Millennium Hotel Knickerbocker Chicago

Reviews

• SC

  Samuel Cifuentes

  3 days ago
  1.0
  My pregnant wife and I booked a night here to celebrate our anniversary two weeks ago. Upon arriving all of the doors to go in the hotel were blocked by a crowd of men half dressed in leather all smoking. My wife and I had to push through them to enter in the building and smoke was blown in her face. Then, when we got into the hotel music was blaring, there were many people drinking celebrating something about “Onyx” after looking it up apparently it’s a sex positive event being celebrated for black men in the LGBTQ community. What we saw was disturbing and had we known this was happening or really any large party we absolutely would not have booked a stay here. This should have been disclosed to us. We were not able to be in the lobby or enjoy the lounge downstairs at all. Not only that, it was VERY loud, there was no security, we saw butt cheeks upon entering and a few men dressed in ways we could see their pubic hair. We felt unsafe. Then, after finding the check in counter in the back we could hardly hear the check in person. We wanted to do valet, she said that there should be valet people outside. We walked outside, again pushing past these men, for there to be NO valet people outside or any employee at all. We had to push our way back inside again through the smoke. Then we found a random counter in the middle of the place and explained to an employee we were trying to find a valet driver. He said they would call one. Never followed up with us as we stood in the lobby waiting for at least 15 minutes while this party was going on. We were extremely uncomfortable. The front desk person noticed us and asked if we needed something…we explained to her the situation and she took over our valet process thankfully. After we got in our room it was nice, our TV wasn’t working at first, turns out it was just unplugged so we just needed to plug it in. It seemed clean. We noticed we were roomed next door to some of the people included in the ongoing party which was fine except for at 2am, 3am, and 4am when they woke us up yelling several times down the halls and making odd noises. Really, extremely disturbing. Every time they opened their door it sounded like someone was trying to get into our room and would wake us up also. Then, in the morning when we went to check out we texted valet so they could get our car. After over 25 minutes valet said our car was ready. When we went to the lobby we did not see our car outside…we saw the valet person and told them and they said “yeah that’s your car right there, the Toyota right?” As she went to hand me the keys to the car. That was not our car, and they were ready to hand me the keys. We had a different make, model, and color….so they had to go get our car and we were left waiting again in the lobby for about 10 minutes. Overall, not a great experience. We feel like we wasted a lot of money for a really awful anniversary experienced. We were very bummed about this all. We wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible and get on with our anniversary celebrations and not linger on the poor experience any longer and just celebrate our anniversary. We booked through Airbnb so we reached out to them over the messaging app which says they typically respond in less than 22 hours, well we sent this same message to them 6 days ago after they messaged us and are left with no response or attempt to make anything better.
• DL

  Dana L

  6 days ago
  3.0
  HUGE HEADS UP ABOUT HIDDEN FEES. There are a few other reviews here also bringing up these hidden fees for wifi and other items here at this hotel. Even with paying for these fees the WiFi didn't work too well and barely worked one day I was there with my mother. I'm hopefully assuming it was due to the AWS issues when we visited. So I hope it works for customers now especially with that fee... The reason why I'm still giving three stars, the staff in the restaurant were absolutely wonderful and nice to us. Especially during the AWS issues, I know it was hard on them but even with those issues, they were friendly to me and other customers. Also when the cleaning service didn't clean our rooms one day, we were shocked to see our room was made while we were out for lunch after telling the front desk and telling them it was fine that it wasn't clean.
• SS

