The Allerton Hotel Chicago, Magnificent Mile

This hotel was a last minute choice because the decision to stay was last minute. It was filthy, to start. Our room, on the 12th floor, reeked of smoke, as did the entire floor, though the hotel is a "non-smoking facility." The clerk explained the situation as follows: "Well, we have two wedding parties," as if to suggest that wedding parties did not have to observe hotel rules. He promised to "spray" out room and the floor, but if they did, you could not tell it. The elevator situation is laughable. They are too few and too small. The wait is unreasonable. I saw two families walk down the stairs with their luggage from Floor 12 instead of waiting. I wouldn't stay there again for free.

Only thing I like about this hotel is location. Everything else I wish I had stayed in 2 star hotel. Bad impression as soon as we got inside - very small elevators - I would have one big elevator rather than multiple small elevators - very uncomfortable just for 4 people and imagine with luggage:(. Size of the room was not that small like other reviewer said. However, smell was terrible - thank god we had body spray with us. don't forget to take travel size room spray with you. there was a big machine green box right outside of the window - may be it was heat/air system. Constant sound like boom box was coming from that - very noisy room. We were on forth floor; may be floors above 5th floor are nice; If this hotel advertise itself as 4 star, they should shut down all rooms up to 4th floor. otherwise it is one star. I am just writing this review based on my room. I think the room bathroom also designed for handicap - water was all over the bathroom floor after shower - very bad design - if you don't take extra care, you would slip on the floor. We literally had to put towel on the floor to block water coming from the shower to floor. Now very disappointing part comes is front desk mistake charging us for the room reservation although we had already paid to orb itz. What is the purpose of going through orb itz? I never had problem like this before. I had made so many reservations from orb itz. And this is the first time I experienced worst and writing review as well :). Now post vacation headache comes - I got to call them and their phone system is worst - line was transferred to accounting and front desk back and forth for so many times; after 30 minutes someone from accounting answered the phone - phew. They called me back after 30 minutes saying they would credit the money. I will probably find out after couple of days. Don't forget to check your credit card account after vacation :)

My flight was cancelled and I wasn't able to stay at the hotel the night I booked for. The hotel would not work with [...]to switch my rooms to another night. The hotel made $400 and I didn't even stay there. Will not try to stay at this hotel again.

Rally small room, we don't know were put our baggage... And bad unfriendly staff!!

The rooms are clean and very small. They are just big enough to let you walk around the bed. A significant number of the rooms have no view. At checkin when I asked the hotel clerk if we had a good view he lied and said we had one of the better views. We had a view of the fire escape.

Four of us had reserved a room with two double beds, but when we got to the hotel to check in all they had were single rooms. The lady at the check-in desk did offer to put us up at a different hotel, but only at their other site near O'Hare, not another nearby hotel. When we tried to shower in the morning, we discovered that the hot water had been turned off because it leaked into the room beneath us. They had to send an engineer up to turn the hot water on especially for us, with the admonition that they were waiting for us to check out so they could fix the pipes and that they should not have checked us into that room in the first place. I would have expected more from a hotel of this caliber.

I travel to Chicago all the time. I decided I would try the Allerton for a change. I booked my room through Orbitz. Then, I decided I would upgrade to one of their suites with a bathtub and living area. I was told by the hotel staff when I called that it was $30 more a night. Upon checking in, they charged me an additonal $90 for the room upgrade. Then, when I got into the room, there was no bathtub and the living area was tiny. There is no way it was a $90 upgrade from the deluxe room I had originally booked. Just a warning to the people who read this, the rooms at the Allerton are a lot smaller than they look online!

...stay somewhere else. How this hotel retains a four-star rating is mind-boggling. The rooms were super-small (and I didn't even have the smallest according to the concierge); that might have been okay if the rooms didn't have zero in-room amenities (no honor bar, no dvd, no mini-fridge, etc.). My room didn't even have safe. Trust me, the images available online are shot to make the rooms appear bigger than they are. Also, I stayed in early April (which in Chicago means it is still COLD), and the hotel had the nerve to turn off the boiler--the only source of heat. I had to complain two nights in a row to have heat in my room. So, here I am, with my two-year-old son, in a cramped, frigid room. I was told that if I wanted a fridge in the room it would cost me $25 and that a DVD player was unavailable. OH! I almost forgot, NO FREE WIFI. They charge guests ten bucks a day to use the internet. Unbelievable! Every hotel I have stayed in in the last two years has offered free internet access to guests. Room service, while prompt and offering decent food, left my breakfast dishes outside my door for almost two days straight. Absolutely no follow-up whatsoever. And the maid service--again staffed by some nice ladies I met--was subpar. They made the bed and left fresh towels, but I could tell they did the barest minimum in wiping things down, dusting, etc. They never replaced my toiletries (shampoo, soap, etc.), and the towels honestly had a kind of mildewy scent. I would NOT stay at this hotel again, no matter the price. I was thoroughly UNDERWHELMED. The only good thing about this hotel is the location--which can't be beat. Otherwise, it is a bust. So shell out a few extra bucks a night and stay somewhere else. There are TONS of other hotels to choose from either on Michigan Ave. or nearby.

We arrived on a saturday for a weekend get away. When we arrived the Allerton hotel had to search through their email to find our reservation. Check in took 20 minutes. The front desk staff made it feel like we were troubling them. On the afternoon of our second day, we returned from shopping and were locked out our room. The front desk told us that it was our problem and that we should contact the third party who we bough our tickets through. I printed off the reciept from my email saying that we had booked for 2 nights and presented that to the front desk. The front desk unlocked our rooms and gave us a smug attitude. The rest of that afternoon, we were locked out everytime we left our room. Each time we had to go to the front desk to get our room unlocked. Upon arriving home, i found that I had been charged full price for the second night, on top of what I paid for through a third party. So basically I was charged for 3 nights. I am in the process of getting the charges off of my credit card. I would not recommend staying at this hotel, even if it were for free. Parking was also 51.00 per 24 hours which was higher than other area parkng garages

The room was so small that you have slide against to get around the room. How they fit 2 double beds inside of this room I will never figure this out. The best feature of this room was the flat screen tv. The check-in area had been upgraded, but the elevator system in the hotel. It took us 20 minutes to go from checking in to getting to our room because the elevators were either not working or too small to accomadate more than 3-4 people with luggage. We checked out after 1 nights stay. Hated it. I would not recommend to anyone.