Congress Plaza Hotel
520 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605, United States
+1 312 427 3800From
$18
Cheapest
rate per night
7.1
Good
based on 4,589 reviews
About Congress Plaza Hotel
- Hotel RoomYou’ll have a private room with all the hotel’s amenities
- Clean and TidyThis stay has listed several different cleanliness practices.
- FreebiesThis stay includes Wi-Fi for free
The iconic Congress Plaza Hotel in downtown Chicago has served solo travelers, families, couples, politicians, and celebrities for the last 125 years. Its gracious lodgings and close proximity to many local attractions make it an ideal destination for guests from around the globe.
Congress Plaza Hotel is located across from Grant Park, which overlooks Lake Michigan, and is about 30 minutes away from O’Hare International Airport. It's walking or driving distance from many major Chicago landmarks, including Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Magnificent Mile.
Accommodations at Congress Plaza Hotel are stately and spacious. Guests can choose from the Lakeview King Room overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan, the Family Suite with two bedrooms, two TVs, and one bathroom, or the Deluxe Suite with picturesque views and a jacuzzi. There are smoking and non-smoking rooms available, and all have complimentary WiFi access.
Congress Plaza Hotel offers many on-site amenities and activities. The 24-hour fitness center can set pulses racing, while the on-site barbershop, shoeshine, and same-day dry cleaning services can help prepare guests for an important meeting or a special night out. A full-service business center is ideal for sending or retrieving documents, and the charming gift shop offers one-stop shopping for special Chicago souvenirs. The hotel's Gold Room has been an in-demand spot for holding dream weddings for over a century.
Congress Plaza Hotel offers various dining options that are as elegant and inviting as the hotel itself. Sidle up to the bar at Congress Lounge and enjoy a craft cocktail or beer while watching the latest Cub’s game. Gazebo Restaurant serves crave-worthy breakfast fare to get your day started right, and Rafael’s Restaurant dishes out classic American fare for lunch and dinner while diners enjoy stunning park views.
Photos of Congress Plaza Hotel
Latest deals for Congress Plaza Hotel
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Standard Rooms($18 - $221)
Standard room
King Rooms($26 - $464)
King room
Deluxe Rooms($398)
Queen Rooms($24 - $319)
Queen room
Double Rooms($87 - $379)
Amenities at Congress Plaza Hotel
- Fitness center
- Restaurant
- Bar/Lounge
- Room service
- Free Wi-Fi
- Coffee machine
- Coffee shop
- Business center
- Wi-Fi available in all areas
- Flat-screen TV
Health and safety
- Daily housekeeping
- Physical distancing in dining areas
- Property is cleaned by professional cleaning companies
- Process in place to check health of guests
- CCTV in common areas
- CCTV outside property
- Hand sanitizer in guest accommodation and key areas
- Use of cleaning chemicals that are effective against coronavirus
- 24-hour security
- Guest accommodation is disinfected between stays
- Guest accommodation sealed after cleaning
- All plates, cutlery, glasses and other tableware have been sanitized
- Guests can opt-out of accommodation cleaning
- Staff follow all safety protocols as directed by local authorities
- Disinfection of high-touch surfaces
- First-aid kit
- Safe
Accessibility and suitability
- Entire unit wheelchair accessible
- Multi-lingual staff
- Hypoallergenic
- No smoking
- Designated smoking area
- Private entrance
- Increased accessibility
- Elevator
- Shower chair
- Accessible by elevator
- Adapted bath
- Allergy-free room
- Toilet with grab rails
- Upper floors accessible by elevator
Basics
- Wi-Fi available in all areas
- Internet
- Fire extinguisher
- Free toiletries
- Smoke alarms
- Heating
- Air-conditioned
- Free Wi-Fi
- Linens
- Towels
- Shampoo
- Body soap
- Trash cans
- Conditioner
Services and conveniences
- ATM on-site
- Business center
- Wake-up service
- Concierge service
- Meeting/Banquet facilities
- Mini-market on site
- Room service
- Key card access
- Express check-out
- 24hr front desk
- Conference rooms
- Wedding services
- Safety deposit box
Bathroom
- Hairdryer
- Private bathroom
- Raised toilet
- Shower
- Shower cap
- Bathtub
- Toilet
- Toilet paper
- Toothbrush
Dining
- Restaurant
- Bar/Lounge
- Food can be delivered to guest accommodation
- Coffee shop
- Breakfast in the room
- Refrigerator
- Coffee machine
- Vending machine (drinks)
- Dining table
General
- Family rooms
- Interconnected room(s) available
- Lake view
- Storage available
- Seating area
- Sofa
- Telephone
- Carpeted
- City view
Things to do
- Gift shop
- Shops (on site)
- Bicycle rental
- Golf
- Beauty salon
Media and entertainment
- Flat-screen TV
- Cable or satellite TV
- Radio
- TV
Laundry
- Laundry facilities
- Ironing service
- Laundry service
- Iron and ironing board
Parking and transportation
- Parking
- Private parking
- Airport shuttle
Bedroom
- Socket near the bed
- Alarm clock
- Wardrobe or closet
Workspace
- Fax/photocopying
- Laptop safe
- Desk
Family friendly
- Kid-friendly buffet
Fitness
- Fitness center
Reviews of Congress Plaza Hotel
7.1
Based on 4,589 verified guest reviews
6.9Families
7.0Solo
7.1Friends
7.2Couples
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Cons -
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The spacious double room was great. My only complaints would be the old furnace/AC which we couldn’t control the temperature of so the room would be too warm and some of the pillows being too stiff.
