I stayed here for 5 nights. The lobby area is nice, the whole hotel is old though. You really notice it in the room. The bed was ok...not the most comfortable bed. I could see Willis Tower out my window. I could also hear the trains going by every few minutes as the tracks were right there. But the room was clean and really, I only slept and showered here.

The location was great for me! Easy access to public transport and close walking distance to many Chicago attractions (Solider Field, Shedd Aquarium, Willis Tower).

The lobby has an old world charm with its mosaic tiles, very nice, but our room was terrible. We had 2 queen beds for 4 adults. We were there August 2013. Upon entering our room it was HOT, as the air was not turned on - hello, it's August! After turning it on it still didn't work well.

Our room was cleaned only 1 time in the 4 days we stayed there, only after I called to alert them it was not done. After being "cleaned" (beds were made), one of our party took a shower, without realizing that they too ALL our towels and he was stranded in the shower with nothing to dry off with. I called immediately to the front desk and 40 minutes later towels arrived, with NO apology. Every day it was the same thing - call down to get new towels as they left the dirty ones on the floor!

The hallways were dirty and needed to be vacuumed. Some of the light fixtures in the hall to the restaurants are broken, and instead of fixing the candelabra arms, they are swung to arms that are not broken - looks bad - makes you think "oh boy, this place is hurting for money."

The front desk personnel is not well trained in customer service care. They never offered an apology, even after I explained what I had gone through.

Location of the hotel is great I must say, close to the park and also to the metro.

Light kept filtering into our room as the curtains wouldn't close completely since the windows were bowed and there were 3 separate curtain rods on each window that prevented the drapes from closing all the way. (We had a corner room). View of Willis Tower (Formerly Sears Tower) from our room was great, especially at night.

The Bathroom shower was tiny. And, the 10 foot glass shelf for our toiletries was scary as it didn't have a support and kept bowing with weight on it. There was nowhere else to put things in the bathroom other than that shelf. Also, the toilet leaked and we had to keep a towel at the base of it so the water didn't travel across the floor. Each flush produced about 1 cup of water!

Beds look pretty, and have very nice soft cotton sheets. But it felt like we were in a college dorm, as there are no box springs. The thin mattress is on top of a board - our bed was built similar to a waterbed.

I wish they would put some money into this hotel, as it has such potential.

Myself, husband and daughter took a vacation to Chicago and decicded to stay at the Congress. I have not been to the congress since I was a little girl when my mother worked there as a housekeeper in the early "70's". We loved everything about it when we walked into our room it was very nice and we had a beautiful view of the city. Yes when we first tried to get to our room it was confusing because we had to get out the elevator and go through 2 doors just to get to our room but after a while we had no problem with it ( My daughter thought it was fun ). Second thing the building and room did have some views of the hotel's years of service but I had no problem with it because the age of the hotel. My husband and I were taking our own tour of the hotel and we ran into security officer Pete ( we weren't given his last name) but he gave us a very informal tour of the hotel and the ballrooms. We appreciated his tour and the info he gave us Thank you Pete. We stayed there 3 days and my only problems is that most to the employees were not in uniforms so we didn't know if they worked there or not. The fitness center was a disappointment only because it didn't have much equipment and most of it was old fashioned and not updated. We needed a cab to take us to the southside and we got a lot of we don't go that way or got a high charge just to get us there it seemed that the people in Chicago were afraid to go into there own neighborhoods then those who are not even from Chicago. Other then this I was amazed at how much Chicago has grown and was just amazed of how beautiful downtown is now. Overall we had a pleasant stay and wouldn't mind staying there again in the future.