We stayed at the Blackstone over Memorial Day weekend. Paid $99 a night through a Travelzoo promotion. Without a doubt, one of the great bargains in Chicago. While the hotel itself was 5 star, the maid service was 1 star. In spite of generous tips each morning, the only sign a maid had been in the room was a made bed and clean towels. Everything else was basically the same. We even called for a re-clean one night while we were out for dinner and the only thing we noticed was the radio on playing soothing music and chocolates on our bed. The floor still had not been vacuumed. Had we been paying nearly $180 a night, like our friends, I would have been very disappointed in the experience, but at $99 even with marginal cleaning, the Blackstone is a great deal.

I booked this room for $99 through expedia.com. I think by far the best deal I have ever gotten on a hotel. This is a very nice and elegant hotel with a great decor. We stayed night in the city for our anniversary and had a pleasant evening. We were not there very long, and did not require any service from the hotel, so that is something I can not comment to much on. The hotel has a very good location next to Grant Park, we took a nice evening stroll and heard part of a jazz concert. It has an excellent tapas restaurant.
2 things people may want to know in advance are that on each floor the of the 10 or so rooms 4 rooms face the lake/park.
The other thing is the bathroom is basically open to the rest of the room. There is a frosted glass door that slides shut to partially obscures the view. This is fine if you are with your spouse or alone, but may not be what you want to share with your children. There is no shower door in the bathroom, so turn up the heat while taking a shower.
I would greatly recommend this hotel, but would just advise you know what you are getting.

My wife and I stayed for a nice weekend the first part of May. We had booked at Marriott.com and saved nearly $50 by paying in advance. The hotel was in an excellent location, just four blocks away from the Orange and Red line station. Our room looked over Michigan Avenue and had a terrific view of Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. Buddy Guy's Legends is a quick 5 minute walk and it is very easy to walk to such sights as the Sears Tower, musuem, Soldier Field and other sights.
There were only three 'negative' that I can think of. The bathroom door is just a slider and doesn't provide the ideal amount of privacy....not a big deal but I can see how some people would be bothered by that. Parking was the other issue. As in most of downtown Chicago, parking is expensive and it was $47/day for parking with in and out privileges. We got lucky however and found parking in an open lot one block west of the hotel. $13/day but it was an unsecured lot. We had a rental car so were not too concerned but in inclement weather or having a higher end vehicle, you may want to consider the parking on site. The hotel did have a free 'business center' which is great but it only has two computers and during our stay, the printers were not working.

This hotel is classy, luxurious and modern chic all in one. I loved it. The rooms are fairly spacious and the bathrooms are quite large (although not really "private"). Showers are totally open and the bathroom door was more of mini-blind. The amenities are nice, but not over the top. It’s a bit farther from the action of the River North or Magnificent Mile than I would prefer, but it was close to the conventions at McCormick Place. In terms of hotels in Chicago, this one has been the best.

I was hosting a morning breakfast at the hotel early in the morning and had a bit of crisis the night before. The staff stayed late (until almost 11:30pm) to accomodate my last minute changes to the meeting plan.

More on my time in Chicago:
http://justanothertravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/chicago-illinois.html