Congress Plaza Hotel Chicago

very pretty and a great location.

Parking was outrageous!! $54 a night and no in and out. If your going to charge outrageous prices you should be able to come and go. Way to much just to park your car.

This is a fantastic hotel, steeped in history, dripping with glorious decoration on the lower floors, and ringing with the sound of bygone decades of glory. The room was very very comfortable and clean, with a constant supply of soaps and clean towels, and a good firm bed. The staff were extremely professional and efficient while remaining friendly and accessible. The room fridge was fine. My safe had been inadvertently locked by the prior occupants, and the staff fixed it super-quick. Clearly any one who worked there really put so much into the place.

This feels like a place where someone has bought the hotel and then just stopped investing about twenty years ago. It's an amazing place. All the staff are absolutely fantastic, the management clearly do a great job, and the place is glorious but you just get the feeling that those on high with the money to invest in it have just given up and stopped. Carpets need changing, corridors need new lighting and painting, the ice machines are noisy old things that look like garbage collectors. And the wifi drops in and out. Such a shame. Come on investors! This place could be truly amazing.

I loved staying at the Congress Plaza, and will do so again in the near future. My rooms have always been clean, tidy, and comfortable. As for location - well, it's within sight of the Art Institute of Chicago, Cloud Gate. And a very pleasant walk to the Aquarium, The Field Museum, and Soldier Field (Go Bears!). Union Station, for Amtrak, is about a 30 minute walk away, but a short taxi ride if you have heavy luggage. Likewise, O'hare Airport is about a 45 minute drive away. The Metra stations are a very short walk away. Staff always courteous and helpful, taxis normally readily available at the main entrance.

No real problems, although when I was there a couple of times (August 2023) there appeared to be issues with both in-house restaurants. Room service was excellent, though. A minor issue - as a professional interior decorator I would say that the paint finish in the rooms leaves a little to be desired, but that's probably just me.

Wish there had been more surfaces to place luggage and more counter space in bathroom

I had read the previous reviews of a 'dated hotel' but it was much better than I expected. The rooms are of a decent size, bed was great and very comfy. There is plenty of storage space, a mini fridge to keep your drinks cool and a coffee machine. It is close to public transport links if you need for example to get to McCormick Place.

Well the rooms do need some goof refurbishment, you can see coat of paints over each other to hide ageing wood doors and boards but nothing really annoying. If you are going to do laundry, be patient... I had to chase for mine and from same day service I got them 3 days later...

Great location and cost benefit. Chicago is a very expensive city, in that context, this hotel has shown to be a great cost benefit (I would find it very expensive in other cities). The rooms are big, there are restaurants nearby, close to important city highlights. Comprehensive staff provided check-in 1.5h before and check-out 1h after the usual times as there were rooms available without extra charges.

The cleaning could be better. It looked like the room was cleaned in a hurry before my arrival and during the stay.

I booked a king bedroom with lake view. We went for the Chicago Street Race and our window overlooked the entire track, my boyfriend was ecstatic. It was nice to have a fridge in the room to keep cold water for walking around. Air conditioning was amazing and our room was always nice and cool when we got back.

The tv was a little outdated and small, but that is a super picky thing, it still worked fine and we were able to find some movies on FOX to watch. We tried the Gazebo restaurant downstairs and the wait time is very long. Took a while to get a waiter and a while for our order to be taken and food to come even though they weren't that busy at the time we went. Food tasted good, but not worth the time and money it took.

The bed and view were very nice, and the lobby was gorgeous. The architecture was quite old, but despite this the elevator was exceptionally fast. The restaurant was decent, we had breakfast there and I wasn't particularly impressed but it was edible. I was disappointed when I realized there was no pool, but there was a small lounge room with the game pool and a little gambling cabinet.

I found that the bathroom was exceptionally small and difficult to work with despite it being a king room. Additionally, there were stains in the tub that room service could not clean.

The location was perfect, and the staff were extremely helpful and friendly, the parking was close (staff were informative and very friendly to us), and even with a large event happening they still managed to keep things moving smooth.

The room by the elevator on the 12th floor was always smelling like weed, the elevators were super noisy and felt iffy, one of the bathrooms showers was dirty so the person in the room didn’t take a shower, more blankets would’ve been nice but I understand the hotel being filled so some things weren’t top priority in some ways. And it wasn’t really updated from when the building was built, or when it was renovated years ago. Trying to figure out if the door was employee only or not was tough.

Location can't be beat. Cool old hotel could use a fresh up but it is fine. Room was huge . We selected the side with a view of the and boy did we get one!

Somethings were a bit "tired" but the view more than made up for those.