I would write a longer review but the previous comprehensive review by Everyguy is pretty much what I would have said too.
This really is a 1 1/2 to 2 star motel - but if you are driving into town and wanting to take the CTA the free parking is good. You can only book this hotel on the internet via booking.com
On the Chicago marathon weekend I was in town there was not a single hotel available in downtown Chicago for less than $200 per night! Staying at the Amber Inn cost $65 per night and the CTA green line took only 10 minutes to get you into the loop. This is the place's main value point - this is the closest hotel to downtown at an economical price. You could stay in a nicer place out by the airport for about the same price but you will spend about an hour to get into the loop via the CTA or METRA.

My son and I traveled to Chicago for a tour and acceptance interview at a local university. As always, we were on an extremely limited budget, and were on the lookout for inexpensive hotels, knowing that, as always, there would be a trade off between price and quality. With that in mind, the Amber Inn was pretty much what we expected, with a few points that disappointed us.

First of all, the location has a really strong point--it is less than two blocks away from the Indiana Street station on the CTS Green Line. From there, it is $2.25 to anywhere CTS trains go, and $2.50 if you want to transfer to a bus. If you are relying on public transportation to get around, this is a great convenience. The station is only about 10 or 15 minutes from the Loop. Of course there is a bad point too. It's not a "nice" neighborhood. We arrived after dark, and it was a bit nervous on the train, with one man talking loudly to his friends how he just got out of prison, and when we arrived at the station, the street was pretty dark, and there were empty lots on both sides of the street for half a block before we got to some houses. The corner of the street the hotel is on had businesses and was well lit, but we were immediately hit up for spare change at the corner by a panhandler. I've been in neighborhoods like this before, and this one didn't really seem too dangerous, but the potential for danger is there, and if a traveler was not used to poorer neighborhoods in large US cities, they might want to avoid this one. We felt a little exposed and vulnerable trundling our luggage to the hotel through the dark street near the station.

Check in was quick. We got a very good price through this website, and as soon as we announced our names, the desk clerk said "you are already paid in full." Still she took our credit card and hand rubbed it onto an old-style credit slip where the full number would show, and we had to sign that slip, plus an electronic one. It makes me nervous about possible double billing or misuse of my card.

We were handed the room key, which was an old-fashioned key, not a key card, and went to our room.

We had rented an "Economy Room" with a King-sized bed. The room was acceptably clean, especially given the price. It was a bit dark, even with all the lights turned on. There was small table with two chairs, as well as a desk, along with the bed, bedside tables, an a cabinet housing the TV.

The owners of the hotel also own the restaurant in the hotel, which we would have liked to have tried, but we arrived at the hotel shortly before its 8 pm closing, and could not eat there. They also own the take-out place across the street, and two of us were able to get a pretty good meal there for less than $10.

The most disappointing thing about the room was the bed. The mattress was old and enclosed in a vinyl covering, which was ripped at the corners. It made me suspect bedbugs, but I didn't see any signs of them. But mattresses with vinyl covers are not very comfortable to sleep on, and you wonder why the hotel management felt it necessary to put it there in the first place. Furthermore, the sheets on the bed did not reach all the way to the end of the mattress, and so the vinyl-enclosed mattress was exposed right where are heads were. Not my idea of an ideal sleeping arrangement. Also, the bedspread was one of those patterned ones often found in cheap hotel rooms that hide stain, but still this one seemed none-to-clean.

I understand that it was a very low-priced room for a metropolitan area, and I would have been perfectly satisfied if it had not been for the uncomfortable and disreputable bed. I'm not sure I would want to stay here in the future.

We rented two rooms because we came up for my husband's graduation for one night and was very disappointed in the rooms. By looking at the website pictures we were expecting decent clean rooms and to our surprise OMG, they were not very clean, one room the chairs had big tears in them, lamps shades were crushed and falling off. Our room the fan in bathroom was falling down, hair on floor that was not ours, comforter on bed had burn holes, and the plastic mattress cover made so much noise when you moved you could not sleep. It took 2 phone calls for my mother in law to get an extra pillow, no clocks. Will not stay there ever again and would not recommend to anyone. The only nice thing was Pearls Place, the food was excellent and the waitress we had was awesome.

I stayed at Amber Inn this summer with my husband, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law. When I made a few phone calls inquiring about rooms and eventually making a reservation, the staff was helpful, but I couldn't get all the information from just one person. I believe I have it figured out now though: they have two different kinds of rooms: hotel and motel. We stayed in the motel rooms (door opens to the parking lot), and they were pretty dingy. They say the hotel rooms are more spacious. Our rooms were good enough to stay in for a couple nights, but there were visible cobwebs all over the ceilings, and in general it felt very unkempt.

Some people have commented on the area of town being "scary." I don't think it was such a bad part of town, but if you come from a fairly homogeneous, upper/middle class neighborhood, this area of town might make you a little uncomfortable. Just remember, diversity doesn't mean dangerous. It certainly isn't located in a glamorous part of Chicago though. But the price is just right for where you're staying; anywhere else is going to cost you many times more.

A great advantage is that the train is located just two blocks away.

One last thing they could improve would be the knowledge of the staff. I asked about recommendations for restaurants, for example, and no one had an answer except for their own restaurant on the premises. It wasn't very helpful from a tourist's perspective.

Final verdict: stay here (try the hotel room) if you care more about the economical value of it and don't mind not having a fancy place to sleep, but be prepared that the location is not like the nicest parts of Chicago.