Pooch Hotel

Ok. Let me start by saying, I’m not a big Unilocal reviewer. I don’t think my opinion necessarily means that much, except to me! But I have to give a shout out to Pooch. I have been taking my dog there for over six years most every day, since she was a pup. I don’t think she would be the gentle, sociable mutt she is today without her life at Pooch. You ask why do I bring her to Pooch most every day? Because this b-​tch can’t be trusted. She can’t be left alone. Ever.
But Pooch can be trusted. Because the employees truly care about their clients and more importantly, their clients’ dogs. So when they say they «love dogs,» it’s more than just a slogan but a way Pooch approaches its business. And I really am grateful for all the love the people who work at Pooch have shown Teddie (and me)!

The outside and front area are really nice. However, I am not a fan of the over night areas for the dogs or where the dogs play. They have a medium sized room for these huge dogs to barley run around in. Also, the dogs go to the bathroom where they play. I was not a fan of this… Either was our dog. They also never returned my call when I called and left a message while are dog was there. Probably won’t return.

I don’t know what I would do without Pooch. I work weird hours and they are always so friendly and accommodating. The 24 hour pickup is so convenient with my schedule. The staff clearly loves dogs and my puppy adores them. Absolutely no complaints.

Our dog Roxie has been going to Pooch for years… both for daycare and boarding. I believe years ago, they went through a lot of staff changes, but even during that, I can’t say we ever had any kind of negative experience. The staff there is always friendly, energetic, and most importantly, they love dogs! As for Roxie, she knows the drill… play, eat, sleep, wake up and do it all over again! What more could a dog ask for? If your dog is the fancy type, they have a large selection of additional services, Roxie just likes to keep it simple. Whether it’s for boarding or daycare, Pooch Hotel is the only option for us!

I take my high energy little guy to Pooch during the week. It is a great facility! The employees are very nice and keep a keen eye on the dogs at all times. There is a webcam available to watch your dog play whenever you want which I love! Highly recommended.

We have been taking our french bulldog, Mia, here for about 2+ years. She loves it and we have been very happy with the staff. They seem to really care about the dogs here and Mia always comes home so exhausted from running around and playing she will sleep for days straight! I love how we get a report card, and that they have cameras so we can check in on her throughout the day.

We had our first experience here with our dog today. The facility is beautiful and clean. The staff is unbelievably nice and made our dog feel at home immediately. We look so forward to many more days of daycare here.

My dog has a severe kennel cough after picking her up from Pooch Hotel. I was also misinformed about a few things. The employees were nice enough but for the money I expected a little more. Not a horrible place but not as good as expected. And now my poor pooch is very sick. Will not be returning.

We’ve been bringing our puppy here for about month now and we love it.
Pros:
— Great play time for our puppy. She’s so high energy and daycare is a great outlet for her.
— Live webcam lets me check in on her often, especially useful in the beginning for worried parents like us.
— Friendly staff. Always keeps us updated.
— When our puppy got spayed they still took her in, gave her a private room, and let her rest w/​o irritating her stitches with play.
— They have separate play areas for small and big dogs.
— Reasonable pricing and packages. Amount almost equals to a daily dog walker.
— Flexible drop off and pick up times. Earliest time I had to drop off was 7am and latest time I picked up was 7pm and there was no issues.
— Easy in and out parking with stand by area in front of Pooch Hotel.
Cons:
— Never picks up phone. However they do call you back w/​in 5 – 10 mins if you leave a message.
— Sometimes overcrowded play areas.
— Photos online is not accurate.
— No potty turf. Dogs just pee and poop anywhere they want. But they do clean up the mess right away.
Overall, they have been extremely helpful with busy parents like us. With our crazy schedule we never have to worry about our puppy during the day. And I especially like the idea of not having to deal with a dog walker come into our home.