  Sarosh

  Oct 24, 2025
  4.0
  Let me start by saying I actually had a good time at this hotel. Hotel is obviously not perfect but I don't think they ever claimed to be. Valet parking available on arrival. There have been times where the front desk was extremely busy checking people in that the line grew to almost a dozen people very quickly. Prime location given proximity to Michigan Avenue, allowing guests to have several options for dining/shopping/ late night activities. The lobby area has a classy gold vibe similar to Palmer House. You are expected to pay a deposit per night of your stay and according to front desk any and all incidentals will come out off that deposit. There are a couple of extra fees which were not made clear initially and they were charged to the deposit payment as well. Staff was very welcoming and will go an extra step to ensure you're satisfied. Breakfast available starting 6:30 a.m. Due to early kitchen closure, I did have to order several meals through doordash and Uber eats instead. As classy as the lobby looks, I feel like the hallways and to a certain extent the rooms need to be renovated because the carpet does look like it's from the 1920s. There are areas where you can't tell if it's a stain or it's just wear and tear from the last 30 years but it does take away from the whole ambiance. These rooms are not the biggest, but they are comparable to other hotels in the same area. One morning morning there were loud noises coming from upstairs which made it very difficult for me to keep sleeping and upon questioning the front desk about how long it will take, they did state It will take a few hours. Obviously I communicated my displeasure. I told them I had just worked the overnight shift at the hospital and need to go again tonight which means I need my sleep. They initially offered me free breakfast while I stay in the same room and that did get me frustrated. I told them what I need is sleep and not food, so offering me breakfast will not alleviate situation. They ended up changing my room to a Junior suite which almost looked like a mini apartment and had 2 TVs/living room/adequate space to walk and move around. Overall, I'm still very glad that I ended up staying here. I originally booked only two nights but ended up staying the four nights instead and was very happy with that decision. If they're able to renovate the hallways and change the carpet, this hotel will be one of the better ones in Chicago. Lastly, since the building only has 13 floors, it is very difficult to have a good view of the city or the lake. So if that is what you're looking for, I would suggest a different hotel. Addition of a microwave would also go a long way to make guests more comfortable. When I asked where I could heat up my food or if there is a communal area where I can use a microwave, I was told that I would have to go across the street to use it which obviously I didn't do because that's ridiculous. Both TV screens are functional but clearly dated looking like they were built in early 2000s. Given everything I have mentioned above, I do still recommend staying here because this hotel does offer a lot at a relatively inexpensive price.
• JM

  Justin Miller

  Oct 24, 2025
  2.0
  The location of this hotel is amazing. This is the area you want to be in - it's extremely walkable, the streets are clean and stately. The staff was kind and willing, unfortunately it's just the rooms need to be refreshed. The carpet in my room seemed very dirty. I loved the shower spouts (a lot of water) but I saw some mold in the shower and it's not clear if/when the shower was cleaned. My room was very cold for the first few days of my stay. I did complain (a very nice hotel engineer DID show up, he was very cute and polite) and eventually the heat seemed to have been turned on. I recommend staying here if you want the best location for a hotel in Chicago!
• MP

  Michael Penhallegon

  Oct 24, 2025
  4.0
  Went for a conference. It was a good hotel for the hotel block price off Magnificent Mile. The property is a great legacy old hotel. The ballroom is gorgeuous. Staff was very friendly though and definitate shoutout to Craig, in bell service, for being really welcoming and friendly. Overall the decor and quality of the hotel is good but a little dated, like a mid-2000s boutique hotel that just needs a little bit of love and refresh. The rooms were okay, clean and well-kept, just a little dated. The bad: - The elevators are not really designed to support a conferences with a lot of traffic, the conference rooms were either on the 14th or the 2nd floor, so a lot of time was spent waiting for the elevator. Further they broke down multiple times requiring a tech to come out and for staff to have to baby attendees on high traffic nights to 4 people per elevator - The conference rooms didn't have basic AV like projectors - Martini Bar, the lobby bar, had 2-3 gins and couldn't make a good martini, the cocktail menu was un-inspired and bland. - Nix, the lunch/breakfast joint, had pretty generic hotel-quality breakfast, includign a crossaint breakfast sandwich where the pastry was tough like day-old. I probably wouldn't stay on my own 1) they normally have a destination charge (It was waived for the hotel block) 2) There is a better Hilton Honors property across the street.