I loved the great view and access to Lollapalooza. I think what could’ve been better is an earlier check-in time since I had to wait over an hour to check due to others checking in at the same time.
This hotel has profoundly uncaring, incompetent staff and management and is dangerous. Elevators failed frequently. Seriously, no exaggeration. Elevators were out of service multiple times during my stay, and it was clear that that’s an accepted norm at this hotel. Lighting throughout is random and mostly absurdly inappropriate for a hotel, a mix of appropriately warm lighting and cool, body-clock-resetting cooler-than-daylight, with most floors’ corridors lit entirely with the latter (with zero cost savings compared appropriate lighting). This is fundamental incompetence. The breakfast area was absurdly cold, like 65 Fahrenheit, and windy with forced air, in summer when people were dressed in very light clothing. This would have only been tolerable for me with a coat; otherwise my fingers would have been too cold to handle eating utensils, so in effect there was no breakfast available. A package was delivered for me. When I went to ask for the package, it took approximately forty minutes, with me waiting there, to find and retrieve the package, and they charged me for the privilege of having my time wasted. Staff demonstrated zero regard for the most basic fire safety: A fire door for a stairwell was coming unhinged and could not be closed at all. Management lacks the sense to issue headsets for the internal two-way radios, and the staff carrying the radios use them, loudly and frequently, in the corridors, just outside the rooms, so that obnoxious radios of maintenance and security staff blare in the corridors at all hours and are more than loud enough to wake people in the rooms. So I couldn’t sleep because of noise, but the noise from from the hotel staff. Apparently the management of this hotel thinks waking people at all hours instead of using headsets is acceptable behavior. When I dialed the code for “Bell Captain/Laundry/Valet” from the many choices listed on the room phone, the answer was “Hello” with no indication I had reached the correct party. In the lobby, staff simultaneously had music playing and two televisions next to each other, on different channels, both with audio, so three simultaneous competing audio sources. This, obviously, is absurdly obnoxious. I used the laundry service. When I went to retrieve my laundry, staff who I had not previously met gave me my laundry without evidence of my identity. Every day that housekeeping encounters your do-not-disturb tag, the room phone’s message light will flash, requiring you to (1) dial the code to check for messages, then (2) separately, call the front desk (which likely requires waiting over thirty seconds for an answer), ask the front desk person for messages, and be told housekeeping encountered the do-not-disturb tag. Security knocked on my door loudly enough to get me out of the shower to answer and said they were checking on me because my do-not-disturb tag had been out too long. There was no escalation to this—I had interacted with front desk staff each day, and someone could have used the phone instead of banging on my door when, with my do-not-disturb tag posted, I might have been asleep, having sex, taking a shower, etc. The basic thing one is paying for in lodging is the undisturbed enjoyment of the room, and the staff at this horror-show of a “hotel” fails to comprehend even that. The hotel falsely claimed to offer “5pm late check out” for 69.27 USD. I explicitly booked, and paid for, this lie. I paid this so I could sleep. While I was sleeping, the staff ignored my explicitly-booked and explicitly-paid-for “5pm late check out” and literally attempted to enter my room, with me in it, naked and asleep, with the do-not-disturb tag posted, three hours and twenty-eight minutes early, at 13:32. What, precisely, did I pay for? All of the above was after I finally got a room. It was the fourth one. It wasn’t acceptable, but after the first three I gave up fighting to get what I was paying for. The series of rooms the tried to give me makes the above look like decent service. First room: • The room was intolerably cold, and the only climate control adjustment was fan speed, with only cold air available. • The corridor lit with blue, circadian-rhythm-disrupting lighting. Minimal exposure to such lighting at night causes major sleep disruption, entirely defeating the purpose of a hotel. Second room: • When I complained about the intolerably-cold room, staff have me a key to another room. The key worked, and when I tried to open the door it was stopped by the chain lock. In other words, THEY GAVE ME A KEY TO AN OCCUPIED ROOM. Third room: • The refrigerator, which was a specific line item I paid for, was not working at all. I found a cord that was unplugged, which could have been for the refrigerator, but I could not find an outlet that that cord could reach. • Again, the room was intolerably cold, with the only climate control adjustment being for fan speed, and only cold air was available. • More utter disregard for basic fire safety: A fire sprinkler was partially covered, preventing proper function. Fourth room: • One of two lamps had blue, circadian-rhythm-disrupting light. Resetting a body clock to be awake all night is the opposite of the most fundamental purpose of a hotel. I had to go out in the middle of the night to buy appropriate light bulbs. • The in-room safe was locked. • The sink drain cap was missing, so the sink could not be filled, dropped objects would be lost, and the appearance is clearly wrong. I had planned and expected to wash things in the sink, because it’s a sink. • One of two lamps was a three-way lamp with an incorrect one-way bulb so the lamp appeared not to work, then only with the second turn of the switch the lamp goes on or off. • All of the pillows were extremely tall, usable only for side-sleeping positions, and even then only by people with quite wide shoulders. Anyone who sleeps in other positions or does not have wide shoulders simply could not sleep well—another thing completely counter to the simple fundamental purpose of a hotel. • The room was cold, with the only climate control adjustment being fan speed, and only cold air available. I requested a space heater, and the one delivered had an obviously unsafe damaged (partly melted) plug—again, staff clearly disregarded even the most basic fire safety. Also the heater had no thermostat—just two continuous-output power levels—so obviously couldn’t keep a room comfortable for a sleeping person. • The exhaust fan in the bath, which turned on and off only with the only light, squealed loudly when turned on, well more loudly than needed to wake most people, for a few seconds to several minutes, and occasionally thereafter. The problem and the fix are obvious and simple, so it’s clear the staff at this hotel simply don’t care.