Reiterating my review with 4 stars. Left my dog here for 5 nights with a Groupon. Late pick up is $ 25. It’s great they allowed ²⁴⁄₇ pickup/​drop off. I was given the webcam link and checked on my dog a few times.
On the morning of pickup, I received an email with a picture of my dog saying he was excited to go home. Very thoughtful. He received a report card when we picked him up and he seemed to have done well! They also washed the blanket I left with him.
Definitely good service. I noticed some weight loss, but that’s normal considering it was his first time away from home.
I will be coming back!

There have not been any recent reviews for Pooch, so I’d like to post a recent one to HIGHLY recommend this facility to anyone needing a wonderful, fun, enjoyable care for their dog.
Franklin has been coming here off and on for 3.5 years. In the beginning, I had a crazy work schedule and I was new to the city. Franklin was a puppy and he had a variety of weird health issues he was working out, and Pooch was so kind and considerate with his care and helping me out as I was making adjustments and figuring out a good system for him as a single dog-​mother :)
Recently, I alternate now between my amazing dog walker (Dogs Deserve it) and the amazing Pooch hotel for the longer work days. Franklin always tells me the truth about how he feels about places. At the dog groomer, he is mad at me and begs me not to leave. Here at Pooch, the moment we arrive, he is racing to get in the door and never looks back at me as he LOVES all the workers there and can’t wait to get back to play with his friends.
An extra fun note: last year, I had to work on his birthday and I brought him by for the day with a party hat and treats for all the dogs. All day, Pooch posted pictures on facebook and emailed me pics of Franklin having a wonderful birthday with all his friends wearing his party hat and smiling (no joke) in all his pics.
Everyone who works here knows his name, follows up with me about his care and Franklin is always pooped at the end of the day from all the love and playtime! I HIGHLY recommend this place for anyone who wants to feel confidant and secure where their dog is during the day!

I have to agree with many of the other reviews up here. The place on the outside is very nice however the inside is a bit stale and was never offered a tour of the accommodations my dog was staying at which was a bit unnerving. They also do not have a camera for easy checking of your dog.
As far as the staff, they are very young and do not give any sense of comfort like they are interested or experts in taking care of your pet. I don’t have the easiest dog and am always very upfront about it which never seemed to be shared amongst the staff. It is very apparent that the staff is not very experienced or does not care to accommodate a dog that takes a little more time to warm up. I also did not enjoy the negative comments or faces when dropping off my less than perfect pooch. Also there was no communication if something did arise and i was left to getting a bad review when picking up. You would think if something did arise you would get a call right away. If you don’t have the perfect lap dog I do not recommend this place AT ALL the staff is not knowledgeable and does nothing to curtail a situation or make you feel comfortable leaving your pooch in their hands n
Also their computer system seems to be down alllll the time and they are very hard to reach via phone. I have given my credit card numerous times and they still call every time asking for a new card when the weekend before they had no problems charging my card.
For the price and if you have a dog that is a little less than perfect and needs time to adjust I would absolutely NOT recommend this place. I will be looking for somewhere with a more experienced and motivated staff to make me feel more comfortable leaving my pet.

I have been taking my dog to Pooch Hotel on Clybourn for a few years now and couldn’t be happier with the services they have provided!
I began taking my dog to Pooch because he has extreme separation anxiety and I needed a safe environment for him when I was away from home. The staff at Pooch have been great with him and have gone above and beyond to get to know him and what his individual needs are.
Some of the additional perks at Pooch that I appreciate are…
–Pick-​up/​drop-​off flexibilty. I don’t work standard hours and this is an option that I wasn’t able to find at any other daycare that I looked into.
–Rooftop play area where my dog can be outside when the weather is nice.
–Grooming services.
–Clean facility!
I would recommend Pooch Hotel to any pet parent!

