Overall sentiment toward Holiday Lincoln Tower is highly mixed, with a clear split between reviewers who praise the facility for its community, space and specific staff members, and reviewers who report serious operational, safety, and quality problems. Many reviewers appreciate the building's amenities, apartment sizes, social life, and friendly direct-care staff. However, recurring complaints about management instability, staffing shortages, food quality, maintenance, and pest or cleanliness issues create a pattern of decline for a significant subset of residents and families.
Care quality and staff: Numerous reviews emphasize warm, caring, and helpful staff members who make residents feel welcome and supported. Several people mention specific staff (tour guides, Kaci, Ivy, and others) and describe prompt problem resolution, compassionate interactions, and staff who build friendships with residents. At the same time, multiple reviews describe chronic understaffing—particularly in the kitchen and housekeeping—staff absence after hours, high staff turnover, and a sense that only a few dedicated employees are carrying the load. This inconsistent staffing leads to missed services (housekeeping skipped for weeks or months), poor follow-up on maintenance requests, and uneven resident experiences depending on which staff are on duty and which management team is in place.
Facilities and maintenance: The property offers many desirable amenities (pool, jacuzzi, exercise rooms, libraries, beauty salon, game and craft rooms, chapel) and apartments that many find spacious and bright. The location near medical services is praised, and mobility accommodations are available in places. Conversely, there are repeated reports of aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance: frequent elevator outages (in some cases lasting days or months), heavy doors and awkward locks, inaccessible basement laundry when elevators fail, dirty or poorly maintained common areas, overflowing trash rooms, and unresolved repair issues (toilets, microwaves, wall repairs). Pests (roaches and mice) and evidence of inadequate wall repairs or cleanliness were cited by several reviewers, which raises health and safety concerns.
Dining and housekeeping: Dining experiences vary dramatically. Some residents describe restaurant-style meals, a talented chef, and excellent food with variety. Others report the exact opposite: cold food, insufficient fresh vegetables and fruits, repetitive menus (same items multiple times per week), barely edible meals, and meals left outside doors. Housekeeping frequency and quality are also inconsistent—some report weekly housekeeping and linen service or paid additional housekeeping that met expectations, while others experienced missed cleanings for months, dirty apartments, and reduced services that were part of contracted agreements.
Activities, community, and transportation: The facility offers a wide range of activities (bingo, morning exercises, live entertainers, bus outings, movies, craft classes, game nights), and many reviewers value the social life and friendships that develop. Still, other reviewers say activities are poorly produced, under-attended, or covered by an activity fee that did not yield promised programming or refunds. Transportation is another divided area: the shuttle/van is helpful when operational for shopping and medical trips, but several reviews note vans out of service due to driver shortages, leaving residents without promised transportation.
Management, billing, and contractual issues: A consistent theme is instability and poor performance at the leadership level. Multiple reviewers report frequent management changes, new ownership or managers who are rude or unresponsive, and leadership that fails to honor contracts (activity fees charged without corresponding activities, promised housekeeping or services not delivered, and refunds not processed). Billing and accounting errors such as unresolved rent charges are reported. Serious allegations include dishonesty from management, illegal entry or discarding belongings, and instances of residents feeling unsafe or neglected. These issues contribute to pronounced distrust among some residents and family members.
Patterns and variability: The reviews show clear variability tied to timing and personnel—many reviewers with very positive experiences reference different management teams or specific staff who made the difference, while negative reports frequently coincide with management turnover, staffing cuts, or periods of maintenance problems (especially elevator outages). Several reviewers explicitly state the community was better in the past and declined after leadership changes. Vacancies and low occupancy are also noted as contributing to reduced services.
Bottom line and recommendations: Holiday Lincoln Tower offers notable strengths—ample amenities, spacious apartments, social opportunities, and many compassionate employees. Those positive experiences suggest the facility can deliver a strong independent living environment when adequately staffed and well-managed. However, the volume and severity of complaints about management instability, understaffing, food quality, pest and maintenance issues, safety incidents, and unfulfilled contractual obligations are significant. Prospective residents and families should research current management and staffing, ask for written guarantees on services (housekeeping frequency, transportation availability, activity schedule), clarify billing and refund policies in the contract, and tour the building at different times of day to observe staffing, dining service, and elevator reliability. If possible, speak directly with current residents and recent family members about recent trends; because experiences appear to vary dramatically over time, up-to-date information is critical before making a move.
