take her out.
When entering the room, the kitchen was on the left, the bathroom on the right, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom to the right of the living room.
Kitchen
The kitchen had a full-size fridge-freezer, microwave, dishwasher, coffee maker and double stove top. One improvement would be if they had a wall-mounted microwave beneath the kitchen cabinets. That would’ve freed up counter space as there was very little of it available.
There was plenty of cupboard space, including double pantry cupboards.
The Candlewood Suites Peoria had clearly heard my previous cries! I’d complained in past reviews of the Candlewood Suites properties in South Bend IN and La Crosse WI that they only provide two of everything in the kitchen – plates, dishes, silverware, etc. That means you have to wash up or run the dishwasher after pretty much every meal.
At the Candlewood Suites in Peoria though, there was four of everything – yay!
There were also four pieces of silverware in the drawers, along with pots, pans and cooking utensils.
Living Room
Separating the kitchen and living room was a long desk. On one side was an office chair, while two dining chairs were on the other side. Seeing as the kitchen floors were laminate, the office chair moved around easily which was nice.
In the living room itself there was a sofa bed and coffee table.
Opposite the sofa was a comfortable reclining armchair and a dresser with a TV on top and a DVD player on the shelf below. Candlewood Suites properties have an extensive DVD collection at the front desk that you can borrow for free during your stay, hence why there’s a DVD player available in your room.
Back by the desk was a cork board with a few pieces of information on it. One of them listed some local restaurants where you could get a discount or free appetizer when showing your room key.
There was also a closet back by the entrance to the suite which contained an iron, ironing board, bedding for the sofa bed and a laundry basket.
The ironing board was short and the shelving rail was lower as it was an accessible room.
Bedroom
To the right of the living room was our bedroom with a queen bed. The bed was fairly comfortable and the blackout curtains did a good job keeping the room dark.
There was only one bedside table which was on the left side when looking at the bed, while the right side of the room had a small desk and chair along the wall. Both sides of the bed had outlets available which not all hotels offer.
To the right of the desk was another closet, although there was nothing in this one other than hangers.
Opposite the bed was a dresser with another TV on top.
One negative aspect of the bedroom and living room is that the carpet needs a deep clean. Our feet ended up filthy from walking around barefoot, as did our socks when we wore them. We figured it might be from wheelchairs bringing in dirt from outside and so the carpet presumably needs to be cleaned more frequently as it felt gross on our bare feet.
Bathroom
Seeing as we’d been upgraded to an accessible room, the bathroom was very large.
There was a small bottle of Pantene shampoo, along with a small bar of J.R. Watkins soap and small bottle of lotion. Somewhat unusually, there was only one bar of soap in the bathroom. Hotels usually provide two – one for the sink and one for the bath.
The bathtub had a bench and a handheld shower head. The water pressure was OK, but not spectacular.
Overall, we enjoyed our upgraded room. The downside was that we had ridiculously noisy guests above us throughout our entire stay. They stomped when walking around, while every single night at 11pm they repeatedly dropped heavy stuff on the floor. We could’ve just about dealt with that, but it always set Truffles off barking which just made matters worse.
We’d let the front desk know and to their credit they did their best to get the guests upstairs to quieten down. They also awarded my account with 2,000 points for the inconvenience which we hadn’t requested or expected.
Amenities
Candlewood Suites is one of IHG’s extended stay brands, so they have several amenities aimed at guests who might be staying a long time.
At the side of the hotel was a covered seating area with a couple of grills for cooking out.
Inside, there were three washers and four dryers, all of which are complimentary for hotel guests.
If you need any laundry detergent or dryer sheets, you can purchase those from the Candlewood Cupboard opposite the front desk. The Candlewood Cupboard also contains all kinds of food and beverages for purchase. Breakfast isn’t included at the Candlewood Suites Peoria – or any Candlewood Suites property – so this can be a good option if you don’t have a chance to get to the grocery store.
Also by the front desk was the lending locker which has all kinds of items for guests to borrow during their stay. This includes board games, kitchen equipment and more.
If you’re looking to stay fit during your stay, there’s a small fitness room containing a few pieces of equipment and some weights.
If you need to use a computer during your stay or print something off, there are a couple of desktop computers and a printer in the business center.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi connection at the Candlewood Suites Peoria at Grand Prairie was very good. It had a decent speed and we didn’t experience any issues with it disconnecting during our stay.
Pet-Friendliness
All Candlewood Suites properties are pet-friendly; the hotel in Peoria charges $75 for 1-6 nights and $150 for 7+ nights. Seeing as we were staying six nights, we had to pay $75 as we had Truffles with us.
There are loads of grassy areas around the hotel, along with a neighborhood behind the hotel where I took Truffles on a few walks.
There’s also a nice dog park about 10 minutes away at Laura Bradley Park with separate areas for large and small dogs. Unlike all the dog parks we visited in Wisconsin, there was no fee to use this dog park.
Check-Out Issues
There was a bit of confusion on the day we checked out. At 11:15am we received a call from the front desk advising that we were supposed to have checked out by 11am.
We’d been under the assumption that our checkout time was 12pm, so I checked and saw that the checkout time listed in the confirmation email said it was indeed 12pm. The front desk agent asked us to bring that confirmation to them, so we did that and as a result they honored the 12pm checkout time.
Service
Service at the hotel was good. Cedric was very friendly when checking in, they were helpful when it came to our noisy upstairs neighbors and the housekeeping staff were friendly when we saw them.
Location
The Candlewood Suites Peoria is outside of downtown, although it only took about 15 minutes to get there. It’s opposite a fairly large outdoor shopping mall (The Shoppes at Grand Prairie) and about 25 minutes from Peoria Heights and Grand View Drive.
It’s in a safe neighborhood and so I felt perfectly fine walking Truffles around late at night.
Cost
The reason we’d ended up in Peoria on our 5 year, 50 state road trip is because the Candlewood Suites Peoria was included on the IHG PointBreaks list during the time we’d be visiting Illinois. That meant it only cost 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night which was great value.
Even better is that I have the old version of the IHG credit card which offers a 10% points rebate when booking award stays. That means it’ll effectively only cost us 4,500 points per night once that rebate has been credited to my account. In addition to that, I earned 500 points as a welcome amenity and they awarded us 2,000 points due to the issues with the guests above us.
That means our six night stay cost us a net 24,500 points which is fantastic. By comparison, the cheapest paid rate for six nights would’ve cost us $817.98. That wasn’t even a refundable rate where we’d have been able to cancel our reservation like we could with our reservation using points. That means we got 3.34cpp (cents per point) of value by using our points which is unbelievable for IHG. A lot of people value IHG Rewards Club points at ~0.56cpp, so we got about six times that value.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Candlewood Suites Peoria at Grand Prairie. We appreciated getting a room upgrade, I loved that the kitchen had double the number of plates, dishes, etc. compared to other Candlewood Suites properties and it’s in a safe neighborhood.
On the negative side of things, the carpet in our room was gross and the people in the room above us were ridiculously loud.
On balance though, this hotel is a nice place to stay, especially if you could do with having a kitchen in your room.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the Candlewood Suites Peoria four paws out of four – pawfect! Although she didn’t enjoy the loud banging from the room above us, she liked having a spacious suite where she could chase her ball. She also liked having plenty of grassy areas outside and a nearby dog park.
Our Rating
Room = 4.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = N/A
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.4 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5
Total = 4.46 / 5
Address
Candlewood Suites, 5300 West Landens Way, Peoria, IL 61615
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