I stay in Chicago about 10 times a year...for some reason I decided to try something new and for that I regret I had the worst stay in Chicago.
First the good. The rooms while very small (we had a superior deluxe (whatever) corner room) are quiet and the beds are comfortable. The location is across from the Drake in the gold coast so you are steps to mag mile, lake and hip rush street area yet in a qeuit safe spot. This is all that is good about this place.
The bad...where to start. Upon entering the building you will not see a friendly face. The front desk is a worn down corner in the back in dire need of some new carpet. The staff is very rude and you will not get good service. We had an extended stay and it took 3 days of requests to get our sheets changed. The first to housekeeping before we left for the day. Then we called front desk that night and someone both lacking english skills and refusing to let us speak to a manager answered- yes she said she would not get a manager. Not until I said I was coming down there after asking 5 times politly for a manager did she finally put one on. This "manager" if she was one, "yes sir" me to death. Before I could get a word out she would say yes sir. She guarenteed the sheets would be changed the next day...guess what they were not. I called again the next day and spoke with another manager who was "shocked" by our story. Our sheets finally got changed the next day. No sincereity however whatsoever.
Oh, and upon arrival our room did not have a remote control. These are the types of tv systems that require a remote to operate. It took over an hour and two phone calls to get a remote control. After a long trip in it would have been nice to relax a little before we headed out. The front desk was very rude as they were the whole stay. When they declared the engineer was too busy on other calls to bring us a remote I asked why couldn't a manager bring one up- the person got extremely upset as if this was way below them of a task as to ask a manager to bring us a remote control...very arrogant.
The door staff might as well not be there. We never saw them assist anyone with luggage or cabs our entire stay. They tend to stay inside by the tv at the bar and screw off. It's pretty sad actually.
The rooms as stated were very small. More like Tokyo size vs. Chicago. The biggest and worst problem with the room is the bathroom. The shower has horrible flow form the overhead fixture. It literally takes several minutes to wet your hair. The flow is aweful. Therefore showers take forever and makes for an annoying start of your day. Best solution is you will need to turn on both the shower head and handheld to have a chance at getting any decent shower.
The bathrooms were also not very clean. The corners had dirt from many many visitors ago. It's clear the maids do a quick general wipe down and not a thorough clean. Same with the corners in the main area. This is usually a good telltale of a hotel and yet again holds true here.
The other huge problem is the design of the shower stall. Be sure to have the shower head turned off and the hand held pointed away because you have to crawl in the shower to turn on the water then get back out as it warms up. This added to the lack of flow and this is the worst shower I've experienced in the modern world...not counting thrid world countries where you pay someone to dump water on your head- which btw, is better experience than the Knickerbocker.
For the price, at any price, it was a huge disappointment. The thing that bugs us the worst is not at anytime did management offer an apology for their staff. Complete arrogance. It is that (and horrible showers) that will keep this place from ever becoming anything more than a bad memory and a suckers bed. I put this as a never stay never recommend in Chicago. For the price point go for the Wyndham. Pay a little more and do the Dana or if money is no object Four Season can't be beat. Just whatever do yourself a favour and don't book the Millenium Knickerbocker!
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