Hotel 71 Chicago

What a great view from the upper floors, if you can book an upper floor corner room you are in for a treat. Great location within walking distance of many attractions and Michigan Ave. Downside no room service after 10 and we had a hard time finding something withing walking distance to get late night food. Nice shop inside the hotel as well.

Overall a great place to stay.

If you stay at 71, take advantage of the concierge. We were advised on great places to eat and received free desserts and totally avoided at 90 minute wait at one restaurant and were seated within minutes upon arriving. All we did was call them up and ask where were good places to eat. The hotel looks great, and there is not a huge loss of not having an in-house dining facility. There was a great view from our 38th floor room of the river and city. This hotel is right in the middle of EVERYTHING. The only complaint that I have is when I arrived in Chicago on the L and I called for a clarification on directions and they had no clue as to how to help me. In the end I found the hotel and my new finance and I enjoyed a great hotel in a great city. I have stayed at a few, higher priced hotels in the city and this fits right in there with them easily . I have already recommended this hotel to friends.

This may become a 4 star but it isn't there yet. This hotel has been renovated and is still being. The restaurant and bar is coming in the fall of 2003. The elevators get overworked. I happened to get on the "wrong" elevator headed down from the lobby to the basement levels and saw part of the problem. The service staff get on in the basement, travel to the lobby and then push the basement level button to send it back down. They only have two basement levels while the guests have 39.

Plus they have a service elevator. The rooms are modern and tastefully decorated. The view on the East side is of apartment buildings but the West would be pretty spectactular. They only have one ice machine and that is on the 7th floor. If I had it to do over again, the Holiday Inn Merchandise Mart or Hampton Inn Suites would be my choices.

I travel to Chicago once or twice a month, and with my one-year anniversary I thought I'd get us somewhere nicer than the Wyndham we usually visit. The first impression was very good, until we went to park. The parking lot next door and we had to walk six blocks for a place to stash the car.

The rooms were nice, with very comfortable beds and all of the features you would expect. The only few things that were wrong were a broken window (which they fixed), a flickering bathroom light (which they didn't) and a auto-bill minibar that seems to have a mind of its own.

(I called and asked why I was charged for three things I didn't even touch and they took them off the bill -- no questions asked.)

Unfortunately the rooms are not very soundproof, and you can hear everyone in the hall near your room (and when in the hall, you can hear people...talking...in their rooms). We were in the room just down from the service elevator, and heard the staff all night.

They deliver a local newspaper in the morning (no USA Today -- the Chicago Tribune!) and offer a free breakfast buffet. Don't come hungry, though -- we went at 9:15, and there was very little food, and what was there was cold. An empty egg pan awaited guests and the kitchen kept bringing out sausages to the point of having an extra tray where the eggs used to be. No toastable bread, no bacon, no potatoes. Maybe it's Atkins Hip.

All in all, it's a nice place, but it seems like they're not quite ready for customers, and if I'm spending a couple of hundred dollars a night for a room, I expect a place that's ready for me.

Nice hotel. Excellent view of downtown, the Chicago River, the John Hancock building, the Chicago Sun Times. The room was huge and still smelled of new carpet and fresh paint. And it was even a smoking room! Check-in time was 3pm but they let me check in at 11am if I was willing to take a smoking room. I accepted and the hotel is still so new after the remodel that I don't think anyone had smoked in there yet. The Sony stereo was nice to have(however it did not have an MP3 player as advertised on the web site). The room had very nice modern and trendy color schemes and furniture. The bathroom was good-sized and very clean and nice. A fully stocked refridgerator and snack drawer was cool, but I am sure very expensive so I avoided eating or drinking any of it. My only complaints - the room's doors do slam pretty loudly when they close. So starting in the morning the hallways are pretty loud and it was difficult to sleep in very late peacefully. The beds were closest to the door (not sure why they laid the room out that way with so much space) so the noise from the hall was impossible to avoid. If I had designed the room I would have put the beds over by the windows and the chairs and desk by the door. There really was no dresser, which was strange for so many other amentities. There were three available small drawers in the entertainment center but that was it. The elevators were pretty slow and got really stuffed with people. We were on the 35th floor and I believe there were about 40+ floors. There were two elevators for about 20 of the floors and two for the other 20. With 20 or so rooms on each floor, you can imagine that they did get backed up - especially around check-in/check-out time. The staff was friendly and professional. The lobby was very nice and trendy, but it could have used some brighter colors. It was pretty dark in that the walls and carpet was all black. However it was very clean and modern. The maids did leave us alone when we hung our No! (Do Not Disturb) sign on the door, which I always like. Some of the television channels did not come in the greatest either. MTV did not come in well enough to watch, but others were fine. All in all, I got a special rate here ($124 a night) but doubt I would pay the full rate for a room here. If you can get a good deal, definitely check it out. The view is great. But I would not pay the $250-300 a night rates I have seen on some of the travel web sites. At that price I would stay at the Drake, Wyndham, or Ritz-Carlton.

