I thought I might be in trouble when I saw the uniformed security guard in the office that afternoon. I had wanted a downtown, not terribly expensive, "decent", place to stay near the wonderful mass transit system in Chicago. I send very little time in the room so to me decent meant clean, bed, TV, safe. Had bed, had TV, never felt safe, wasn't clean. Walking in room with socks I would STICK to the floor. Safe? Aside from THEM feeling they needed a guard 24/7, the window in the room was opaque, could not look out, did not open. NEVER, NEVER AGAIN. Oh, yes, the location was great, between the Brown and Red lines (two-three blocks in either direction) and not far from the bus line (51? 53?) I could take to my daughter's.

Upon initial arrival, I thought this place looked more like a motel than a hotel, but this was in no way a problem.

Thoughts:

Location: This hotel is located near the purple, brown and red lines - all of which will take you downtown and to other places within the city. The trip to downtown is very close - 10-15 minutes. It is also a short walk to the Magnificent Mile where there is heaps of shopping and the Marilyn Monroe statue. It is also walking distance to the John Hancock building.

Cleanliness: The doorways smelt of cigarette smoke, but the rooms themselves were fairly clean and smelt nice. The only thing was that there were some spots on the towels, but it wasn't a big problem.

Service: This was the only part of the hotel that wasn't great. We wanted to book a taxi that was a van because we had a lot of luggage. The concierge told us that it was not necessary to book one because it would be extremely easy to hail one from the street. This would have been fine had we not needed a van. When we told her we specifically needed a van, she told us to look in the phone book for the cab number.

Other: The wifi connection was excellent.

This place is ok. Its in a great location and has free parking. There are 70 rooms and 40 parking spots. Get there early and leave your car there and walk or use cta to get around.

My friends and I were visiting Chicago for the first time and The Howard Johnson Inn was our hotel of choice. We were all very satisfied with the price we paid for the location and room. Yes a new lick of paint here and there wouldn't go a miss but hey how much time do you spend in your room on vacation to start worrying about that?

Very close to all attractions, you might want to get a taxi to Union Station or Michigan South but otherwise everywhere was walkable and felt very safe!

I would definitely recommend this hotel for anybody who needs a good comfy bed and a decent shower who isn't foo fussy about the fittings of the window frames or colour of the paintbehind the bedrest!