Reasonably Inexpensive Hotel With Terrific Health Club
Written: Feb 07 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stellar health club, clean facilities, friendly and attentive staff
Cons: Renovations inhibit access to certain amenities
The Bottom Line: I would recommend staying here again and bringing a family. The amenities, including the health club, and downtown location are great draws, and the price should be right.
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| chazyouwin's Full Review: Chicago City Centre Hotel and Sports - Magnificent... |
From February 2-6, 2008, I stayed at the Chicago City Centre Hotel and Sports Club (formerly known as the Navy Pier Holiday Inn) while attending to my mother who was a patient in the Northwestern University hospital. The hotel provided decent accommodations and included access to a full health club at a relatively low price.
I booked the hotel through Expedia.com website, which provided rates of $80 for each weekend night and $90 for each weekday night. I was not warned in advance by the Expedia website that the hotel was being renovated in order to become a member of the Doubletree chain.
The renovations are expected to continue through at least April of 2008. The renovations impacted amenities in that: (1) two of the restaurants (a "bakery" and a full-service restaurant) were closed (yet remained prominently advertised by signage); (2) access to the conference room floor (which included the lobby bathroom) was restricted; (3) the computer business center was closed; and (4) loud construction noises permeated the lobby area from time to time.
The renovations did not impact the 6th residential floor, however, as the rooms were being renovated from the top of the hotel on down. A coffee shop stayed open during the mornings, and a comfortable sports-oriented bar ("Winners") provided extended hour meal service.
All staff, including lobby, concierge, maintenance, and maid staff, coffee shop and bar waiters, and health club personnel were friendly and reasonably attentive. Each area had the right amount of staff and waiting time was minimal.
My room had special accommodations for the handicapped and was designated as such. That meant that it had bars in the bathroom, a special bathtub seat, and a handled shower sprayer. It was next to the elevators, but did not suffer from related noise as it was well-insulated. There was a spacious window seat, but no view of anything notable given the fact that it was on the 6th floor.
The bedroom was clean and comfortable with a reasonable amount of space. It contained a desk with computer network accommodations (I did not use a computer during my stay), a television with clothing storage space in a cabinet, a king-sized bed, a reading chair and a closet. There was no refrigerator, although bottled refrigerated sodas were available for $2 each in a machine on the floor.
There were individualized controls for heat and air conditioning, which were not limited by temperature setting. The air conditioning worked nicely to freshen the room, despite the fact that it was February. The decor was old and dreary (say, "well-seasoned").
The wall of the entry door was outfitted with an ironing board and iron.
The closet space was adequate, with full-length mirrored doors. The closet contained at least eight removable hangers.
The bed was outfitted with thin sheets and pillowcases, and the mattress was lumpy. The floor lamp for the reading chair was missing a light bulb, although the maintenance staff provided a replacement within ten minutes of a call. The alarm clock was not working, but again was replaced within ten minutes of a call.
The bathroom was clean and well-outfitted, with a wall-mounted hairdryer. The items provided for consumption included shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, bath and facial soaps. The bathroom shelf was spacious, and a coffee maker rested easily in a corner. The bathroom grout was stained and the shower curtains were thin and billowy, clinging to my shape while I was in the standard-sized tub.
The laundry facilities were on the third floor and consisted of two washers and two dryers (operated by quarters). Laundry soap was available from the convenience store (which was open early and late). The dryer was not working properly. It was very loud and took an inordinate amount of time to dry clothes.
The lobby of the hotel was spacious and reasonably attractive, with plenty of sitting space and a large flat-screen television. Many people were working on computers, suggesting that despite lack of access to the business center, wi-fi access was available.
The food provided by the coffee shop and the bar was excellent and nicely proportioned. The prices were somewhat high, with, for example, most breakfast options priced at $10-$12.
The hotel provided access to a high-end and fully-equipped health club housed in the same building for no extra charge. The club has a large number of weight machines and free weights, as well as many aerobic exercise machines which are equipped with their own televisions (bring your own plug-in earphones). It had a small indoor pool and whirlpool with plenty of provided towels. The club had four indoor tennis courts, which are available for reservation at an extra charge of $35 per hour (rent a racket for $3 and buy your balls).
The hotel also had an outdoor pool, which was not of course available for my use in February.
My fellow guests were varied. I heard a large number of foreign tongues, including German and French. Most appeared to be people on vacation, but there were a number of airline personnel.
Checkout presented no billing surprises and was completed promptly in the lobby. I was unable to check out through the television menu, however, as the feature was not working.
Overall, this is presently a friendly budget-plus hotel with some surprisingly upscale amenities. The renovations, when completed, are promising and appear likely to provide a substantially better experience (I would guess by about April 2008).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
chazyouwin
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 in Cars & Motorsports |
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Location: Northern New Jersey
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 69 members
About Me:
If you would like a rerating, kindly e-mail me at my e-mail address.
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