Worth a 2nd visit
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/26/07
I accompanied my wife who was attending a conf. here and from reading the reviews was a little uneasy about it. While I agree with many of the complaints about the property--nice lobby, but sorely in need of updates in the rooms, bathrooms are ridiculously small, a/c not working, etc. However, we stayed at this property for 6 nights and I would go back. Room was clean, a/c was almost too cold, but overall nice sized room and while the carpeting and furnishings look late 80s and the hallways on the floors are worn, I was able to get past that. Staff were all helpful, pool is a great size for a downtown hotel, gym is one of the largest I've ever used, in-room free Internet was a little slow but was ok, multiple on-site restaurants where we had dinner, cafe and nice gift shop. Area is strictly commercial, but Metra is across the street as is a substantial food court, Rite Aid, etc. if you want to avoid gift shop's $2 waters and sodas as we did. Downtown area is typical of most cities with vagrants and homeless around, but none were hostile. Area is definitely coming back too with all the commercial development, but there are blocks with a lot of still boarded up store fronts.