LaDena H.
Yelp
Adequate is how I would describe the hotel stay at Old Chicago Inn. Unfortunately, it is run as if the hotel/business/customer service was an afterthought. If you want to feel ignored and almost completely on your own, this is the inn for you! After a 7-hour car ride to Chicago, we had to call someone and wait 10-15 minutes to even be let into the inn. There is a plaque near the door listing a telephone number to call if you arrive after 11 a.m. and need to check-in. They supposedly only have someone on-site from 8-11 a.m. and the telephone message only states the telephone number one time, so be prepared with something to write with when you arrive, to take the phone number down to reach an attendant and be let in.
Secondly, there is NO ELEVATOR. This is ok if you are young or in good health and in good shape. For a couple of 50-year-olds with a sedentary lifestyle, it was pure torture to climb the two flights of stairs every time we came back to the hotel room. And SO MUCH WORK to bring heavy luggage up the narrow stairways with 5 days of clothing and accessories packed.
The "Free Parking" is a nightmare as it is street parking within certain nearby numbered districts, competing with nearby city dwellers for a parking spot. And they give you a coupon to put in your car window that is only valid for 24 hours at a time, so you have to go visit your car every day to replace the coupon. And beware that you don't park within 15 feet of a hideous red-painted pile of pipes that serve as fire hydrants, or you will receive a $150 parking ticket like we did. There are areas where nearby brownstone houses are doing construction that are tow-away zones, so watch out and don't park there either!
Then there is the key situation. They gave my husband 2 keys - one for the front door and one for our hotel room. If you go outside the hotel to get luggage or do anything without your partner and forget to take the keys with you, you are locked out on the street.
I always thought it would be cozy and quaint to encounter an "inn cat", but their cat, although gorgeous with silky fur, has a 5-stroke limit before it turns and attacks your hand and starts biting and clawing at you. They told us to be careful not to let the inn cat out the front door, but someone on the 2nd floor always left the back stairwell open so the inn cat would have free reign, and it would try to get out the front door every time we were about to leave for the day. An additional pain and inconvenience that no one needs. (Insert eyeroll here).
They advertise a speak-easy in the basement and while it is adorable and very cool, it's not a bar where there is an attendant or any kind of entertainment going on that we were aware of. We went downstairs to check it out and it had the "continental breakfast" of a couple of cut-up pastries in a serving dome and some individual serving-sized dry cereal varieties sitting on a table. I pictured arriving and having a drink in an old-world setting, but there was no bartender on duty, so the whole speak-easy thing was a letdown, but the room was pleasing to the eye and I could see how it would be a fun party reservation.
They told us that we could use the bathroom of the nearby bar/pub/pizza joint when first arrived after our 7-hour trip and no one was there at the inn to greet us; so I went a couple doors down, and the bar had no toilet paper on any of the 4 rolls in the ladies room, but it did have a huge one sitting on the floor next to one of the toilets, and the soap was empty in the soap dispenser. At that point, I decided that I would not be returning to partake of any food or drink items they had to offer. Then later as we checked in, the innkeeper mentioned that they run that bar/pub/pizza joint and offered free food vouchers to eat there. Makes sense that the bar would be as poorly run as the inn.
As to the hotel room, it was adequate, and that is all it was. My husband had requested a room with an adjoining bathroom, and all the room could fit in it was a bed, a small dresser, a small bookshelf, and a single wooden straight-backed chair. However, the bed and pillows were very comfy and I slept very well. There was no other tenant noise to be heard, since the rooms are separated by brick walls, and the window looked out onto the window and brick of the adjoining room. The shower stall was approximately 3ft by 2 ft, so very narrow. The separate toilet closet was only about 6 inches larger on each side, so it felt like you could barely move to get in or out and barely had room to rest while you were seated. Not for the claustrophobic.
The ice machine was down the back stairwell, and the moment I stepped out onto enclosed the back stairwell, the smell of human urine smacked me in the face. So disgusting. The inn cat was also there, so I considered whether it was litter box I smelled, but no. It was clearly human urine. So gross.
13 minute walk to Wrigley.