The Chicago Hotel Collection Wrigleyville — Hotel in Lake View Township

AVOID THIS HOTEL AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!! I had the worst experience with my husband and I want the entire world to know about it so they don’t make the same mistake. We had just arrived to Chicago and took an Uber to the hotel. When we arrived, we approached the front door and when we tried to go into the lobby- the doors were locked. A message on the door said to text for check-in. We each had 2 pieces of luggage and backpacks. Standing on the sidewalk in Wrigleyville on a Friday night. It took some time for someone to respond to the texts. I thought this is extremely odd, but ok.. then someone staying in the hotel let us into the lobby. She said it is a process to check-in and it is done over text because no staff works at the hotel. She also mentioned there are lock boxes inside and outside of the hotel where keycards are accessed. I should’ve known this was our red flag right then. But we gave them the benefit of the doubt. Eventually, about 20 mins later, someone from the number I had texted to get inside the lobby responded and said I needed to fill out a check-in form electronically. This irritated me right off the bat because I had to fill in information I had already provided at booking! This check-in form asked for a photo of your ID, which is fine. Then asked for a selfie to match with the ID. And then needed my credit card information- which I had already used for booking 2 months prior! Next, we were charged an ADDITIONAL $299 in “fees”. Mind you, I had already paid $499 for the room for 2 nights, taxes, AND FEES through a third party. The additional fees threw me for a loop, but they wouldn’t give us access to our keycards until it was paid. So we provided our card information and we were charged. So now we’re up to almost $800 for 2 nights and I’m uncomfortable. We did get access to the lock boxes for our key cards, but shocker, they were faulty. They had 8 keycards between the 2 lock boxes for our room and only one of them would work- sometimes. We were testing it to get in and out of the building and instantly had access issues. Same with the room. The one keycard we had only worked partially. So the housekeeper (who said she wasn’t the housekeeper when we originally saw her pass by) then told my husband she didn’t speak English and had to use google translate to communicate with her. All the while, he had heard her speak on the phone (I assume to the remote hotel staff??) in English. The room is NOT worth the cost AT ALL. Cheap looking. 2 sets of bunkbeds (weird..). The TV was already turned on in the room. I tried to turn it off, but neither one of the remotes worked. And one of the remotes didn’t even have a battery cover and the batteries were half falling out. I tried to turn the tv off manually, but that didn’t work either. The lights to the terrace were inoperable. The cleanliness wasn’t the greatest. A bucket of drinks was sitting on the little table that appeared to be once filled with ice was now a lukewarm mess leaking out of the bucket onto the table. Not to forget to mention, the room smelled weird. I can’t put my finger on it but it had a stench and it wasn’t right. At this point, and over an hour later, my husband and I decided we were leaving to stay elsewhere because we did not want be there for one more minute. We had only opened the door and walked into the room with our bags and literally walked back out not long after. So that’s what we did- we left the key cards on the unmanned desk and left to stay at another hotel in the area. The after hours customer service was AWFUL to us. Was extremely unhelpful, kept repeating that any concerns with the hotel or charges could be taken up with his manager on Monday or Tuesday at the earliest because she doesn’t work weekends. He also placed blame on US, stating WE were “manufacturing reasons for not wanting to stay” when we said we would like our money back and we wanted to leave and go elsewhere. Isn’t that the opposite of a hospitality establishment? So to all- BEWARE!!! Super shady ownership/management and very “scammy” vibes...

