Spark by Hilton Merrillville

This was just a place to sleep before hitting the road for home. So it fit the bill. We checked in late. The room was fine....needs a little scratch and dent fixing....but it was fine. All of the employees we encountered were very nice. Breakfast was really good.

Rooms were dated, but clean and comfortable. The 2 hostess were awesome very fun and informative smiles. I ask quite a few questions while checking in , the ladies were informative about the area I will definitely be booking with them on my next trip to the area.

I will not elaborate on check in as much than the overall cleanliness of the rooms. Check in was difficult as they tried giving us a different room than what we had reserved. Once we escalated to management, we were allowed to have the room we reserved. Looking at previous reviews, we felt that this hotel would be fine. No, No, No. upon entering the room, the bed sheets were very dirty, the carpeted floors had not been swept as I was picking up Bobby pins off the nasty carpet and could clearly see debris on the ground. We had ants crawling everywhere; the walls by the bed, the air conditioning, the bath tub, the bathroom floor, the TV stand, EVERYWHERE. I called the front desk and informed them that I believe that the bed sheet were not changed when they “cleaned” the room. They did come and change the bedding but I bought sheets to put over their bedding. They did spray for the ants but it did not help. The room, the bathroom, the halls, the whole hotel is dark and dingy. We had a light in our room that did not work, making it even darker. I am assuming that the people that live there, gave the high ratings. This is not a 4 star hotel. We tried moving hotels but we were there for a softball tourney and everywhere was book. This was an awful experience.

This is one of the cleanest hotels we have ever stayed at. The staff was friendly, pool area was clean, hot breakfast was good (sausage, eggs, waffles). We will definitely stay again in the future. We use to stay in portage when we visit the Indiana Dunes but from now on we will stay here!

The polite girl at check in was dressed in a shirt that was so much too small for her, that I was afraid the straining buttons would burst. The large gaps showed plenty of skin, and was a reflection of the overall condition of this hotel. The price was less than the Marriotts and Hiltons in the area, and as we were only here for 1 hight, we thought we'd try it. Well, you get what you pay for sometimes This is a very tired hotel. The ice machine on our floor didn't work, nor did the wall thermostat. There were numerous cracked tiles in the bathroom, and a toilet paper dispenser that was nearly falling off the wall. The sheets were a bit rougher, but the room itself was nice and clean, which we appreciated! Breakfast in the tiny kitchen area was bare-bones. Overall, clean room, but will never stay here again.

My family stayed at the Best Western Inn and Suites of Merrillville for one reason: to let my kid swim in the pool. They also had a hot tub, which was a bonus during the winter months. The front desk staff was great and the trip was pretty good. Unfortunately, we didn't book in time to get a lower rate so it was pretty expensive (the price went up as we got closer to the date). The biggest problem were these motion-sensor lights in the bedroom. They turn on automatically which is absolutely horrible in the middle of the night. If you get up to get a sip of water or use the bathroom, your room will first be flooded with light by the door. When you scramble to turn it off without waking anyone else up, the bathroom light will also flood the area. These cannot be turned off. Although the front desk was great, housekeeping could use some improvement. We were left with a broken hair dryer mounted to the wall. I had to get one from the front desk. We weren't given shampoo - instead, they left us duplicate lotions and a conditioner. I had to get one from the front desk. We used a fold-out couch as an extra bed and the pillow didn't have a pillowcase. The sheet that was provided had an enormous stain. The hot tub was very nice and quite hot. The pool was also nice, albeit a bit cold. The bathroom door in our room didn't open all the way due to the way the shower curtain rod was installed. I would stay here again but I would check all of these things in my room prior to unpacking.