Stayed in many of downtown Chicago hotels. Last time I stayed here it was called the Executive (years ago). I always liked the location, close to Michigan Ave. with a nice view of the river and Chicago architecture. Definitly ask for a river view.The rooms were always bigger than most hotels which is nice since we had the kids along for this 3 day weekend. The price was reasonable - $140 Expedia, however the garage connected to the hotel only holds about a hundred cars and I had to park in a garage about a block away.The much needed renovation has given the hotel a hip/trendy feel but it's seems a little incomplete. Not as well done as "W" hotels. The restaurant has yet to reopen.SUMMARY: GOOD:Good location. Good view on river side. Reasonable price. Rooms are new, clean and more spacious than most.NEGATIVE: Parking if garage is full. Short on amentities. Trendy feel may not appeal to some.Shower water pressure was horrible.I would stay again if price is good.

We had a great time. Hotel was beautiful and very clean. Perfect location to prime Chicago attractions. Beautiful views of the river.

Staff was friendly and nice. Restarant was out of order during our stay but there was room service available. The 300 ct linen sheets felt wonderful to sleep on. Very trendy hotel. We really enjoyed ourselves.

My husband and I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights and found it to be nice for the price (We paid $150 a night thru Expedia). The hotel had a great location overlooking the lake and within within walking distance of both the "Magnificant Mile" shopping and the museums. The hotel lobby is very hip and the rooms are quite spacious. We did find the service to be less than great. The hotel was supposed to have a business center and restaurant but both were still closed. They could also use some more staff -- it was difficult to get a bellman when needed. Good value for $150 a night in a big city.

My husband, 2 children, and I stayed here over the 4th of July weekend, and have never had such a disappointing experience. The hotel had only one elevator working to service the upper floors (23-39), no plan to assist guests not wishing to wait upwards of 20 minutes for an elevator (i.e. stairs, service elevator, etc.), and despite claims that a repair company had been called the elevator was out of service all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at least until noon. At one point, we walked down 32 flights of stairs with a 2 year old and a three year old - keep in mind that this is a "4 star" hotel. We requested a lower floor and after being told that none were available, were unable to cancel our second nights stay, even though it was hours before the noon checkout time. After checking back with the front desk several times throughout the day, we were eventually given a room on the 10th floor. Also, the bathrooms in both rooms smelled of urine, the view was terrible, the second room did not have the CD player it proudly lists as an amenity, and many of its curtains in the street level windows are hanging halfway off the curtain rods or on the ground. The lobby, room decor and web site, however are qiute nice. Too bad it doesn't go beyond that.

I live in Chicago and decided to surprise my boyfriend with a weekend getaway as tourists in our own city. I chose Hotel 71 since it's new (opened in Oct 2002) and has a hip look. Found a great price on Orbitz. It's also just a couple blocks off Michigan Ave - a perfect location in Chicago. The lobby is very cool and has a gift shop with snacks and souvenirs. There are cool things beyond your typical gift shop. The room was nice and remodeled, but there were some mis-matches in the decor. The bedding and furniture were updated in the hip, contemporary style of Hotel 71, but the carpet and wallpaper seemed to be a holdover from the past hotel (the building was previously the Executive Plaza). There was nothing wrong with it - it just didn't quite match the style of the newer items. Same for the bathroom - it had a fantastic granite counter and stainless bathroom accessories, but the floor tile was a bit '80s - clearly they did not completely remodel the room. Everything was, however, VERY clean. The staff was WONDERFUL. We only booked a standard room, but they offered us a free upgrade to a suite since it was an anniversary celebration. They also delivered to our room a complimentary tray of fresh fruit, cheese and pretzels, with a card from the staff wishing us a happy anniversary. Really a nice touch and a great surprise!The restaurant/bar wasn't open at this time (Apr 2003) as it was being remodeled, but they did offer a full room service menu. At checkout there was a nasty line (we left at high noon when everyone else was leaving). We didn't want to wait in line, so we just left and called them a few hours later - they let us know our charges over the phone - no hassle whatsoever. All in all - great hotel, wonderful service. If you are looking for a centrally located hotel in downtown Chicago, this is a fantastic deal. Recommend booking through Orbitz or Expedia for the best rates. The rates available from the hotel directly were not as good.