Months ago I booked the only hotel available for a recent concert we went to over the weekend, I like to be within walking distance to venues since we take the train. The walk to Wrigley Field was very close so this gets a great rating on that, however…the customer service and everything in between was absolutely horrible the day we arrived. Two weeks before our check in I received a text saying if I didn’t do my pre check within a certain short time frame I would lose my reservation. The way the text message was laid out it seemed like a scam so I called the hotel and spoke to this really nice woman who said that it definitely was them and told me if I forgot to fill out the form or if it wasn’t working I would have no problem keeping my reservation and it would be taken care of at the hotel. I still did my pre check in within the time frame. It is now the morning of arrival and I am driving two hours to the train station when I get a text message at 10 am eastern standard time saying that my cc info was missing from the form and if I don’t fix it by noon my reservation will be canceled. Of course I’m freaking out and I had my fiance click the link since I was driving and he said everything was all there and we didn’t understand what was going on. He took screenshots of the portal and we tried calling the front desk several times and no one answered. Once we got to the station at 11:30 EST I sent over the screen shot because we hit a couple dead zones on the drive. I click the link to go into my reservation and it says it couldn’t locate my name or number. I am panicking. I waited and waited and no one texted so I attempted to call again, on the third call I get this woman who asked what location I’m calling for, I told her Wrigleyville and she said “yes we cancelled your reservation” it wasn’t even noon EST or CST and within an hour of me responding and not the hotel they just canceled it. The woman I spoke to made it seem like there was nothing that could be done so I rambled and she finally said my bank was rejecting the payment. I have never once had my bank reject a payment when it seems like it’s fraudulent so red flag number like 3 for the hotel. I frequent Chicago since it’s my hometown so I’m always there. I asked the woman if I could give her another cc and she said she cant process payments over the phone and I told her I didn’t know what to do, she went silent and said “did you get a text from your bank I just ran it again” ma’am I thought you couldn’t do that over the phone but yes I did I told them it was me and she tried it again and it went through. So red flag 4, if the payment was attempted prior I would have received a text earlier from my bank but I didn’t so my payment wasn’t even ran. We got into Wrigleyville at 1 and had no idea a massive bar crawl was going on, we go up to the hotel and a sign says “door is locked at all times” and we peaked in and no one was in the lobby, so to kill time we got a couple drinks at the movie theater, it’s now 3:30 and I haven’t received a check in text. I called again and the woman said if I came before 5 she could check me in at the desk, I told her I’d be there in a minute and we immediately walked over and there was a father daughter duo standing in front of the hotel looking equally frustrated and confused. We all shared our grievances about checking in and agreed we were all very disappointed. We were eventually let in by another guest walking out. We still waited for someone to come to the front desk and we finally got checked in. The room was nice, king size solo room. Good enough for one night but I wish I brought my own shampoo/conditioner. On the morning of check out we rode the elevator down with this mom and daughter and no one was at the desk again and we were confused again. I mentioned out loud that this was not a pleasant experience and the pair also chimed in and said they were displeased and will never be returning. Every person I spoke to had the same feelings towards this hotel. Stay clear...

I stayed at this hotel two weekends ago for a period of four nights, and, while it was ultimately a good experience, I have a few takeaways. In short: While it is possible to have a good stay here, there are a few things that potential guests really need to be aware of.

Long version: I booked a room here in March for a four night stay in September. A couple months before my trip, when I was making sure I had everything ready, I decided to look up this hotel again, and just about fell out of my chair when I saw all of these negative google reviews. Did I make a mistake by booking this place, I thought? Looking at more of the reviews, the biggest pain point was the remote check in process, in which you will need to be texted a code to get into the building, or you will be locked outside. That gave me pause, but upon doing some digging into my email history, I found that an email had been sent to me detailing the unique (I truly have never experienced anything like it before) check in process, and advising to fill out a pre-arrival form beforehand to ensure a smooth check in process.

I completed and submitted the form, which involves you sending photo ID, as well as a selfie, and hoped for the best. The week of my trip, I tried calling the number given in the emails and website to ensure my form was on hand and that I could expect a smooth check in process. I was never able to reach anyone via phone, so when I caved in and finally texted, they confirmed that I would be all ready to go the day of. Thankfully, they were right! Day of my arrival in Chicago, I got the text a few hours ahead of time that my room was ready, along with codes to open the lockbox containing my roomkey just outside the building's courtyard, and a code to get in the front door. Smooth sailing.

I truly enjoyed the hotel itself: it's an old building, but not without charm, the rooms were nice, and a cool rooftop area that offers a great view of the Chicago skyline and the bustling N Clark St below. There is a bar area in the basement which appeared to be completely abandoned, and the adjoining bar/restaurant area on the ground level had a sign on the door that said it was shut down by the city of Chicago, so...yeah. Location is excellent; I was attending a three day music fest at the nearby Metro which was within easy walking distance, and if you're trying to catch a game at the nearby Wrigley field, that's even closer.

The place was an absolute ghost town on my first night, no staff or other patrons. As my stay progressed, it was more common to see cleaning staff, who were all very courteous. It was also fairly common to see other guests either in the lobby or locked outside, in various states of frustration/confusion, who had not filled out the pre-arrival form and thus were not able to access their rooms. My key card worked throughout my stay, but I talked to one other guest whose key had stopped working, and several other reviews mention this, so I suspect I might've gotten lucky there. No designated parking, so guests should be aware that they will have to find parking that they will probably have to pay for. Additional fees are a bummer, but to be expected in Chicago. Do not expect to see anyone behind the front desk, ever, unless called down for assistance.

My biggest piece of advice to impart here, is, if you're going to have a good experience, YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST FILL OUT THE PRE-ARRIVAL FORM BEFOREHAND. While this was technically sent on the day I booked, it is easily missed and I would not have known about it had I not read all of these reviews. I looked over the website again, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem like anything is disclosed about the check in process until after you book, which is unfortunate. I honestly wanted to give 4 starts, because my stay here was mostly good, but I do think that management should be more up front about this process on their site, as my own stay could have gone very differently if I hadn't stumbled upon these reviews and acted...