Courtyard by Marriott Chicago Downtown/River North — Hotel in Chicago

OVERALL: Even though the staff is friendly and the location ideal, I would not recommend Courtyard by Marriott to any visitor.

PROS: Location and security are the only perks this hotel possesses. Courtyard is next to any main attraction near the River Walk, tons of bookstores and local shops, and delicious restaurants. Security is nice, as the place requires card access to get beyond the entry, and the hotel has hired on-site security guards.

CONS: Bed and sofa bed are super firm. This is subjective due to personal comfort, but I struggled to relax at night due to this factor.

Staff is nice but forgetful. I had to follow up about several issues listed below multiple times before they were fixed.

TV was not working on the night I arrived and had a blurry screen when I attempted to watch any movie. After issue persisted the next day, I contacted the front office who sent a technician for repairs. The technician discovered the issue but pushed it on the next shift member, which was the next day. Still hasn’t been fixed completely. Screen works fine for a few minutes, then goes blurry again.

Refrigerator was not cooling when I arrived, so I had to ask for it to be fixed or replaced. Food I had bought went bad due to this issue.

No toiletries were in the hotel room as advertised online, so I had to request them at the front desk several times before getting them delivered to the room. (Asked in the morning and at night before toiletries were finally delivered, not immediate back to back requests.)

I had to request towel replacements several times before receiving them. (Asked in the morning and at night before towels were finally delivered, not immediate back to back requests.)

Air conditioner was difficult to figure out and did not seem to cool properly. I had it set at 67 degrees and it was still hot sometimes. I can have my apartment at 70 degrees and freeze, but this tiny room cannot cool properly, which led to uncomfortable nights after 90 degree Chicago humid weather conditions.

See pictures for the small details in the bathroom that I had to see when this room should have been better prepared. And we found thongs behind the furniture desk, so the room was not clean. There was a used sock on top of the furniture.

The restaurant advertised online is closed permanently, and I was unaware of this until I saw a flier in the elevator.

There’s a coffee machine in the room but no filtered complimentary water. You have to walk all the way down to the lobby and get small cups of water to bring back to the room, which is inconvenient when you’re on an...

Hotel was great (cleanly/great amenities, etc) and so was most of the staff! Besides the man who checked us in. Us 3 women had just pulled our luggage from a parking garage a block away since there is no parking here. We had a lot in our hands. Clearly needed a dolly. We asked for one and the man looked from the desk and told us there were none. Didn’t go out of his way to check or to help find other options to help us. He’s checking us in and gives us our room keys. I ask what floor because he didn’t give us any details of our room or where it would be located. He points to the card as it says 11__ I have stayed in PLENTY of hotels. Not all the time are the room numbers associated with the floor you are on. I again ask him AGAIN what floor. He has the audacity to give me a look like I’m unintelligent, points first, and says 11. I have never had someone ruin my experience within the first 5 minutes of being there. I understand we were there for lollapolooza. We weren’t the most ritzy customers coming through that hotel but we weren’t treated fairly or with urgency as others had been treated walking through the door and it was evident. For instance one of the mornings we asked for towels. After 20 minutes one of our girls went down to actually go get towels because it was taking too long. They wouldn’t give her towels and we proceeded to wait another 20-25 minutes for these towels basically an hour total. Why we couldn’t of just been given them after waiting so long is frustrating and having to again wait another 25 minutes if not more on top of that is beyond me. We were all showered with dirty towels by the time the clean towels were up there. I will say the nicest staff you have are the security people outside of the hotel by the doors. They all genuinely cared and treated us far better than any of the people at the front desk. I applaud them as they have the more stressful job yet compose themselves better. Really appreciated those men at night as we did have some men trying to follow behind us and they did a great job at protecting us and stopping them. Really appreciated that. Besides the front desk staff treating us poorly, our room was nice and clean. And the amenities even though some were closed down were great. The gym was great for a hotel gym which I loved as its very important to keep my health on track even when out of town. Also proximity is great for this hotel as we were near great food...

Honestly one of the worst hotels I have ever stayed in. First of all, our first night, my cousin was showering and she felt something crawling on her foot… it was a cockroach. Immediately called the front desk to ask someone to please come up and kill it because it was a room full of girls. Took 25 minutes or more to have someone come up when we were literally freaking out because it was huge. We quickly packed our stuff because no way did we have another roommate that did not pay for their part of the hotel. The person they sent said “it was a water bug” and that they show up more in the summer (It’s May). Also because we were on “the floor that the pool was on.” Also this worker said I should know what a cockroach looks like because I am Mexican and there are cockroaches in Mexico. Therefore I should know that it was a water bug and not a cockroach. Sir, it was a damn cockroach, the gaslighting was so real. He got quiet real quick when we pulled up the picture of it. They offered us a room switch and $40 in “food vouchers.” They didn’t seem too bothered by it and thought it wasn’t a big deal. It was more of the fact that it crawled on her foot in the SHOWER so it must have came out of the drain??? Honestly it is just as bad as having bed bugs.. please get an exterminator or get shower stoppers. I don’t know, do something??? We had such a traumatizing weekend because of this. They also ran out of blankets and trolleys. We did valet and we had to take multiple trips from the room because they ran out of trolleys. Never got offered any help and we had so many things. Also my cousin accidentally left a perfume in the previous room because we panicked and we rushed to get out of the room because of the cockroach. The worker said they toss everything and don’t look at what they toss out. They toss $120 perfumes? Yeah it doesn’t really make any sense. Snacks downstairs were overpriced, not even FOOD but snacks. The $40 vouchers weren’t enough for all of us because the total for 8 small snacks was $51… rooms are extremely small, sofa bed is horribly hard. Overall just a terrible experience and a waste of money. I have stayed in more outdated hotels before and I have never seen cockroaches. They tried to normalize it when it’s simply not okay. Have you ever had a huge cockroach crawl on your foot while you are showering? Don’t think so. Now we have trust issues with staying at hotels, thank you for...