My husband and I recently stayed at the Affinia Chicago. We were pleased to find that it was located just a block from the Magnificent Mile. When I originally looked at their website the pictures were beautiful and the rooms looked great. We found an inexpensive rate online and decided to go for it.
I did understand that the hotel was under renovation, however, I was not prepared for what we saw when we arrived. The lobby (if you can call it that) is dismal and cramped and you must squeeze past the desk to get to the elevator. The hotel staff leaves much to be desired. They seemed to lack the confidence to even give directions or answer a simple question. We asked them about restaurants, directions, sight-seeing...basically the typical things you would assume the "consierge" would be able to help you with...but to no avail. We were answered with a "deer in headlights" look.
One of the bellman (whom I won't name) was actually a little creepy. When I checked into the hotel he wouldn't get out of the room. He brought the bags in one by one, very slowly. He stayed for about 15 minutes talking to me about nonsense and asking me personal questions. It was very uncomfortable. While we were there for the weekend the elevator went out twice and no one seemed to know what to do or who to call. Luckily we were only on the 4th floor. The stairwell, however, looked like something in a horror film...filty, with grafitti and nasty drawings.
There was a letter in the room that apologized for the construction and assured us that it would strictly be from 8am-4:30 pm, however, you can here the sound of hammers and power tools bright and early at 7 am...maybe 6:45 am if you're lucky.
When we were ready to check out, the staff almost charged us with another family's room & charged our room & parking to the wrong credit card. Overall, the experience was lackluster. Cheap room...good location; terrible , unprofessional staff with bad attitudes and minimal qualifications. Thumbs down.
On a positive note (ha!), Gino's East, the restaurant next door has fantastic pizza.
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