Staybridge Suites Durham Chapel Hill By Ihg

“Great location, no towel hooks, cacophony at breakfast, heavy marijuana use in hotel”

I'll start with the most important thing: I would stay here again. It is in a great location, the staff are wonderful (friendly, professional, helpful, go above and beyond), and the property is clean and up to date. It has everything you need for a stay of multiple days - plenty of storage, well-a… more

I'll start with the most important thing: I would stay here again. It is in a great location, the staff are wonderful (friendly, professional, helpful, go above and beyond), and the property is clean and up to date. It has everything you need for a stay of multiple days - plenty of storage, well-appointed kitchenette, laundry room with multiple machines, and a good fitness center. Breakfast had solid, healthy choices and rooms were comfortable. Multiple guests had pets, but they were all super well behaved and there was no evidence of them anywhere - the hallways and guest room were quite clean, and I never heard barking or any other evidence of pets. I personally liked seeing the dogs - it cheered up my day. However, there were some easily fixable flaws. First, the noise at breakfast is unbelievable. They have very loud "lobby music" that is SO annoying first thing in the morning, and the front desk says they don't have the ability to turn down the volume. It is jarring, when you haven't even had your coffee, to be forced to listen to Whitney Houston hits from the eighties at entirely too many decibels. Add to that two different televisions blasting two different news channels and the rude customers in the lobby taking speakerphone calls with their coffee and it's enough to drive anyone insane. It would be great if the hotel could have no music in the lobby, or at least QUIET wordless music, and put the TVs on mute (with closed captions for those who desperately need to watch endless pharmaceutical ads). Plus maybe a sign reminding people to use headphones when using devices in the breakfast area. Second, there is nowhere in the sink area of the bathroom to hang a towel - we had to hang ours from the mirror with a pants hook. This blocked the light and the mirror and was kind of annoying. A towel hook or ring next to a sink is basic and it was irritating to be in a room without one. Finally, the hotel purports to be nonsmoking but our floor absolutely REEKED of marijuana use. We were woken up several nights at 2 or 3 am from the pervasive odor of marijuana smoke. I do not care if others smoke pot or not, but I do care if the smell infiltrates my space enough to wake me up from a deep sleep multiple times! I'm not sure what the management can do about this, but it does appear that many people in the hotel are "long-termers" who essentially live there full time (one of the loud speakerphone people in the lobby was explaining to her mother how wonderful it was to live at the hotel instead of an apartment), so it might be worth asking to have a room that is well away from the marijuana smoke. The hotel is walking distance to multiple excellent restaurants and in a central location for easy access to most Triangle locations. I will likely stay here again and hopefully next time I'll have a place to hang my towel and a quieter breakfast experience!

less

“Three alert staffers saved our 3-night stay during the early February 2026 Big Freeze…”

Traveling with our cat we paused in Chapel Hill, NC to visit relatives near this Staybridge while waiting out the heavy snow forecast. Hoping that the serious issues raised by earlier reviews had been addressed, we used our IHG points to stay three nights, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Initially… more

Traveling with our cat we paused in Chapel Hill, NC to visit relatives near this Staybridge while waiting out the heavy snow forecast. Hoping that the serious issues raised by earlier reviews had been addressed, we used our IHG points to stay three nights, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Initially, all went well: the young woman at the desk (Brigitta?) was friendly & helpful. Our king bedroom was equipped with full-size refrigerator, sink, stove & microwave and well stocked with paper towels, silverware, etc. Saturday evening around dinner time, the predicted snowstorm, high winds and freezing temperatures arrived. We were picnicking inside while watching a movie. Then the room’s heat pump stopped. When we reported the outage to (Brigitta?), saying that we really did not want to move but maybe should have a backup plan, she gave us a working key to the clean empty room next door. If we were too cold, we could sleep there with a working heat pump. As it turned out, we survived just fine in our heatless room by adding a blanket from the closet. The cat-pad heater that we kept ready in the cat’s carrier was plugged in—the electricity stayed on, just not the heat pump. We did not touch or use anything in the empty room next door. When we went down for breakfast around 7:00 am on Sunday morning, we asked the new male receptionist when someone from maintenance could check out the heat pump. He said no one was available and insisted that we move to the next room immediately (by 8:00 am!) so that the housekeeping staff could clean our original room. If we did not move, he would have to charge us for the second room—that we had carefully not touched the night before. We were about to ask to speak to the manager when— —a maintenance staff person (David?) appeared at the front desk—at least four heat pumps had failed that night—and he was allowed to accompany us back to the room, where he flipped a switch in the room’s fusebox & the heat pump came back to life. When we returned to the front desk, the manager was on the line. She (Kimberly Bradley) agreed that pushing us to pack up & change rooms in the early morning of our last day was ‘not necessary’. Three staffers: Ms. Bradley, (Brigitta ?) and David impressed us with their thoughtfulness in an awkward situation. They imagined themselves in our situation and then acted. Because of them, we were able to connect with our relatives on the last possible day.. Other travelers’ reviews and other hospitality-business staffers have been wonderfully helpful to me, and I am so pleased that TripAdvisor enables this kind of recognition, good or bad but especially when it is good.

less