Back in January 2006 my sister and I traveled to Chicago for her birthday to see Wicked. We wanted a hotel close to the theater as well as the shopping downtown. We found the Best Western River North and LOVED IT. It has become our favorite hotel in Chicago and the first hotel we look at when planning a trip. We recently stayed there in January 2008 and had a very pleasant stay. We love the location of it, it is close to all of the things we like about Chicago. The free parking is also great. Though I think the indoor pool on the 6th floor with a view of the city is probably my favorite part.. We has also been lucky to get some pretty spacious rooms. The noise from the street at times is a bit distracting, but what do you expect when you are in the heart of Chicago. We have never had any problems staying here. We have now stayed there 5 times and plan to do so again. It is a great hotel.

Based on the reviews in Tripadvisor, we booked a room at the Best Western because of the savings in free parking.

However, we were really disappointed -- the old, dingy hallways had a nasty, strong smell of cleaning fluids, the bathroom in our room was tiny and old, the heating/cooling system was antique and roared on and off. The whole place seemed old and tired -- I hate to use the word "dump" but it was awful close to that status in my mind. Good points --the staff were friendly, the fitness center was OK, and the pool was nice.

We thought the place was so dingy and unsatisfactory we checked out after our first night and moved to the Embassy Suites near the lakefront. More expensive after paying $42/night for parking, but the hotel and room were so, so much nicer than the Best Western that I thought it was a much better value.

I chose this hotel because of the fabulous FREE parking Bestwestern River North offers. Parking in Chicago can run $27 to $41 a night and I HATE paying that. I stayed here about four years ago and the stay was good, so I thought I would try it again! It was great. Rooms are clean, beds comfortable and clean. Because I was a mom with a teenage girl, the front desk staff told me that they would give me a room in the tower right next to the parking garage for safety. Our car was literally right outside the door...so convenient.
This property is close to everything! We walked to Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, The Water Tower, The State Street Macys...everywhere! The room was ample size for mom and daughter, the bathroom was small...more like a shoilet (shower/toilet). The reviews about the water temperature are so true but not annoying enough to complain about. We have stayed at four star hotels in Chicago, Embassy Suites, Courtyard, Hampton, Marriott, Intercontinental, Renissance over the years for all kinds of prices and I would say that this hotel is comparable to any stay. If you are going to Park and walk everywhere in Chicago...stay here and save the parking fees. The POOL is one of the BEST in the city...beautiful, clean and BIG! There is also a wonderful sun deck attached. We will stay here again because of the price, the FREE parking and the MOST friendly staff....they care about you! Even my teenage daughter said, "hey mom, this isn't any further away than any other place we've stayed and the parking is free....we should always stay here!" So, even a 16 year old gives PROPS for this hotel.

We booked a king room for $107 and were upgraded to a King suite as part of a spring break package. We stayed 3 nights 3/25-3/28. I didn't expect a 4 star hotel going into this but overall it was nicer then I expected. The hotel has two buildings connected at the 4th floor level. The main building has 7 floors and includes the lobby/front desk area, restaraunt, and pool/workout room. We stayed on the 5th floor in 538 of the main bulding and feel that is the better of the two buildings access wise. If you didn't care about the pool or visiting the lobby and needed quick access to your car then building #2 is better as the elevator goes directly down to the garage without having to go outside. Our king suite was approx 16x30 feet in size, it also had a good size frige to put our left over pizza in and easily held a case of beer, two 1-gallon milks and countless juice boxes. Our room was clean and did not smell, carpet was in newer condition, mattress was so so but we slept just fine, great pillows. Two of our kids slept on the pullout and our 2 year old in a pack-n-play. Our room did not have a microwave. The toilet and tub/shower are in a very small 6x5 room with the sink outside in the main area. There was a safe for valuables but we did not use it. Wireless internet Wi-Fi access at no charge which was certainly a suprise. The shower situation that is mentioned in other reviews still exists. You get about 3-4 minutes of good hot water then about 30-60 seconds of fairly cold water (like someone flushed a toilet), it was certainly managable but it would probably be my biggest beef of our stay. Perhaps a shower very early in th emorning or later at night would avoid the hot cold spells. The 27" TV's brighness and contrast levels appeared to be set very low and there was no setting to adjust the brightness up. The lobby provided good coffee and complimentary granola bars. We did not have or see any brekfast coupons that others mentioned. A USA Today Newspaper was at our door every morning. The staff was VERY nice overall, going out of there way to say good morning or hello. Sure you occasionally run in to an employee who's had a bad day but you'll have that. The elevator is small just barely able to fit 4 people and a stroller. A couple of times the door would open and our family would have to wait again if there were more than 3 people already on it. However, one of the staff got off the elevator to allow us on, he took the steps! The stairs are adjacent to the elevator and during busy times of check in and check out I ended up taking the steps down to the 4th floor for ice or up to the 7th for the pool. The pool was large, clean and warm for the first two days of our stay, the third day was a little cooler but no issue for our two kids (ages 7 and 6), the 2 year old was shivering after about 20 minutes the last day. Perhaps they changed some water that prior evening or topped it off?? Good food very close, we ate at Hard Rock, RainForest and Portillos Famous Hot Dogs (awesome chili dog!) among other places. These 3 places were within a 5 minute walk. We also ate Lou Malnatis which was only like a block over and a block down, same goes for Ginos East but we got that pizza to take home. Overall I would stay here again and I would also recommend it to a friend or family member, great bang for the buck. At $107 a night with the free parking its a steal in downtown Chicago. Yeah if you're looking for the ultimate view of downtown over the river and a high end lobby and bar for a VERY special occassion, this may not be the place for you, check out the Westin River North instead, we stayed there 6 months ago and it was very nice but I expected that for a $300 a night hotel. If you would like additional info feel free to email me at: a6biturbo at yahoo dot com.
Pros: Price, pool, free parking, location, Wi-Fi
Cons: Hot/Cold shower, dim TV, elevator size, I'm being picky here.