Congress Plaza Hotel

Actually now that I think about it I would have prefered sleeping on a park bench. To say that this property is poorly maintained is an understatement. From the looks of my room, it was last updated in the 60's with workmanship of a drunken sailor. It's location close to the elevated train tracks is convenient unless you like to sleep. The trail mix and popcorn under the bed speaks to the attention of detail. Do yourself a favor, do not book a room there foryourself. The only purpose for this hotel is a mean joke for a deserving co-worker

I wish this review standard gave you a zero as an option because this hotel is not even deserving of 1 out of 10. Let me just say that I booked this hotel online after looking at pictures on the internet. When you arrive, you realize very quickly that it is not what it seemed to be. All this stuff about presidents and foreign dignitaries staying there may be true but perhaps it was in the 1920's because they sure wouldn't stay there now. My room had a nice view but smelled horrible. Bathroom was disgusting and furnishings looked early 70's to me. The staff..this is the the kicker...were indifferent to my concerns and unhelpful. Instead of making me feel welcome at their grand hotel, they made me wonder why they would bother working at a job they hated so much. I checked out in the middle of the night and went to the airport eager to get back home to sleep in a decent bed. The only positive thing I can say about this place is the location is good but if you pitched a tent across the street in the park, you would probably be more comfortable.

DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!! After we checked in.. They gave us the wrong directions to our room & we got lost finding what we thought was our room, we finely found what we thought was our room only to find out both keys didn't work to the door.. Well unknown to us they have 2 of the same room no#'s. Then we wait 30 minutes in the hall for them to send up someone with new keys & no one shows up, we get aggravated & went back down to the lobby (that's when we found out they have 2 of the same rooms with the same room #).. On top of this they didn't have the room I reserved/requested & on top of all this the whole place was terrible, it was old, every thing smelled like curry, it was in terrible shape (the halls, doors, every thing).. Not worth the money & we didn't even get to see the room which we figured was just as bad as every thing else. We just told them to give us our money back & we left. If your looking for a romantic getaway go to the Essence Suites in Orland Park or the Sybaris.. We ended up at the Essence & it was well worth the aggravation... Oh & the hotel was on Strike. They had strikers out front. Terrible, Terrible Hotel.. Will not even try to stay here again....

is definitely an old hotel, with all the good & bad that can mean. The architecture & decor are historic & elegant, but they also show their age with thinning carpets & dusty corners. The walls are very thin, so you'll hear your neighbors. The rooms are tidy, nothing fancy. That said, the service was very good. The prices are good for groups & conventions, & the location is convenient. I enjoyed this place very much, but then again i was excited to see

everything, the King Tut exhibit was great

This was the best bang for our buck this weekend, so I was able to get past the fact that the hotel workers were on strike picketting outside the hotel, along with the fact that a good portion of the guest rooms were being rehabed and it was a tad dusty. However, we were assigned a room that was the fire escape, as in in the event that there was a fire, everyone on our floor would have to come through our room to get to the fire escape. Upon returning to the hotel after our night out in the city, we attempted to get a soda ($1.50) from the vending machine on our floor, but it just took the money and produced no soda nor a refund. When we attempted to alert the front desk, we had to call 3 times before anone answered. When we finally did speak to someone, they did not offer a refund, but said they would put an "Out of order" sign on the machine, but for the rest of our stay, it never received one. The onsite restruant is also closed for lunch (even on Saturday!). All in all, you get what you pay for, if that.