Stayed two nights at Hotel 71 which I got a great deal on through Priceline. Staff was great! Upon arrival we were upgraded to a corner, river view room on the 26th floor. The hotel, itself has a fantastic location. Perfect for anyone visiting Chicago to sightsee or shop, which was our case. This hotel clearly isn't on the same level as the Ritz or Intercontinental. The carpeting in the lobby needs to be changed and some of the guest-rooms need to be re modeled. For the price and location, however, this place can't be beat.

I stayed at this hotel while attending a conference in Chicago. I choose it for it's central location to the Loop, Millemium Park and Magnificant Mile. My room was large, the bed comfortable, and it had a nice view of the Chicago River. The positives end there. Upon arriving, I immediately discovered that a lamp on the desk had a burned out bulb, the remote did not work (it needed new batteries, which I replaced myself) and that information about hotel amenities was sparse. I was confused about whether there was or was not a restaurant on site (it's closed for reasons not explained) and the room service menu did not include the extension to call to order room service. (okay, there WAS a room service button on the phone) The water pressure in the shower constantly changed, as did the temperature from hot to cold. I learned to pick up the nuances of sound related to the shifting water pressure, so I could quickly step out of the stream of water, lest I be showered with ice cold water. Because of this, it took a long time to shower, not to mention wasted water. The staff seemed overworked and they could not answer a basic question about the airport shuttle. And I experienced the same problem as others with the elevators- at one point, a staff person saw me waiting by the elevators and invited me to take the service elevator. It is sad to see a hotel in such a great location and with such possibility be so sloppy on these basic levels of service.

Our family of 4 stayed at Hotel 71 during our recent trip to Chicago, and we were quite pleased with it. The staff members were all incredibly friendly and helpful--the doorman was wonderful. We were upgraded to a very spacious corner room with an incredible view of the city. Room was very comfortable, though the bathroom showed its age. There are also no fans in the bathroom, so you can hear people talking in other rooms through the vents. The mirrored doors on the closet in the room were off the tracks when we arrived--the doorman called maintenance right away to fix them, but they were difficult to use. Nonetheless, the hotel was a good value for the location, which is perfect. We walked to American Girl Place (about 10 minutes away), and we caught the free trolley at a stop about a 10 minute walk south of the hotel. There is a great bakery/cafe next to the hotel, as well as an Italian restaurant and a Houlihan's across the street. Unfortunately there are no vending machines that I could see in the hotel (other than one in the back of the very scary fitness room), but there are drugstores nearby. The elevators were very slow when we arrived on Saturday (one was out of service), but on Monday they worked fine. Overall we were pleased with our stay. Take note that the valet parking is super expensive--$40/day during our stay.

WE, myself and my wife, had a fantastic time in Chicago. We were never there before, and being a New Yorker at Heart living in Miami, I wasn,t sure a smaller city like Chicago could have enough to keep us busy for 5 days. We had a great time, the walking was easy, the food was good and the people were very friendly.Taking a bike trip when we arrived was the best idea of all as we were able to scope out the areas we liked to return to during our trip. Bob,s bike tour was excellent, the around the city tour. The navy pier was kinda touristy, but evrything was very pleasent and the location of the hotel was the best you could ask for. Very resonable for the location.All the cafes on the street were everyware,siting outside was great, even in a big city. I would highly recommend the hotel 71.