Pros:location
Cons:the customer service could be improved. My Expedia reservation took a while, I sat in the lobby for a while (this was okay), but afterwards they charged double, and I had to call 3 times, and involved Expedia team to have the issue solved and get the reimbursement.
Pros:The bed was great as were the amenities. The hotel is lovely and spacious. When I commented in a different review that I was surprised not to have been offered an upgrade in a very slow time, I was immediately given one. Our 3 night stay was very pleasant.
Cons:Many of the staff seemed indifferent to us as customers. Only after my poor review did the front desk take any interest in us and even then there were no smiles. The maintenance man we met on the elevator seemed to be the only person happy to work there.
Pros:Location was great and the room was nice
Cons:No parking. The price was good but the parking was not included, it and was about $50 a night so it kind of defeated the purpose of getting a good deal.
Pros:What a grand old lady this hotel is. Soak up the ambience and the history and enjoy the great location.
Cons:Make no doubt this place old, but beautiful. The pipes creak, the elevators break down occasionally but definitely great value for money considering her location.
Pros:I loved the location and history of this hotel. It wasn’t fancy but it was clean and the bed was very comfortable.
Cons:I really wish they had water available in the lobby. They had containers out there but they never had water in them at all for the three days we were there.
Pros:Location location location. Walking distance to airport train.
Cons:Breakfast and hot water in the rooms.
Pros:Stayed here again bc it’s location. Close to downtown attractions and the train
Cons:Housekeeping
Location
520 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605
What's nearby
- Grant Park227 yd
- Symphony Center0.3 mi
- Art Institute of Chicago0.3 mi
- Cloud Gate0.5 mi
- Millennium Park0.5 mi
- Chicago Cultural Center0.6 mi
- Willis Tower0.6 mi
- Field Museum0.7 mi
- Chicago Theater0.7 mi
- Shedd Aquarium0.7 mi
- Chicago Lakefront Trail0.9 mi
- Chicago Riverwalk0.9 mi
Policies
Check-in/Check-out | Check in anytime after 3:00 PM, check out anytime before 12:00 PM |
|---|---|
Cancellation/prepayment | Cancellation/prepayment policies vary by room type and provider. |
Essential information about Congress Plaza Hotel
Low season | January |
|---|---|
High season | August |
Average price (weeknight) | $210 |
Average price (weekend night) | $285 |
Cheapest month to stay with an average 57% drop in price.
Most expensive month to stay with an average 12% rise in price.
Average Sun - Thu price over the last 2 weeks.
Average Fri & Sat price over the last 2 weeks.
When to book a room at Congress Plaza Hotel
Price per night. Prices are not fixed and may vary with time.
Average nightly price per month
Average nightly price
Top tips for your stay at Congress Plaza Hotel
- If you’re after a cheap room at Congress Plaza Hotel, then you should consider staying during the low season. The cheapest deals can generally be found in January and February.
- Prices can also vary depending on which day of the week you stay. For the best room deals at Congress Plaza Hotel, plan to stay on a Monday or Tuesday. The most expensive day is usually Thursday.
- The cheapest price a room at Congress Plaza Hotel was booked for on KAYAK in the last 2 weeks was $147, while the most expensive was $794.
- How long should you stay at Congress Plaza Hotel? KAYAK users usually book their rooms here for 2 days.
FAQs when booking at Congress Plaza Hotel
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Value for money | 7.1 |
|---|---|
Distance to city center | 0.2 mi |
Nearest Airport | Chicago Midway |
Distance to airport | 8.7 mi |