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The Write Inn
Rating Details »
Categories: Hotels, Bed & Breakfast [Edit]
211 N Oak Park Ave(between Erie St & Ontario St)
Oak Park, IL 60302
(708) 383-4800
- Nearest Transit:
-
Oak Park (Green)
- Price Range:
-
$$
9 reviews for The Write Inn
Here is the deal.
FANTASTIC bar. Hemingway was born right down the street- it does not get netter than that,
The hotel is a great place to crash after days of driving from the west coast. It feels like home and all the people working here make you feel it too.
So happy this is our first experience in the Chicago area The neighborhood is amazing as well are the people who live here.
You are guaranteed to ave a nice stay at The Write Inn.
you've just been yelped in.
People thought this was:
- Cool (1)
Me and the Evil Stepsister - alone in a hotel room. Two requirements -- one) separate beds and two) walking distance to decent bars or restaurants so we can run away somewhere and hide from each other.
This hotel filled those two basic requirements perfectly.
Beyond that, the room was quite large and appeared to have been decorated around 1970. The television received 10 or 12 channels, one or two of which occasionally were cable stations -- not quite sure how that worked exactly. The bathroom was large and almost clean. The carpet was stained. The windows opened but would not shut. The elevator worked but was quite slow and a little like something from an old slasher movie. Some of the employees at the front desk found my existence an annoyance, others found me charming and were quite conversational. The location is perfect. The housekeeping staff fast, in fact so fast none could take the time to clean out the BUGS in the light fixture over the shower despite my repeated requests. The price was such that I cleaned out the invaders myself.
Though I did not eat in the restaurant I did sneak in there one afternoon to avoid you know who. Someone with a very decent voice was covering popular French songs from the '50s, apparently the restaurant has live entertainment on the weekends - the waiter refilled my iced tea glass frequently without giving me sarcastic eyeballs for taking up a table and not eating anything.
I must mention that the parking lot is one short + one medium block away from the hotel. It's a municipal lot with LOTS of rules and if you don't abide by them you will get a fat ticket. I heard two people complain about theirs (tickets that is) in the lobby to the staff.
The inn itself is quite charming, near the Lake Street neighborhood with all the shops and boutiques. They have a bistro inside that holds a Champagne brunch on Sundays with live jazz music.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
Elderly people work the front desk. Charming building. Cozy rooms. But they are tiny. Huge bathroom. Cocktail room/restaurant in the inn. Comfy stay. Its the history of Oak Park and it shows. Close to everything in town.
Such a cute place to stay. The feel of the hotel is "antique" and you can actually see little antiques everywhere, even in your room. Check out the little room numbers too. They are made of sculpted wood, and hand painted.
Too bad most of the patrons there were antique as well. Oh well, it helped to make the place cozy. The rooms were small but very cute, with a little kitchenette inside with a fridge, microwave, etc. I love that! There was a picture in the bathroom that I wanted to steal so bad....it was an old shampoo advertisement that said, "Without beautiful hair, you don't look beautiful."
There is a free parking lot about a block away. Don't park your car reverse in a spot or you will get a ticket for it! What the hell? Why? At least they make you well aware of that at the front desk when you check in though.
We ate breakfast at the restaurant inside, "Hemmingway's Bistro" which had an extensive menu (see the reviews for it separately). There were only about 3 other tables but the service was really slow. The food was very good though. Don't try and order alcohol before 11:30, they have a policy that they cannot serve it before then and stick to it no matter how much you beg.
When we checked out we wandered the area for a bit. There are plenty of cute little shops to pop in and out of nearby. A nice little retreat.
Cute count = 3
People thought this was:
- Useful (4)
- Funny (4)
- Cool (3)
I have stayed here several times. While it has a very cute ambiance, especially in the lobby, bar, and entry room, the rooms themselves are lacking. They are extremely tiny and very very old. And my most recent stay was in a specially named room which, while larger than the average room in the hotel, was COLD. And despite my turning on the heat to 90 degrees on high fan for 5+ hours, the room never got above 40 degrees F when it was less than 32 degrees outside. Brrrrrr... Oh, and they want to charge you to use the internet in your room.
The staff is super friendly though. That definitely is one of the better parts of the stay.
The hubby and I stayed here for V-Day one year a while back and I thought it was quite nice. Its got the antique thing going on which is fine. There's a really old elevator that wasn't working when we were there (antique as well perhaps?) and then a more modern one hidden off in the back so you don't HAVE to walk up the stairs unless you want to. We got one of their "signature suites" which was quite large. Had a little sitting area and mini-kitchen. The bathroom was the best...it had this giant tub that you had to climb up a few steps to then step down in. Ahh. It had jets but we couldn't get them to work. Oh well. It's just close enough to downtown OP and all that action but just far enough to not have that action be really distracting or anything...
Many problems with this place. When planning for our recent wedding, my fiancee and I made the mistake of choosing the Write Inn.
Oak Park doesn't have a lot of hotels, so when we were booking for our wedding, we were happy that we were finding something in town. However, we found customer service here extremely lacking.
We reserved a block of rooms for our wedding and nine out of ten people calling for those rooms received wrong room rate quotes, denial that the block existed, rudeness, and a general runaround.
Then on our wedding night when trying to check in still in our tuxedo and wedding gown we started getting crap from the clerk about how we should have called them ahead of time to let them know the credit card the room was reserved with had expired by then. This was when they had our phone information for months *and* the current credit card in hand, ready to go.
Overall, unless you really have to stay here, the uniqueness of the hotel does not overcome the lacking service staff. Given the chance to do this again, we would have skipped this inn entirely and used one of the superb local bed and breakfasts.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
This is one of those "must see" places for ("way too cool for our own good") artist types (like me!). This is a small but charming hotel that has a restaurant called "the Hemingway Bistro." Yup, it is indeed named after and in honor of the great scribe himself, Ernest Hemingway. This hotel/restaurant has good food and pretty reasonable prices, and it's located in a very popular section of Oak Park. There's a lot to see and do around here.
