My new husband and I celebrated our wedding last week at the Hotel Monaco. And it was perfect. The food, the staff, the guest rooms, the event space...everything was incredible. A BIG thank you to all the staff who made our wedding day amazing: Luis, Tony (you rock!) and all the wait staff who just couldn't seem to do enough for us. Wherever we were in the hotel, there was someone waiting quietly in the wings to get us whatever we wanted or needed. We can not say enough about this property. Oh, and our Mediterranean Suite? My, my, my. It was just gorgeous and HUGE! The views of the river and the downtown lights were dazzling.

Getting married in downtown Chicago? Consider the Hotel Monaco. You will want for nothing and will go home feeling completely pampered and spoiled. Even if you're just visiting the hotel, do yourself a favor and give this hotel a try. This was our second stay, but will most certainly not be our last.

Thank you again Monaco. We'll see you again soon!

Warmest wishes for your continued success.

Don and Shelley

After attending the Notre Dame/Wake Forest game, our family from San Diego spent three nights here in the river view king and queen rooms and had a WONDERFUL time! (Why come all this way and not experience Chicago!)

Not only is this a beautiful hotel, but the staff are friendly and helpful....they can make a visit. Amy from the front desk staff emailed us suggestions for restaurants and made sure our rooms were on the same floor...this got us off to a great start. Rich, the concierge (even if he isn't a big fan of the Irish haha), "T" the doorman /bellman (loves the irish...we're good there!), and the lovely gentleman who checked us in and was there each evening were all awesome. Even the housekeeping staff who left us a note (Zuri...that's you!) added so much to the experience. We also enjoyed meeting other Kimpton staff when we went in the evenings for complimentary wine and treats.

The hotel itself is immaculate from common spaces to the rooms and we loved the decor. (I'm not sure how they do it but we must say that those are some of the comfiest beds we have enjoyed in a while.) This has that intimate boutique feel but you still have your privacy. And the river view rooms with the window seats? Wow....you could sleep in those....and one of ours did! A cozy place to read the paper and gaze out at one terrific city.

We also had one dinner and a breakfast at their restaurant South Water Kitchen and found the food delicious and the service efficient but not particularly friendly. Very cool place and just what we needed after a long day of walking...

The bottom line is I do believe we are hooked on Kimpton. The 2nd of our six kiddos is a junior at ND and parent's weekend is coming up in February...guess where mom and dada will be spending a couple of extra days!

A few of suggestions for those visiting to make your stay perfect:

-Sign up as Kimpton In Touch members. It's free and comes with perks...plus you'll likely become loyal fans and want to stay at their other properties.
-Pay a little extra for the river view rooms. So worth it. We had heard that higher rooms were quieter and were on the 11th floor. Perfect.
-If you book ahead, check back every so often to see if the prices have dropped. In our case they did, and since we had booked through the hotel, they happily extended us the better rate.
-Request "Guppy Love" if you don't have a pet with you...the kiddos loved their visiting goldfish:)
-Enjoy!!

We stayed here over Thanksgiving week. We’ve stayed at other Hotel Monaco’s and enjoyed those previous visits. As in the past, this Hotel Monaco also excelled. Service from arrival to departure was solid on all fronts. I love the nightly wine hour with snacks. The bartender also came out and demonstrated a new unnamed drink they wanted to try on the lobby crowd.

Location of this Hotel Monaco is superb. Easy walk to the Art Institute. About a liesurely 15 minute walk to the Magnificent Mile and LookingGlass theatre. Rooms were clean, roomy, and well equipped. The windows are setup such that you can sit on the window sill with a pillow. Wifi was fast but wasn’t free, although free for InTouch members. We had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant a couple of times. Service commendable, portions plenty, and menu selections diverse.

Our minor gripes: the front bellman repeatedly gave the incorrect destination to every cabdriver. The bellman would ask where we were headed, then say a destination totally unrelated to what was said, and we’d have to correct the confused cab driver. Our other gripe was that the hotel restaurant wasn’t open on Thanksgiving for either breakfast or lunch. The hotel sent out a memo that laundry services wouldn’t be available on Thanksgiving; but no notification about the restaurant. We’d have thought the restaurant closure would be more noteworthy.

If on the Orange Line train from Midway Intl [the train is easiest to reach the hotel from Midway], I suggest you get off the Randolph/Wabash station instead of State/Lake recommended by the hotel’s website. The Randolph/Wabash station is 2 blocks from the hotel, and you’re already on Wabash and thus no guesses required on which direction is East or North. Whereas, we used the State/Lake as recommended by the hotel website, then walked in the wrong direction for a block because we couldn’t see Wabash from the station exit [had to consult our iPhone to guide us correctly]. The Randolph/Wabash station isn’t any farther from the hotel than State/Lake.

This hotel is dog friendly. One evening at the wine hour, seemed all 5 dogs in the hotel were in the lobby [we were told there were a total of 5 dogs in the hotel that night]. It didn’t bother us, but could bother others.

We stayed overnight the night before Thanksgiving and got a GREAT deal; 20% off! This was off of their website too, we did not book through a discount website. We don't normally stay in boutique-type hotels but were looking for a pet-friendly place downtown. Stayed in a river-view king on the 4th floor and the room was spectacular! Very clean and very spacious! LOVED the window nook (although our dogs were too short to get up there alone, lol). We took the dogs down to the river's edge, which was right across Wacker Dr., to do their "business," which was very convenient. There were multiple other dogs we saw on the property as well (most of them on our floor) which made us feel more comfortable leaving them unattended for a few hours (knowing that a few barks here and there wouldn't disturb our neighbors). We also loved that they had a 24-hour room-service with a great late-night menu. Wet bar had some good choices, although most of the snacks were a little "trendy" for our taste. We also parked in the Self-Park around the corner, which was $42 for overnight, as opposed to the $48 valet (+ tip) that the hotel offered. The only reason I didn't given it a 5-star rating is because I couldn't pick out anything that was "over the top." I had read on their website that pets received a welcome treat, a dog bed, etc. upon arrival; something that we didn't get (I thought we maybe had to ask for it, but it did not indicate this anywhere on the website, which gave me the impression that this would all be in the room upon check-in). We also "registered" them with the reservation beforehand, which gave me the impression that the staff knew the dogs would be coming with us. Definitely not a deal-breaker, so we didn't bother asking; we brought everything that they needed except the beds anyway. Location is unbeatable; very close to the El, shopping on State Street, Chriskindlemarkedt, restaurants, the Chicago River, etc. I would recommend this hotel to anyone, especially those with pets (no pet fee!). Our dogs are part of our family, and we were looking for a place that was more "pet-friendly" instead of "pet-tolerant," and the Monaco fit the bill!