There are good reasons why the London-based Hoxton hotel brand is booming worldwide, and they're on fine display at this West Loop location. The Hox, as it's known, is one of the few hotels that promise a convivial, stay-for-awhile lobby atmosphere for "creative types"—and actually provides it. This is modern hoteling with none of the obsequious fawning and up-charging that older, fussier brands lean on. It starts by giving guests comfortable, magazine-ready design rooms that have a luxe bed and coffeemaker and but not much more to waste your dollar (shower stall instead of tub, hooks instead of a closet, simple fruit-and-granola breakfast hung outside your door in a bag), and to that it adds lots of loft-like hangout spaces throughout the rest of the building. In a way, it functions like a miniature hip neighborhood unto itself: snazzy Peruvian restaurant on top, laid-back Mediterranean one on ground level, a cocktail bar with weekend live music in the basement, and an open-air rooftop pool deck for the warm months—all of them with cocktail bars, of course. Our first stay was in the winter, when we sat by the lobby fireplace with a craft beer and watched the snow fall through the steel beams of the L train running outside. How adorably Chicago it was.
There are also good reasons to choose the West Loop, although they're only just becoming evident, now that new restaurants and hotels are springing up all around the former butchers' neighborhood. It's fairly easy to get anywhere else in town because the aforementioned L runs alongside the custom-built hotel (you can faintly hear it rumble past from mostly soundproofed rooms, but trains don't honk, so the effect is actually soothing—and again, adorably Chicago). For playtime on the North Side, a block away on Halsted you catch the regular 8 bus, which cuts out transfers in the Loop and reaches the bars and theatres around Fullerton and Belmont in about 15 easy minutes—faster than the L by half.
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The Hoxton, Chicago
200 N. Green St., Chicago
Our Rating
Neighborhood
West Loop
Transportation
L: Clinton or Morgan (Green or Pink L)
Phone
312/761-1700
Prices
$199 to $370 double (weekends are less expensive than weekdays), including free breakfast
Amenities
Free breakfast, two restaurants, three bars, rooftop pool with bar, co-working space, wellness center, coffee bar, Wi-Fi (free)
Units
182 units
Web site
The Hoxton, Chicago
![3 star(s) 3 star rating](/assets/rating/fromm-rating-3star.png)
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.