The Hoxton, Chicago — Hotel in West Chicago Township

I really wish I had read more of the reviews before booking. Overall, the cons outweigh the pros and I highly recommend staying at The Emily Hotel nearby on Fulton & Morgan instead of The Hoxton, which is poorly managed. It's a Potemkin village where the pretty facade and minimalist chic lobby/bar conceal significant engineering/soundproofing issues and lack of basic customer service.

CONS: 1.) The Hoxton has little to no customer service for hotel guests. Echoing others, the front desk staff who checked us in cares more about the restaurant & bar patrons than the hotel guests. The check-in process was very mechanical and unfriendly, with no explanation of the several restaurants/bars on-site, the rooftop pool, amenities, recommendations for exploring the neighborhood, or any other information. We had planned to go to the Lazy Bird cocktail bar at the hotel, but it's closed on Sundays (there was no reminder of this at check-in, which would have been a nice courtesy).

2.) The biggest issue–by far–is the fact that every ~10 minutes, the L train comes rumbling through on elevated tracks right next to hotel rooms. And don't get me wrong, I love reliable public transportation as much as the next person, but of course, there's absolutely zero mention of the train while checking-in. As a local, hearing the L is not new to me, but if you're going to operate a "4-star hotel" right by a CTA station, you need to invest in the proper insulation materials and windows. Even with the windows closed, the sound carries from the streets and it's clear whoever developed this hotel skimped on paying for actually high-quality building supplies at the guests' expense. What's worse, when I called the front desk to ask about a room change, the employee, instead of acknowledging the issue, apologizing, and offering something to compensate for it (e.g. 10% off at the hotel bar/restaurant would have been something), responded by saying "he's used to city noises" and that "he can't stop the trains." For $30 you can get "upgraded" to a room on the other side of the building, which allegedly will have less noise, but not no noise from the trains. He didn't even offer earplugs until I specifically asked if there's anything they or we could do to help alleviate the issue. His tone was patronizing and dismissive (honestly I don't blame him, I blame whoever is managing this hotel, as I have a feeling the vast majority of guests call within a few minutes of seeing their room to complain about the train). My partner and I were even joking that the hotel staff probably bet on how long it'll take new guests to call the front desk and complain. To be fair, the train isn't 24/7 so you'll get a break in the wee hours of the morning, but the whole situation is a sad state of affairs.

3.) The rooms are tiny with chipped furniture, crumpled magazines, and lacking in the usual array of toiletries/snacks you would expect to get from a hotel of this caliber. The thermostat was hanging crookedly on the wall. Shampoo+conditioner are in large, unsecured bottles which could be tampered with. We only got 1 towel per person.

PROS: 1.) Location. If you're planning to spend most of your time in the West Loop, being right off of Lake & Green is ideal.

2.) While the bathrooms are small, the shower surprisingly had amazingly good water pressure.

3.) We stayed Sunday-Monday and booked via HotelTonight so altogether, we got a decent rate (total w/taxes ~$150).

In sum, I wonder how The Hoxton, at least according to Google Reviews, is a "4-star hotel"? We stayed at The Emily the night before and decided to mix it up for our last night in Chicago, and regretted it. The Emily is a few blocks away and the entire experience there is chef's kiss (the ample-sized rooms are tastefully furnished, including a king-size bed, toiletries, pleasant and helpful staff, a 20% discount for hotel guests at the bar, etc.) We thought The Hoxton would be similar, but I would not put them in the same category. At the end of the day...

We were there for two nights for a family wedding in the area, and as others have posted, the rooms are very small. There's no closet, no desk, and the lighting is horribile. There's a huge overhead bright light that will blind you, but the lights on the side of the bed and next to the one chair are so dim that you can't see to read anything. With your luggage right by the door, it's very, very cramped.

Also as reported by others, it is very loud with el, and the heating/air conditioning system is loud and doesn't work well. It was very cold, and although we kept turning up the heat, it was never comfortable.

The sink in our bathroom was stopped up and wouldn't drain. Another relative was with us in a different room, and she actually got scabies from her stay there, which has been a nightmare for her. When she called the hotel to let them know (not even to request a refund, but to report the room number so they could take care of the problem), it just seemed to fall on deaf ears. It was a young person on the evening shift who took the call, who said she would report it to the manager, and the guest never heard back from anyone at the hotel.

There's no ironing board/ iron in the room, and when we called down to get one, it took forever to get there. There weren't enough towels or washclothes in the room, and the ones that are there are very scratchy.

Also as reported by others, the elevator is a disaster, takes forever.

When you're paying that kind of money for a hotel, you don't expect the conditions you find at The Hoxton.

ON THE UPSIDE: The location is great. Lots of great restaurants nearby and fun things to do. The hotel hosted a dinner in "The Apartment," and we did all enjoy that. Nice ambience and the food they served family style was very good, as was the wait staff, very courteous and friendly.

The hotel lobby is very lively and festive, live DJ most of the time, great place for a happy hour meetup or after-dinner drinks (good for outgoing folks, younger crowd, but probably too loud and busy for older people.) Definitely not a place for a "family gathering" with older aunts/uncles/grandparents/families with kids. This hotel is defintely meant for the younger twentysomething crowd.

For the price, I wouldn't stay overnight at the hotel again. It's simply not worth the money ......

had a terrible experience at this hotel. My friend and I had a reservation in this hotel, we went to the room and the room (on a second reservation) was not clean at all. At some point they brought someone to clean and we left all of our personal belongings there to go to dinner. After we went to dinner, we wanted to go on a carriage ride, however it was cold so we told the carriage guy to stop by the hotel to get a jacket - my friend went upstairs to get the jacket and because it was cold my friend borrowed the blanket from the hotel. The front desk lady runs after my friend accusing of stealing (the room was paid for and we were going to go back to sleep there, so we told her that we will bring it back). We went on the ride and came back to the hotel about 2-3 hrs later. We went inside to tell the front desk lady to charge us for the blanket because we had spilt drinks on it and it was dirty. She was not cooperating and fighting us back and accusing us of stealing and called security. It was approximately at 2 AM in the morning - I decided to go upstairs to drop my stuff off, but the cards were disconnected and I wasn’t able to go in and have access to the stuff that I needed. I came back down to talk to them, but they were very rude and wouldn’t cooperate. I wanted to get access to the car to drive off because my friend was dealing with the situation and I was stressed out, and felt that the situation was escalating - and they wouldn’t give us the valley ticket to access the car. There were personal belongings in the room that we were not allowed to access - including medication that my friend was prescribed and cannot go one day without. They wouldn’t allow us to get into the room to get our stuff even though the room was fully paid for. We are still waiting to get our personal belongings because apparently they need a room director to facilitate this process. They currently are holding hostage all of our personal belongings, including business documents that are restricted work related documents, as well as jewlery and other items that we have purchased during the day. My card was charged over $1000 and we didn’t even use the room or will have access to our belongings until they decide to give...