We were easily able to navigate the "El" to commute from O'Hare to the hotel using directions provided on the hotel's website. Due to the holiday, we encountered locked passageways in the Merchandice Mart but an employee of the hotel (the head of house keeping) noticed us and kindly led us through the maze and ensured we reached our destination. We were able to check-in early and our room had a great view of the Chicago River. The hotel had not been updated recently and there was peeling wallpaper in places and other signs of wear and tear, but I still found it to be a good value for the money. With easy access to the food court and the "El" we were very pleased with the location. We spent our time seeing the sights and didn't spend much time in the room. The staff was always friendly and helpful when we needed directions on how to get from point A to point B. We were very happy with our choice as it was a good value for the money and conveniently located.

My family and I were overall dissatisfied with our stay. We had a horrible experience with the valet service. We waited and waited for our car and finally an hour later got to drive downtown!! It was awful. I will not stay here again. It was the most expensive Holiday Inn I have ever heard of!!! Way over priced!!

Good location, friendly staff, clean rooms. Only bad thing was pool was under construction, oh well, I'd still stay there again!

I'd been to Chicago many times before but had never stayed here. The hotel is on top of a high-rise (the lobby is on the 15th floor) and, if you can get past the rather generic decor, top-notch. The room was clean and comfortable (with a magnificent view--try and get one that faces out) and the service was unfailingly courteous. The one drawback in my opinion is the location--although it's right next to the Merchandise Mart and its rail station, it's a bit of a hike both to downtown and the Magnificent Mile area. We ended up eating a lot in the good though standard hotel restaurant because there wasn't much else close by.

When checking in on a recent business trip to Chicago, the front desk personnel noticed that I have booked the room through a discount travel website. Then she automatically assigned me to the worst smoking room in the whole place next to the entry to their exercise room, without even looking to see if there was a non-smoking room. I told her that I am not a smoker. She said, "The room isn't that bad". Obviously she had not been in that room. Then, she suggested that next time I book a room directly with them if I wanted a non-smoking room. The smell in the room was so bad that I had to go out in the middle of the first night and get a couple of deodorizer sprays. The room smelled like a filthy ashtray. I had to spend nearly $100 on dry cleaning bill. It seems Holiday Inn have signed up discount travel website to just to fill their worst rooms that would not normally sell under any circumstances. What infuriates me the most is that during my stay, the place was practically empty. For a discount of mare $15 off their regular rate per night, this experience left me with disgust and anger over the management and business relationship between lodging industry and discount travel websites. Lastly but not the least, when checking out of this dump to go to the O?Hare airport, the doorman kept me waiting for a cab (special cab) nearly thirty minutes. The special cab is an off-duty cab of his buddy who splits proceeds of the fare with him. That just tops it all with nightmare experience with the Holiday Inn.