voco Chicago Downtown

cky enough to get a nice day in April to be able to walk along the river for our pictures. The Wolf Point ballroom has incredible floor to ceiling windows that give you a stunning view of the city, as do so many of the guest rooms! Aside from the natural beauty the location provides, the hotel goes above and beyond to create the wedding for you. My invitations came to life in the decor of the room, and they even hung some garden lights to soften the feel of the hotel ballroom and bring the outdoors in. The food was INCREDIBLE. I got so many compliments from guests regarding their food and their overall stay. The hotel was accommodating to guest needs and so responsive to work with. Absolutely amazing!

nd was perfect thanks to the venue and Janet. Janet was so responsive to emails, questions, and went above and beyond during our planning to ensure the reception went perfect. I can't thank her enough for all of her help and support over the last 6 months. The entire hotel truly treated everyone so well. The bridal suite had a wonderful view of the river. Janet even arranged me to have an early check in so I could get ready for my rehearsal dinner. The food here is first class as well as the great bar. (The tasting we had in March was fabulous and the food tasted the same on the wedding day!) There is nowhere else in the city I would have rather had my reception at. The day was like a dream for us. Thank you again so much Mart Plaza and Janet for going above and beyond for my family, friends and guests.

beyond her job of the director of catering and sales and pretty much acted as our day of coordinator! All of our guests commented on how much they enjoyed the food and how surprised they were that even the vegetarian meals were great! I work for a school and am definitely looking forward to working with them for school events as well.

tting all of our decor set up as we wanted. Working with Barbara, their former wedding coordinator, was great. Janet took over for her about a month before our wedding, but based on our interactions with her, we have no reason to think she won’t be just as good. Our guests had a great experience with their stays and said the hotel staff was always helpful. Be careful about the parking situation, though. Until their construction is done, their valet lot is extremely small, so most cars end up a few blocks away in a garage and take a fair amount of time to retrieve. Make sure your guests plan ahead! Highly recommended.

receiving our welcome bags. I thought this was a little ridiculous, seeing as how the Hotel Sax and The Westin were not charging us, but there was little we could do. After my guests had been checked in for four hours and still had not received their welcome bags, I called the hotel and found that they only have the manpower to deliver the bags from 3:00-4:00 p.m. Am I not paying them to have the bags delivered whenever I please? I asked if guests could just pick up the bags from the front desk when they check in, but they employee told me that would negate the fee I paid. Yes, exactly. Thank you for taking so long to realize that. To make matters that much worse, the majority of rooms with one people only received one bag. I'm paying you to deliver the bags! You can't deliver two at a time? I don't know if they were stealing them (I had great stuff in there!) or if they were just being lazy. Either way brides, those welcome bags are expensive and a huge time commitment (at least mine were.) Do yourself a favor and ask very specifically what the welcome bag policy is before you book a hotel. The Holiday Inn was not worth it. In addition to the bag fiasco, the best rate The Holiday Inn could give me was $169/night. Let me remind you that you're a HOLIDAY INN. That's an absurd rate and I have no idea where you get off charging that much. If you weren't so close to my venue I would have rebooked my guests' reservations elsewhere.

hicago Mart Plaza because of the great skyline views, good food, and fantastic service and attention to detail from Barbara and her staff all for a very reasonable cost. The package "perks" were great too! Being able to bring in our own liquor helped customize our wedding without paying the typical hotel upcharges. Our room was comped for the wedding night and for both sets of parents. The wedding cake included with our package from Alliance Bakery turned out great as well! My husband and I continue to receive compliments from our guests about how great of a time they had at the Mart Plaza…we highly recommend it!

are breathtaking. I’m not being biased but I really think the views from the ballroom are the best in the city. You get views of both branches of the Chicago river. It’s beautiful during the day and even more amazing at night. Our guests complimented us all night long about the view. It’s pretty incredible. Next the food is really delicious! We got married on a Friday and had the celebration buffet package. The package itself is pretty reasonable and the food was delicious. We had Caesar salad, prime rib, chicken, mashed potatoes, fruit, and grilled vegetables. Everything was super delicious. The prime rib and the chicken were juicy and very tasty. The cake, which we got through the package from Alliance bakery was very moist and delicious. We got compliments on the food/cake from our guests as well :D Last but definitely not least, the Event Coordinator, Barbara Martin is just fabulous. She is organized, responds promptly and is very nice to work with. She was one of the reasons we booked the venue. We knew with Barbara that we would be in good hands. Throughout the planning process we had great communication and she was extremely helpful getting things in order the day of the wedding. The Holiday Inn was recently remodeled with the newly added Wolf Point room. I think the secret is now getting out on how great it is. The prices are very reasonable for a downtown venue. I think choosing the Holiday Inn as our venue was the best decision we made in our planning process.

he was around managing most of the night of our wedding and was so attentive to anything we needed or asked for. Every person I met who worked at the hotel was always happy and smiling. The hotel accommodations were great and all of our guests were blown away by the food, dessert, location and view from the rooms and from the reception location. The Wolf Point Ballroom is the best and most affordable downtown wedding location in the city!

