Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, Chicago, IL - Reviews and Hotel Information

I actually came out of VT retirement to write about this hotel and how losy it was. That is saying something.

Well, let me get to the obvious, I got the hotel for a business trip, and because it was close to where I was at, but that wasn't the sell. The sell was that the hotel was near all the museums, and Michigan Ave. It was near everything in Chicago!

I paid $109 a night for the room, which for city prices is average, but you kind of expect a little more. Here's what I got for my 109 each night.

The room had no pillows! I kid you not, I had to request them. I also had to request an alarm clock, and was greeted with a "You want a clock in your room?" when I called. Yes I want an alarm clock in the room, I would love to know how late I am going to be from missing my wake up time! Really now, is there any hotel in the world where an alarm clock is not standard and desired by the patrons? Oh, and I had to call an electrician to bring me one. But housekeeping did bring me 8 pillows, eventually

Next up was the shower. No hot water, and the hotel shampoo had an unbreakable metal seal. I had to go to the CVS down the block to buy some. I guess that's one way of keeping costs down.

The building is historic. Many presidents stayed here. All the way back to Gover Cleveland. And the hotel looks it! Hell the wall paper may be from the Al Capone years.

In fact, the building apparently hasn't been really renovated too much (beyond electrical plugs and a new tv) since Theodore Roosevelt held his Bull Moose party's convention here. As such, you can hear through the windows ever car or pedestrian that is below...or within a mile radius. Yes, you can even hear the trains run by, which there are lots. You are situated between an elevated line, and fright tracks. So the trains are actually so frequent that you get used to them after a while, as are the fire trucks, police sirens and ambulances.

As I mentioned, there was no hot water in my room, and it wasn't just the first night but all 4 nights. There was also nowhere to set anything in the bathroom.

If you didn't already feel ripped off, you could go down to the little cafe in the hotel and have a $10 grilled cheese sandwich. I went to the Krogers when I got home, to make the same sandwich at home, with the 4 different kinds of cheeses, would have cost the same for the ingrdients, and on a per/sammich basis would have equalled $1.25 per sammy, and you could have had bunches of them! You also wouldn't have had a burnt one if you made it yourself!

Not my worst hotel experience, but pretty darn close to it.

Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, Chicago

Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center

Chicago Hotels