The Willows Hotel — Attraction in Lake View Township

• I stayed at the Willows Hotel for ten days and had a wonderful time. If you’re not picky about being in a 98 year old building, you’ll have a great experience too. The small hotel is on a beautiful quiet residential tree-lined street, but only one block to tons of city amenities, trendy shops, theatres, and any kind of restaurant/cafe you’d want.

• There’s a lot of public transportation available as Willows is at the Clark/Diversey/Broadway hub in the East Lakeview area, and you’re two blocks from Sheridan Road and Lake Shore Drive busses to the Magnificent Mile and downtown. There is some street parking, and they’ll direct you to parking lots behind or near the hotel.

• The lobby has an inviting seating area with fireplace, the walls covered with whimsical photos and art. Classical music fills the room. There are marble tables by the huge windows to read and have (24 hour) complimentary coffee. The elevator is up-to-date and fast.

• The hotel and rooms are immaculately clean, and housekeeping is happy to fulfill every request promptly. The bed was super comfortable with soft sheets and duvet, squishy pillows that conform to your head, and a mattress pillow-topper. There are plentiful absorbent towels, and you can ask for more. The hot water is really hot, the cold really cold and the shower water pressure is good. Chicago alternated from 38 degrees to 72 degrees while I was there, both heating and air conditioning kept the room perfectly comfortable.

• I had one of their smallest rooms (on the top floor) and it was a comfortable size for sleeping and getting ready for the day. There are nice touches like free wi-fi, very soft comfy robes, iron, hairdryer, and mini-fridge fully stocked with snacks, drinks, wine, liquor. There are blackout blinds, and lots of drawer and hanger space for your clothes.

• The lobby is staffed 24 hours around the clock, I felt secure and there was always someone there to say hello and answer questions. Everyone who works in the hotel is very friendly, efficient, open to helping with city suggestions. I felt like I was a guest in their home rather than at a boutique hotel. Though it’s a modest neighborhood hotel the staff always wants to go the extra mile to make your stay pleasurable.

• Some will find a “downside” to staying at the Willows. In 1924 rooms were built small so If you like large Hilton-style rooms these may not do for you. There are a lot of windows but some don’t face the streets, so if you need lots of light ask for the top floor. Yes, some of the paint is flaking and there are scratches on the furniture, I found it quaint, or you can pay twice as much and stay downtown.

• I know this is a long review, but I wanted to be detailed as I stayed there a ten days while as I enjoyed an unparalleled Autumn in Chicago, I hope I can visit the “windy city” and make Willows Hotel...

I was really encouraged by the reviews that I read here and gave my honest feedback to the hotel when they sent a survey. They then asked me to fill out a Google review, so here goes -

The lobby is great and all of the staff were lovely. I suppose in hindsight, the front desk clerk saying, "Welcome to the 1920s, ladies!" was our fair warning.

We were made to feel 'early' by checking in at 1:00 - Standard 'We'll see if a room is ready' stall. Puhleese.

Our room was one in a long hall on the second floor. There was only one bolt lock, no additional chain or door blocking lock and the door didn't exactly sit in the door jam (you could see daylight).

Neither of the windows in our room were locked (it was -10 outside) and I was only able to lock one of them, as the other was not sitting in the window correctly. The bathroom window had a small piece of plexiglass between the outside and the bathroom, which was not attached correctly and there were ICICLES on the inside of the window. It was clear that a bolt had been placed to try to rectify this issue, which I tightened to keep the air out for our one night stay.

The bathroom was not updated, but was clean, as were the towels. The soap dispenser at the sink did not work, despite my trying to unplug the pump. Water was hot and pressure was good. There was no mold and the floor was warm, which was nice.

The room did not appear to have been vacuumed, as there were wrappers under the bed and behind the side table (Trader Joe's honey lemon drops if you're interested to know). The bed did appear to have fresh linens on it and there were four pillows. I would not call it a comfortable bed, however.

There were very few working outlets in the room, only the ones in the lamps seemed to work, and others either didn't work, or were occupied with something already plugged in to them.

It was a very loud hallway with slamming doors and the alleyway outside of our room was very active, as were the wind chimes from the house outside our room window.

The front door did not require our room key after 9pm as advertised. The breakfast was okay. Of our six Lyft drivers, only two had GPS that was correct, so know that that can be a challenge for navigating to and from the hotel.

I appreciate that it's an old building and that there are few affordable options in Lincoln Park - I don't think that accounts for lack of security and...

I had a fairly negative experience with my stay here, though for perhaps somewhat idiosyncratic reasons. The hotel itself has nice decor and staff, though my room was very small, the TV barely seemed to be tuned to any channels, and the breakfast is not much above motel standard, served in a small lobby such that it was hard to manoeuvre around the other guests.

My real problem came at the end of my stay – I was informed I'd be charged for one night that I understood had been paid for by the organisation that had made my booking. Now I accept that this seems primarily to be a miscommunication between me and that organisation, but there were several things the hotel did that fell short. The first was that when I checked in it was acknowledged that the room had been prepaid and I was asked for a credit card for incidentals – no mention of the fact that one night was not covered and would be charged to the card. When I checked out, and I learnt I would be charged for a night, I made it clear that this wasn't my understanding, but it being Sunday there was apparently no manager on duty but I was told I would be contacted. I was never contacted. Rather, the hotel charged my credit card without giving me an opportunity to talk to the organisation – rather I discovered that I'd been charged only weeks later from my credit card statement. Moreover, they charged me not once, but twice, erroneously, and then refunded one of the charges – but since my card is in a non-US currency, I wasn't refunded the exchange fee. When I discovered this I tried to contact them via their online form, but it evidently doesn't work, and there's no other email contact given on their website. This was problematic as I wanted to speak to a manager, and Chicago business hours coincide with the night...