gine our joy when we found the Holiday Inn, Chicago Mart Plaza. Its location was perfect with the most awesome view of the city and the cost was perfect for our budget. But what really sealed the deal was the staff. We had gone to the Sears (I refuse to call it Willis) Tower, Hard Rock Cafe and other downtown venues, but no one impressed us the way Barbara Martin at the Holiday Inn did. She was warm, friendly, professional and seemed to really care that we have the perfect wedding. The packages offered at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza were great: the food was delicious, the venue was immaculate; but their greatest asset is Barb. I hope that all other brides get to experience someone so compassionate and patient during such an important time in their life. I can gladly say that my wedding was perfect...not one single issue or problem the whole weekend (we stayed in the hotel until we left for the honeymoon) and I know that is because we chose the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza and Barbara Martin as the hosts for our special day. She was a blessing.

ther. Our suite for the night was spectacular. This wedding venue is a hidden gem for the value and stunning views. Everything is modern and updated. All brides to be MUST look at this venue as a consideration. You will not be disappointed!

ould do it all again I would do it exactly the same. Great value for your money.

t Ballroom! When comparing the price per plate and the ballroom with gorgeous views to other venues-it was an easy decision to make! Barbara Martin, the event coordinator, is very experienced, professional, and will answer any questions you have leading up to the night of your event. She made my wedding planning so simple with a list of recommended vendors to use for chair covers, music, entertainment, ect. We had hor'dourves during cocktail hour-tuscan chicken, coconut shrimp, and champange cantelope soup shots-Our guests LOVED all of them! Then when they open the doors to the main room-I don't even know where to begin! The view is spectacular, our head table was decorated beautifully, the food tasted great, and the staff went above and beyond to make sure our guests were pleased! Our wedding cake from Alliance Bakery (which is included in your wedding package) came out exactly how we envisioned it, and it was the best tasting cake I have ever had. Our bridal suite had an amazing view and it was huge! Our entire night at the Holiday Inn was perfect and I would highly recommend meeting with Barbara Martin if you are planning a wedding or event in the Chicagoland area!

following reasons: 1. Great location for public transit, cabs or driving. (Parking is expensive at $34/night, but you do get in/out privileges.) 2. Great rate for Chicago. The city views (if you're lucky to not get a room overlooking the pool roof) are out of this world. Just stunning! 3. Great service. I worked directly with the sales office (thanks Diane and Charnita!) and they were able to accommodate some people that missed the reservation cut off. And they gave them the special rate as well. 4. Our room was huge! I had asked nicely about getting a comp room (being the bride and all, I thought I'd ask!) and was pleasantly surprised that we were given a suite! The room had a king size bed and a big sitting area with couch, coffee table and four lounge chairs (Rm 2048). The view was a northern view of the lake and the Hancock. Very, very nice! Only drawbacks: 1. The bar was packed on the Saturday night (I think there were 2 weddings going on in the hotel) and service was slower than molasses, but the view is awesome, so waiting wasn't that huge of a deal. 2. Having to go all the way down to the main building lobby to smoke. Yeah, I know, that's really not the hotel's fault and I really should just quit, but it is a pain in the ass when you're super anxious about your wedding day and having to wait on everyone else to be ready so you can get ready, etc. etc. 3. Room service prices were ridiculous. I recommend you go down to the deli in the main building lobby for breakfast! $4.25 got me an egg, bacon and cheese bagel sandwich and a cup of coffee. The same would have cost around $14 from the room service menu. Blah. Overall, I'd definitely say we enjoyed our stay at the Mart Plaza. Thanks to all the great people who made our day special!

guests booking rooms, but that was solved right away and the rest of our experience was great.

y would actually serve at the wedding, but he was wrong! The steaks were cooked perfectly, the cocktail food was fabulous and in the weeks after the wedding so many of our guests commented on how the food was the best they have had at a wedding. The service was also impeccable. They had enough servers that no table had to wait for food. One of the servers even saved me and my husband some hors d'oeuvres from the cocktail hour. Our guests were also really impressed with the room and the view. We were in the Wolfpoint Ballroom, and our guests love having the cocktail area to go to and visit while the music was playing. Barbara Martin and her staff were wonderful to work with. The only downside is the inflexibility of the venue and many of our guests had trouble with their reservations. The way the hotel structures its hospitality and reservations could be improved. Our family ended up with extra rooms. Some people who had rooms were told that they didn't when they checked in (we know they had rooms because we received a printout of the guests who made reservations under our block). We reserved a room for my friend, put it in her name and when she went to check in they told her there was no record of it. Eventually everything was straightened out, but it was frustrating for us and many of our guests. Overall, we had a great experience and beautiful reception.

flexible.;Chicago has a lot of conventions and conferences downtown so the rooms can book up quickly. Check the conference schedule against your ideal wedding dates to see if you're likely to be in conflict with a busy weekend.