Congress Plaza Hotel

Wonderful Place for your Family and Guests to stay

Karen Rodriguez, Sales Manager, is the BEST to work with! We were able to book all of our rooms with a view of the lake and Karen gave us an unbelievable rate! She even extended the rate 3 days before and after the wedding. The service was fantastic and our family and guests... Read More loved the convenience of being centrally located. I highly recommend the Congress Plaza Hotel!!

PERFECT NIGHT SLEEP

GOT THE SLEEP I NEEDED FOR THE NIGHT AND THEY HAD ALL THE HELP I NEEDED. FROM THE VALET ALL THE WAY TO ROOM.

Review for The Congress Plaza Hotel

Our reception venue was at a very historic hotel and provided an unbelievable 'old Chicago' feeling.

My wife and I held our wedding reception in the Gold Room at the Congress Plaza Hotel, and it is a truly spectacular location. The hotel itself dates from the 1920s, but they've recently been updating some of the rooms, and the ones our guests stayed in were very comfortable.... Read More Our wedding booking also included usage of the bridal suite, which was spacious and gorgeous, with views across to the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. Our main contact throughout the process was Ruthie Howard, the hotel’s Catering Manager. Ruthie put together a wonderful reception, ably assisted by her team (we were especially grateful to Frank, who was in charge of the service during dinner and attended to our every need). Ruthie has a very laid-back style of organisation, compared to other vendors that we worked with, but there was no cause for alarm as she was on top of all the details, including viewing the Gold Room, arranging the food tasting and the menus / drink package, as well as co-ordinating with our other vendors on the day. The food itself was excellent. We were able to attend a tasting in advance, and offer a choice of dishes to our guests (with allowances made for vegetarian and gluten-free requirements). Having attended some weddings ourselves where mass-cooked food can be mediocre, we felt the taste and quality at the Congress Plaza was a definite step up, and comments from our guests agreed. The hotel also offers a tiered system of wine/bar packages, allowing flexibility according to budget. The Gold Room was set up in advance of the event, allowing us time to come in with the florist to drop off centrepieces and wedding favours on the morning, and this made things easier. We had a relatively large event (170+ people), and the Congress Plaza ensured that a complicated operation ran smoothly. Together with the beautiful surroundings of the Gold Room, our guests thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and we're very happy to recommend this venue to future couples.

A reasonably-priced hotel on Michigan Avenue

The views from the lake-facing rooms are spectacular, and the renovations make the hotel feel like true luxury. We booked the suite for the weekend of my wedding at the Field Museum, and it was the ideal place for all the girls to get ready and for the wedding night. Spacious... Read More and comfortable and upscale, plus a convenient location close to the wedding venue! Karen was also fantastic to work with for booking a block of rooms for our guests. She was flexible and professional the whole way through. There were some snafus: We had champagne and chocolate-strawberries delivered to our room! ...but it was a night too early so we saved them in the refrigerator and by the time we got to the strawberries they weren't too fresh anymore. Then, the night of my wedding, I came back to the hotel bar with some friends around 12:30 am and was told that we could have three bottles of champagne. They never brought them, and I ended up in an emotional fight with the bar manager, in my wedding dress. He told me they were closed-- which was fine, but I never should have been promised the bottles in the first place, in that case! Not such great service on a night that was supposed to be happy and carefree! Overall, a reasonably-priced hotel on Michigan Avenue. It costs much less than the Renaissance Blackstone, but I suppose you get what you pay for. And it's still better than the Essex!

This Venue made our wedding!

Everything went so smooth at Congress and Sohana and her staff were so helpful and nice throughout the entire process. I thought they were affordable compared to the rest of downtown chicago venues. Our guest raved about the ballroom as well!

Beautiful but pricy

The hotel itself is really neat and a unique space for a wedding and reception. The Florentine Room (where the ceremony was held) and The Gold Room (where the reception was held) are beautiful. These rooms are breathtaking! Slavyana, the Catering Manager, is amazing! She... Read More planned everything perfectly and helped make our day great. The food was also delicious and Krista, the chef, is wonderful. The catering and event staff is beyond amazing. The front desk staff, however, was terrible. Many of our guests had difficulty booking their rooms and had issues with getting service. Again, the food was great and there was a ton of it. It is an older hotel, and some of the guest rooms were not quite up to par - you will not get the modern amenities. The only true complaint I had/have (and this is not necessarily the hotel's fault) was the strikers in front of the hotel on our wedding day and a huge protest across the street. The only reason I gave four stars instead of five is because the rooms are hit or miss, the front desk staff, and the strikers outside the building. Slavyana and Krista are the best. They were wonderful to work with and I would certainly work with them again. I would recommend this hotel for any event or wedding.

Review for Congress Plaza Hotel

The Gold Room (the ballroom our reception was in) was stunning. I don't think there is a prettier room in Chicago.;HORRIBLE staff/management that are very uneducated and unhelpful. Their actions show their lack or professionalism and courtesy. Also there are people on strike... Read More outside the building picketing, which has been going on for at least 4 years. They were giving my guests and my bridal party a hard time as we were entering the hotel. In general, very poor staff service.