Attended a Conference at the Hotel. Got a fabulous room overlooking the Marina City Towers, Trump and the Chicago River on the 20th Flr.. The staff was great, queen beds were firm and pillows, the best! Location is fantastic being close to the CTA trains and the buses to everywhere! One thing I was disappointed in was the Hotel does not offer any free Internet access in a Business Office except for a Terminal right off the Check-in desk for printing Boarding Pass which was OK.
Will stay again in the future but will shop for best rates.

I stayed at this hotel on business for a few days in May 2008 and I really enjoyed my stay. Upon arriving, my room was not ready yet since I got there rather early, and the front desk person was super helpful and arranged for my bags to be stored and took my cell phone number to alert me when my room was ready. He also recommended a place around the corner for lunch which was very good. I was barely through my lunch and he called to let me know my room was ready, it was very quick. I was impressed because being cynical, I did not expect anyone to call, but they did, and very promptly and politely I should add!

So I returned to the hotel after lunch and retrived my bags and finished checking in. My room was at the end of a long corridor and faced the rear of the hotel. The room was really nice, I enjoyed it. My two "complaints", and I wouldn't even call them that, were the noise of the "El" train, even though i was on the 20th floor, I still heard it loud and clear every few minutes - it sounded like a strong wind blowing, that is what kept coming to mind. It didn't interrupt my sleep but I can see how it would effect some people's sleep overall. I found it soothing because I like "white noise" when I sleep. But, I wish now that I had asked for a front-facing room (those cost more I think, however). My other issue was the bathroom door which is set up to automatically close - it cannot stay open on its own. It's annoying! A colleague who was also staying at the hotel said she rigged it by opening it all the way and then opening the closet door so that the bathroom door could not close. I did this too and it helped - of course I closed the door when I needed to, but also I was in the room alone so I wanted to shower with the door open to relieve the steam. Lastly, speaking of the shower, and maybe this is just me, I had no idea how to turn it on, ha! I thought you would just turn the handle and the water would come on, but on this one you have to PULL the handle out and then turn. It did not say this anywhere so I thought the handle was broken and actually called maintenance - I was embarassed when they told me I simply had to pull the handle first. It sounded like they had heard this before, or at least I am going to tell myself that!

Overall, a beautiful hotel with a friendly staff, in a great location in Chicago's Loop. Lots of little cafes and stores nearby - convenient for little necessities or sundries. I would absolutely stay there again without hesitation!

For the most part this was a very good hotel. Some of the minuses are common to all hotels. For instance the make-up mirror would have been perfect for most males or a tall female but not for a short or average height female like myself and my roommate. Although there were two of us staying in the room, there was only one bathrobe provided. The first two days the maid only provided towels for one person. We did not have to request extra towels because I showered after swimming in the pool. The pool was swimmable but small. These, unfortunately seem to be common to all hotels.

Other negatives are not common to all hotels. The bathroom door would not stay open by itself; we propped it open with my backpack so that we could use the mirror on the door. I needed to plug the phone cord in my laptop so that I could dial up my office network but the phone cord on the desk phone was caught in a cable-holder that would not allow me to pull it up onto the desk. The phone cord for the bedside phone was more flexible but there was not an empty electrical outlet to plug the laptop into; this limited the length of time I could work to the battery life. The inflexible desk phone cord also meant that you could not move the phone around the desk. I would have loved to watch TV and work at the desk since there was a very good selection of channels; you cannot see the TV when sitting at the desk.

There was a great CD/radio/alarm clock but there were only instructions for setting the time. We were able to figure out how to set the alarm but a colleague was not able to figure out how to switch to radio from CD.

Although we were in a room with two double beds, there were only two very, very small drawers. This would barely meet the needs of one person in the room but was totally inadequate for two. They did provide us with extra hangers based on my request in my Marriot Rewards profile. Unlike many hotel rooms with two beds, there was plenty of open floor space. We were in an upgraded room at not extra charge. This meant that we faced the river which was a very nice view. Otherwise there were no differences in our room compared to colleagues in non-upgraded rooms. The beds were comfortable and bathroom was roomy and attractive.

I am thrilled that the Renaissance is now completely NO SMOKING! I don't see the need to stay anywhere else when I'm in Chicago. I'm so sick and tired of still being able to smell cigarette smoke drifting into the vents of rooms that are supposedly no smoking (Omni Suites Chicago).
Renaissance is in a great location, great views, friendly helpful staff, nice sized clean comfortable rooms.