I wanted to surprise my wife with a trip to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to stay downtown near all the festivities, so I looked at The Congress Plaza Hotel. I love history and old buildings. Their website said it was built in 1895, and was once owned by Al Capone. The pictures were very nice, so I booked it, thinking I was getting a classy old hotel. What I really got was an old hotel!
When we got to the hotel, I went to the front desk and the woman seemed annoyed that I had the nerve to want to check in at 2:45, as check in isn't until 3:00. After she gave us our room, we hauled our luggage past no less than 5 bellmen, never once were we even asked if we needed assistance. When we found our room, we walked in to a smell that can only be described as dirty. The carpet was filthy and looked like it belonged in a mid70's mobile home! The door on the bathroom had to be the original door from 1895, which would have been ok, except it was cracked the length of it from top to bottom, and had to have at least a quarter inch of paint on it.
I pulled out the chair at the small table, sat down, and immediately fell to the floor, hitting the a/c unit on the way down. The chair had been broken before and someone had glued it back together and put it back in the room! My wife called the front desk to tell them of the situation, and while she was on the phone, she sat on the bed and the bed fell through!!!
They sent a maintenance man to retrieve the broken chair. When we told him about the bed, he pulled the mattress back and to my surprise there was no boxspring only wooden slats that were held to the sides of what looked like a waterbed frame, with small screws.
We checked in and back out in less than an hour! The front desk manager was very polite and understanding, as I'm sure that we were not the first guests to leave as soon as they get to their room.
This hotel could be a beautiful old hotel, ala The Peabody. It's too bad that it looks like they gave up on it in the 80's.
Unless major restoration happens, I will never stay there again.
hotel reviews