We had two rooms at this hotel the weekend of the Chicago Marathon -- one room for my wife, myself, and our young children, and one room for my parents. The hotel is nice, the suites are roomy enough for families, and the huge bathrooms are fantastic. The location is good if you are planning on taking the train into town for everything you do (it's right next to Cumberland Station), as long as you don't mind a 30-minute train ride.

I knew the parking was $20 a night, but I read some reviews online that said you could avoid it by parking in free lots around the hotel. But there aren't free lots around the hotel -- every lot has a sign saying that if you don't have a permit, you'll get towed. I didn't want to take the risk, so I parked in the hotel garage.

Lovely hotel, but $20 per night parking is overpriced for the location.

Also, no free wifi in the rooms. That was kind of surprising.

We stayed here in early Oct after a long flight from Ireland. The (complimentary) shuttle driver was courteous and helpful with our bags. The hotel is located quite near to the airport but noise was never an issue here, sound-proofing is very good. Check in was quick and efficient. Very nice front desk staff, extremly helpful. Rooms are fabulous, extremely clean with comfortable beds, massive bathroom with really nice smellies and plenty of fluffy towels. We ate in the restaurant on 2 occasions and were more than happy with quality of the food and the service. Hot food (omlettes, pancakes etc) cooked to order so its always fresh. Also had sandwich from the bar, top class also. We would recommend this hotel to anyone. We choose it after reading reviews on Trip Advisor and were so glad we stayed there

Pros: The room was very clean and had great Aveda shampoo/soap (a plus since I had forgotten my own stuff). The beds were comfortable, and there were plenty of channels. The hotel itself was a great value, giving us an affordable place to stay during the Chicago Marathon. The room service was very prompt, and the food was pretty good. I particularly enjoyed their fries. They had a nice pool and hot-tub as well, with towels on the way there. The breakfast was pretty standard hotel breakfast, with a made-to-order omelette station (I didn't get to try this because they mixed up my omelette (no meat) with someone else's (lots of ham and bacon)). But it looked good...just keep an eye on your food.

Cons: When we got into our room, one of the shades in the "living room" was broken, and the door deadlock would occasionally get stuck in the locked position. We never asked the staff to fix these problems so it may be unfair to complain about it. There was ALWAYS a wait at the front desk, no matter what time of day I went down there. I really felt like the hotel was understaffed, but maybe that was because it was a busy weekend. We asked for more towels in the morning and told them they could take their time as we didn't need them until the afternoon. We didn't realize that this would result
in an 8 hour delay, after which we called for towels again. They were promptly sent up at that point. The concierge lounge was nice and quiet, but didn't have public computers or printers for use.

Upon check-out, I was a little upset because when we asked the woman at the desk to hold our bags for the day (we could have asked for late checkout, but thought this would be more convenient for the hotel), she crammed my marathon poster into our bag, then wheeled it into a wall and bent it in half. I was shocked at the lack of care for personal belongings, so I'd recommend you not utilize this service.

Everything was wonderful! You must stay here if you want to save a buck! Best deal in Chicago!