Arlo Chicago

Reviews

• NN

  notnot

  2 days ago
  3.0
  Early Check-in Trap ruins an otherwise great stay! I booked a stay at Arlo Chicago from July 27 to July 30 through Agoda. I had already prepaid the room fee online and knew I owed a USD 90.69 facility fee at the property. To be fair, many aspects of our stay were wonderful. The room was great, the Wi-Fi was fast, and the in-room TV connection worked perfectly. We even had an issue with our luggage where we had to leave it behind to be picked up by the airline, and the staff handled that situation beautifully and provided excellent service. Unfortunately, our entire experience was ruined by a deceptive billing practice at the front desk and the lack of communication after the incident. On arrival, we got there before the official check-in time. Our original intention was simply to leave our luggages at the front desk and return later. However, the staff member informed us that a room was already ready and offered to check us in. He explicitly explained that a USD 150 hold would be placed on my card for the deposit, and that the facility fees would be charged at checkout, with the remaining hold released. Because I wanted to be absolutely sure, I even asked him to repeat these exact terms to my husband so we both understood. (The hotel can verify this interaction on their CCTV). At no point during this detailed explanation did he mention a USD 50 "early check-in fee." Later, I discovered they quietly charged an extra USD 50 to my credit card. I emailed the hotel directly to resolve this but received zero response. When I raised the issue to Agoda, the hotel hid behind their policy, claiming the fee was justified because we checked in early—completely ignoring the fact that their own staff authorized the check-in without disclosing the fee. Had the staff member honestly disclosed the USD 50 charge, we would have gladly left our luggages for free and walked around. Disclosing a deposit fee but hiding a service fee is unacceptable. It is a shame that a hotel with such good rooms and helpful luggage service allows its front desk to trick guests into hidden charges and ignores them when they ask for clarification. BEWARE OF THE EARLY CHECK-IN OFFER — it is a trap to slip an extra fee onto your card.
• RB

  Robert Bredvad

  2 days ago
  2.0
  This is just not a serious hotel. Location is great, rooms are fine, but the customer service and amenities are lacking. Two parts of my experience that make me not want to return: 1. I needed an iron. If you call "Front Desk" from the in-room phones, you're connected to an AI agent. It understood I needed an iron, confirmed they'd send one to my room. Wrong. Three hours passed, nothing. I called again, explicitly saying "connect me to a real person." It did, and that real agent confirmed that an iron would be sent to my room, but that agent was seemingly not on-site, but in some sort of call center. No iron arrived. I dialed housekeeping, and only got a voicemail. Finally, I told the AI agent to connect to me "a real person, at this actual physical location," and finally got someone in the building — and after FOUR calls, the iron finally arrived. I should have just walked downstairs from the start. If anyone reads this — please, whatever efficiencies you think an automated system provides you, it's misguided. What an absolute waste of time trying to reach a real person in the literal building I'm staying in. Dumb. 2. The wifi is garbage. I'm here for a work trip, trying to download something and the Speediest download speed is.....less than 2mbps. My phone, on its worst day, is 10X faster than this. Why even bother providing wifi at all if it's functionally useless?
• NR

  Niamh Rahman

  Aug 6, 2026
  1.0
  Worst customer service ever. Have tried to get in contact with their front desk over and over and have had no luck. An AI robot named Skye answers the call and asks how she can help, then no matter what prompt you give her or number you press - one of two things will happen: she will go completely silent and then hang up on you or she will take you to a short menu and you will hopefully after several tries be connected to a real human. The next problem is that this real human will be someone from a remote non-Chicago location who actually knows no answers to any questions. My question is about group rates - not anything extremely niche or difficult. They will then proceed to fill out a request form (which I've already submitted online days ago) and tell me someone will be in touch. Guess what? No one gets in touch. So actually yeah - will be taking my GROUP RATE business (think MANY rooms) somewhere else. Extremely disappointing considering we already have an upcoming reservation with them and were looking to add more guests for our wedding. Good thing there's a million hotels in Chicago with much better customer service.
• LS

  Louis Streb

  Aug 3, 2026
  5.0
  The Arlo is situated in the most desirable downtown Chicago location. The hotel is directly across from Millennial and Grant Park. You can literally walk to anything you can imagine and the metro is only a 2 minute walk from here. The staff at this hotel are like none I’ve ever encountered. They went above and beyond every single day regardless the size of the request! When I think about great customer service, these are the people I hope for!!! The rooms are modern, clean, safe, affordable, and filled with all the amenities one could want. I have found my Chicago hotel.
• LB

  Lateefah Blacksher

  Aug 2, 2026
  3.0
  Stayed here while we were visiting Chicago for a concert and it gave us what we needed...a clean place to rest our heads right in the middle of downtown area. If you go drop your luggage off in the back, be warned...it has a very strong smell of pee and sewage so not the best first impression but once you get inside you're welcomed with a very pleasant smell and nice classy vibe. The staff was welcoming and friendly and they have security onsight as well. The main thing you get with this hotel is location and cleanliness. Pros: [ ] Location is right in the middle of downtown and within walking distance of most stuff like food, shopping, the bean. [ ] The front and back doors lock after 9pm and guest need a key to access the hotel and elevator which made things feel safe. [ ] They partner with a parking garage that's very close and allows in and out access for $55 a day which was nice to have in busy downtown. [ ] We didn't try the restaurant in the hotel but they do have food and drinks right at the hotel. Cons: [ ] Window view is of a wall/window to the building next door so with that and room size it did feel a bit claustrophobic at times. Maybe if you book directly through the hotel you have the option to select a street view? So you are really paying for the location. [ ] You pay an extra $30 daily resort fee for basic hotel amenities but the room doesn't have a microwave and no fridge you can use because they packed it with THEIR drinks you have to pay a bunch for. Suggestions to the hotel: - Coordinate with your cleaners and have a way for them to know when a guest checked out to avoid your staff from walking in on your guests. We had 45mins left to checkout and I ran downstairs and my teen daughter was in the bathroom and one of the cleaners knocked and then quickly went into the room while she was in the bathroom. He said sorry and left immediately but it was a very uncomfortable thing for her and me as a parent. What if she wasn't dressed? I messaged the front staff about it and the reply didn't sit well/they didn't seem to care it happened. Improvements need to made for that if you truly want your guest to feel at home. -Allow people to leave key in the room and text to checkout to through the TV for a fast and easy checkout process. -Get bedframes thst fit the size of the mattress. The beds were hard to get on and off of because there was a lot of frame before you land on the actual mattress.

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