To begin with I made the mistake of booking through an internet booking site, thus paying 50% more than most of the guests for the same or lesser rooms. My fault, not the hotel's, but it doesn't help. While the website advises that the hotel is "close to Union Station" it is in fact a full mile away. Check-in was awful; we arrived around noon and were allowed to store our bags until the 3pm check-in time, about which they were very strict: by 3pm, the lobby was filled with over 40 people who had arrived at various times during the afternoon but were not permitted to check in until exactly 3pm. The rooms have no irons or ironing boards; no mini bar; no microwave; things you'd get standard even at a much cheaper roadside location. Each room had a radiator and an air conditioning unit build into the window such that the window could not be opened; this became a problem during the night when the power in the room failed in the stifling heat. The desk clerk responded to my complaint that the circuits were overloaded and nothing could be done. That's probably true; the overhead light switch in the room sparked when I switched it! At one point during the day at least one of the elevators got stuck and a guest had to climb out. The free "high-speed" internet is so slow that a short video would take close to an hour to download. The shelf over the sink in our bathroom was broken, leaving absolutely no place to store toothbrushes, etc. Water pressure in the shower was poor (although we were on a high floor in this 12-storey building). We expected a complimentary continental breakfast, as their website advertised this, but when we got there, they told us they'd stopped doing that - although that's one of the features I'd paid for.
The location is excellent - a block from the CTA Red Line and a block or so from Buckingham Fountain - in a very noisy but busy and safe area of the city. Despite the check-in fiasco and their inability to fix the power outages, the staff was very friendly and tried to be helpful.
The "fully equipped" business center consisted of one computer and a non-functioning printer.
This place was so much cheaper than anything else in the city, I should have realized it was too good to be true. I'd recommend it, because for the difference in price I'd volunteer to suffer. It's a glorified hostel, and if you can deal with that, this place is OK.
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