I was supposed to be in Chicago for a Barry Manilow concert and had looked for a hotel within walking distance of The Chicago Theatre. I ended up booking a room at the Hard Rock on-line, a prepaid nonrefundable rate that was the best I found for the date I needed. Well, the week of the show, the Manilow concert got rescheduled to July due to medical reasons! So here I sat with a reservation and train tickets and no show to go to with my sister who ended up not wanting to go to Chicago and spend additional money she didn't have. I had called the hotel to see if there was any way I could get the reservation switched to July, realizing it was nonrefundable. Although it was against their policy, they were willing to assist me due to the circumstances. However, the July rate would have been close to $100 more than the February rate, and since a lot could happen between now and then, I chose not to accept their offer. I called them back to leave the message. Then within a few minutes, I received a call at home thanking me for keeping the existing reservation! Long story short, my husband came to Chicago with me instead of my sister, just for a quick overnight getaway, so as not to waste the prepaid room. Upon check in at rush hour traffic on Friday afternoon, we were upgraded to a "city view room" without asking and at no additional charge. The demeanor of the desk clerk was fantastic and he made us feel very welcome. It is a very historic, tall and narrow building, and our "city view" ended up being on the 18th floor with two windows looking directly into the windows of buildings across the streets, but the third corner window overlooked the Chicago river with a great view of the "corn cob" towers as well. I agree with some other reviews about the "darkness", but I think that is due to the primarily gray color scheme of the halls and rooms along with heavy drapes. However, there were plenty of lights in the room, a fantastic lounge chair with built in footstool and a brand new Rolling Stone magazine, as well as a huge bathroom with nice amenities. We thought about eating at the hotel, but unfortunately, the China restaurant had recently closed and we didn't have the opportunity to check out Angels and Kings, but the location of the hotel is great for walking the State Street shopping district or heading to Millennium Park or the "museum campus". There are certainly plenty of eating options within easy walking distance as well. We also didn't explore each floor of the hotel to check out the "rock memorabilia", but would if we stayed there again. (We were on the Tina Turner floor). I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to visitors looking for a location south of the river!