Holiday Inn Chicago Dwtn - the Mart by IHG — Hotel in Chicago

In short, I was not a fan of this hotel. I would not stay here again and would not recommend it.

In long, here are the main issues we faced:

The walk to the hotel room was a bit absurd. You have to take 2 separate elevators to get to the rooms. The first elevator is at the back of the entrance, and when you reach the hotel lobby on floor 15, you then have a walk to the other side of the building for your second elevator. That alone isn't enough to bring my review down, but it was inconvenient.

If you want some food after a long day of walking and want to deliver door dash to your room, good luck, because the lobby staff will not let them deliver the food to your room. This has never been an issue in any other hotel I have visited. You will be forced to grab your food at the counter yourself.

There also isn't a single soda machine on the property, leaving the only option being a small market area where you will pay 4$ for a single small can of soda. Of course, the payment will then ask for a tip, as if they aren't charging an absurd amount already. You also won't know it even costs 4 dollars until you are already paying, because there are no price tags in the market area.

The staff, while generally friendly, were unknowledgeable about the hotel. We asked where the sauna was and were told it was near the pool. When we changed and went to visit it after a day of walking, we were greeted with an out of order sign. This was not a new change either, as we asked another employee if it would become available soon and maintenance informed them over radio that parts were on order. The sauna was a major reason we chose this specific hotel, so we felt cheated by this, out of our money and time. This alone is not the reason for the rating though.

The rooms were also not great.

The mattress itself was ok, but the single sheet and comforter on it were a very rough texture, they almost felt starched. After our sauna fiasco we decided a bath would be nice, but the drain to our tub turned out to be non-functional. This also made showering annoying as we had to avoid stepping on a metal chunk coming out of the drain while we showered. Even the small adjustable mirror on the wall was dangling and did not feel attached.

Also, they would not tell us over the phone, but in person we were told checking in 4 hours early would be a 50$ charge. Luckily the bellhops were friendly and able to hold our luggage instead because that $50 charge felt unreasonable for an already available room.

The most I can give this hotel is that the bellhops were friendly and there weren't bugs or anything. I can also say the second lobby on the 15th floor was pretty. Finally, the brown line metro was an ok distance, about a 10 minute walk.

In conclusion, I will not be back and will not be recommending this...

I stayed at this hotel for only two nights and had an extremely stressful experience.

I was checked in and then given a room where the air conditioning was blasting heat. I called the front desk and requested a different room and said specifically that I didn’t want a room that had the elevator banks on the other side of the wall. (I had one of these rooms the last time and couldn’t sleep all night because the room literally shares a wall with two elevators. All of the room in the -15 line should really be converted to something other than guest rooms.) The front desk person assured me that the room she assigned me was not that room, but lo and behold it was. I then waited another solid 20 minutes for a third room. I walked into that room and saw that someone’s clothes were all over the bed, so that room had actually been assigned to someone else. Finally, after dragging my bag all over the hotel four times, I was given a fourth room. After less than 10 minutes, the door opened, because someone else had been given a key to the same room. I’ve never had this happen to me in my life and I’m in my late 40s and I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels. I called down to the front desk and I was very upset because I felt that my room was not secure. I was now also late for business dinner and then had to go back to the front desk to get new keys for some reason.

Also, I have severe allergies to feathers. Prior to staying here, I called and left a voicemail with the front desk and then called a few days later to make sure that there was a note on my reservation that I could not have feather pillows. When I checked in I was told that they didn’t have feather pillows anymore. But while I was sitting on my bed I noticed that I was having weird breathing issues. I didn’t want to but I decided to check all the pillows. As it turns out, two of my four pillows had feathers in them. I called the front desk to let them know and no one came to get the pillows. And truthfully having had the pillows in the room already was an issue but I was too tired to try to resolve it and had no faith to do anything.

They also allegedly gave me a $50 credit toward food/bev for my troubles but it did not show up on the final bill.

I hope to never...

Review for 1st night

I was excited to stay here since the app showed it was a new hotel.. It was a good stay. I stayed for 2 nights and booked each separately on rewards nights. The hotel is very beautiful. The view where the restaurant/bar is located is nice- food was great. A little expensive but it's a hotel so expect hotel prices, that's everywhere. The train is also super close to the hotel, and very convenient. Walking seems good too- we did not do much walking because it was freezing that weekend. I was not too impressed with the rooms view, I saw other reviews that showed pictures of much better views. I currently work in the hotel industry, and have worked for IHG before, and other brands too.. Which is why I think the following would have made my stay better and resulted in a better review:

I would never give a rewards member(definitely not a platinum elite) a connecting room unless traveling with someone else. This should always be the last option for rewards members. I was given a connecting room.. This tells me that no one bothered to pre-assign my room(not the MOD, not the morning front desk, etc) and assigned me whatever was left at check in OR the front desk does not know what rooms are connecting rooms at the time of checking people in. Check in time should also not be an excuse since the system allows pre-assigning of the rooms, I also stated I was a late arrival at the time of booking, and called to let the front desk know my flight had been delayed.

I called down to ask if I can change rooms and stated connecting rooms are usually noisy.. I was reassured they were not and that the walls were thick. Early in the morning- I could hear either the guests next door or housekeeping being super loud.. I don't even blame the guy who told me the walls were thick since my room should have been pre-assigned anyways. So they can only do/say so much....

I believe Brittany was the name of the night auditor upon check in. She was great, very friendly!

I have family in Chicago, and I like to stay at hotels when staying in the area for privacy. I look forward to staying again on my next visit.. and making this my go to hotel when visiting. I just hope I am not given a...