We’ve been taking our dog here intermittently for daycare for the past six months. All in all, pretty pleased. I especially like that you can pick your dog up as late as 10 p.m. and there’s no late pickup fee like some other places have.
The setup also seems a bit better than where we used to take our dog, meaning they aren’t in «cages» but little tiny «rooms» (you can select the size but you obviously pay more for a bigger space), and that’s also where they’re fed. This helps a ton as our dog never used to eat at the old place (I think because there were other dogs around and such) but it’s never been a problem here. Big relief.
The facility can sometimes be difficult to reach via phone; several times their answering service picked up and they could never answer my seemingly simple questions, so I’d have to wait for a callback. And I absolutely hate that there is no webcam. It just gives me a sense of relief when I can take a quick peek in on her during the workday and see what she’s up to (probably sitting in the corner on her own since she’s so anti-​social), but it’s not an option here. When we started taking our dog there they said it was in the works but here we are, six months later and still no webcam to be seen…
That said, I feel comfortable with this place and the staff and will keep taking our little ankle-​biter there.
UPDATE 1÷28÷13
Over time, we’ve grown less satisfied with Pooch. When we had to cancel our dog’s stay over Thanksgiving (with plenty of notice), we were still charged a hefty portion of what it would’ve cost. Apparently it was on some agreement I signed when we first started taking her there (although it wasn’t on their website when this happened but has since been added). I’ll take blame for that, but any other place that I’ve had this issue with be it a kennel or a place that offers human services, they usually give you a first pass and don’t charge you – simply good customer service. Not the case here.
As I previously mentioned, it’s difficult to reach them on the phone and even if you do, it seems that the General Manager is the only person who is empowered to help you with anything, so it often requires a phone call back to get your question answered/​problem solved.
There doesn’t seem to be much consistency across the staff – some seem to really care about what they do and others just seem lackadaisical.
Probably the biggest issue I have is that my credit card has been charged erroneously. Thank goodness I watch it like a hawk. They had apparently charged us for a package even though we didn’t buy one. When I called to get it fixed, I got the sense that they didn’t believe me or something. It was very bizarre and I felt like I was troubling them to fix their mistake. In the end, they did.

Update: I tried out a couple other places for daycare but I don’t feel like my dog felt as comfortable so I decided to take her back to Pooch. They were so happy to have her back (i even received an email from the manager that day saying she received multiple texts that we were back! Even if that were untrue, it was great customer service and made me feel great about bringing her back there. I still haven’t needed to board her recently, but I can definitely confirm it’s a great place for daycare and she’s so tired after playing all day!
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I love pooch for daycare but I no longer trust them for boarding. This is the second time boarding where they neglected to feed my dog.
My dog has severe allergies and is on special food. We took her boarding in June for 6 days and got every bag of individual food (I put each meal in separate baggies) back. The regional manager (who has since left) was super apologetic stating it would never happen again. I’ve taken her back to daycare there since but this past weekend we had a wedding so we boarded her for one night. I gave them her food and wrote out what meals she needed. I also provided treats. She maybe got one meal of four this past visit and it doesn’t look like any treats. On top of that, I paid for a nail clipping that did not happen. I really like the staff, but this is 2 times in a row that they have messed up big time.

Samuel C.
1
friend
Chicago, IL
2
reviews
4÷4÷2011
Our pooch lived better in the Pooch Hotel than with me and my family! She got exercise, good food and companionship. I will never drop her at the «old dog lady» again. And I feel terrible that I didn’t know about the Pooch Hotel sooner. She even had a Spa day while I was gone…

Wish we had read more reviews before we took our two dog here. First, there is no concrete facts that was any wrongdoing or michevious activity, but from the first time I walked into this business, I had a bad feeling about it. who cares how fancy the building, how nice the lobby. We were told as most people, there really was no time for a tour, or they were too busy on that day. for my nearly $ 600 investment for services, I would expect more. As a return customer, I would expect more.
The staff didnt seem proffessional by any means. The return for check out was a wreck. The staff member couldnt run our credit card, couldnt tell us the total on the bill? guess they dont allow everyone access, must make it easy for them, inconvient for us.
We paid for the two dogs to be washed, and despite picking them up at 7pm, and who knows when they actually got a bath. but we washed them again after the foul smell.
If you expect a high level of service, or a compitent staff who you entrust your pets, where you are willing to spend rediculous sums of money to care for, and spoil them — this is not the place, and these are not the people–

I’m going to add a star as I received a really nice message from the manager. After all, I did close my previous review with how important customer service is to me.
She explained that they give tours from 2 – 6 during the week and if requested on the weekends. They keep it on a schedule so they don’t put any guests at risk during cleaning times, when the dogs are out, etc. I can appreciate that.
I guess they do have report cards as well so it must have just been a mistake that we didn’t get one. I really appreciate the note and we would be happy to give this place another chance with a proper tour and a report card. :)

We boarded our little guy at Pooch one weekend based on the review of a friend and lovely pictures on the website. He hated us when we returned, which we chalked up to separation anxiety.
We’re planning a weeklong vacation, so we went to tour the place before we left him for the week. The inside is NOTHING like the pictures on the website. It looks like a prison inside. No windows. The pool is in a garage-​type room. The boarding rooms are upstairs and look like a shelter, not a hotel as they advertise. And it’s hot.
It smells like dogs. I guess that should be expected except that our dog goes to a different facility for daycare everyday and it always clean and fresh-​smelling.
We were a few minutes early for our appointment, but the staff made us wait for our tour. They said they were in a «meeting», but it was just the two of them standing at the front desk doing general housekeeping stuff. The girl showed us the kennels and said the tour was over. We had to ask to see the playroom and the pool, and she never did show us the outdoor area, although she claimed they had one.
I hope that Pooch is not the best dog «hotel» Chicago has to offer. It felt like a factory, not a home away from home.

I really want to like Pooch. I really, really do. I lived in walking distance to the here and I thought that I couldn’t go wrong… a $ 6 million dog hotel?! It must be the best of the best. I continued to bring my dog here hoping that one day I’d be blown away by the service… that never happened.
I started off by taking my dog there to get groomed. She looked nice and smelled nice and they did a good job clipping her nails. So I continued to treat myself to a nice smelling dog every so often. Then I started bringing her to doggy daycare when I’d be running errands all day. She came out once with a cut on her foot which they told me they bandaged and put antibiotic ointment on. Nothing too much to worry about… but it slightly freaked me out.
So, putting more trust towards this place, I boarded my two dogs here while I was at a wedding for the weekend. I asked for them to be groomed as well on the day I picked them up. My one dog with longer hair was still damp, his nails untouched when I got him. They told me they probably didn’t cut them because he was too scared. When I clip his nails at home, even dremel them, he SLEEPS. I paid for a nail clipping, I wanted a nail clipping. He’s a super chill dog, no fuss at all. However, he’s got some separation anxiety issues. Which brings me to my next issue with Pooch…
When I boarded my two dogs with them and picked them up, they seemed really tired. Not like, «wow they had so much fun» kind of tired but more like «you both are so lethargic it’s scary» kind of tired. I noticed that something was really up when my dog’s tails wouldn’t even wag. Um, hello?! I haven’t seen them in 2 days and that’s never happened before… they should be thrilled I’m back! I called Pooch immediately and asked them if, for whatever reason, they sedated my dogs. They were not themselves. They of course said no, which I still don’t believe. My one dog had cuts on the insides of her ears, as well. I was horrified when I looked them over once I got home. I vowed after this that I would never, EVER bring them back here. Even if I did love the way their dog shampoo smelled. Obviously that’s not worth the risk of my dog’s health and well being.
I was never thrilled with their customer service. The owner just doesn’t seem like a very warm person. People could take her tone in the wrong way, but I think that’s just how she is. But real my issue with the young man that usually works behind the desk during the day. He gave me my first tour of the place and wasn’t very thorough and made it seem like it was a chore. He was always unsure of what was going on and just wasn’t very good at making the customer seem like a valued client. The owner, however, would at least remember my dog or pretended to, either way I liked it.
I think Pooch could have a lot of potential with the great location/​building that it has. I felt more like my dog was going somewhere «behind the scenes» than some place where she and other dogs would be the main focus. I always felt slightly uneasy leaving her because no one seemed thrilled with their job. I love dogs, all kinds of dogs, and when I’m talking with someone who values their pet I want them to know that I do too! I’d expect the same from Pooch employees.
I wish them well, for the sake that lots of people trust them, but I won’t be returning.