James Hotel Hotels in Chicago – GayOut Guide
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🚶 4 min walk to Second Story Bar · 2 gay spots within 500 m
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James Hotel

Google (912) 3.6
Tripadvisor (3177) 4.5
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81
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GayOut Score
G3.6 🦉4.5
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Address
55 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
📞
Phone
(312) 337-1000

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About this place James Hotel

This listing is for the hotel at 616 North Rush Street in River North, Chicago, just off the Magnificent Mile. It is a mainstream hotel listed as gay-friendly. It operated as the James Hotel, with in-room sound systems and free Wi-Fi as selling points. The location is central for shopping on Michigan Avenue and for River North's restaurants and bars, and the Red Line at Grand is a short walk. Chicago's main gay neighbourhood, Northalsted (Boystown), is about 15 to 20 minutes north on the Red Line. Check the current name and booking details before you go, as the James brand appears to have left Chicago.

Features

Gay-friendly (straight venue) Air conditioning Parking Card payments accepted WiFi Year-round Gay-popular Gay-friendly (straight venue)

Insider Tips

Community Reviews

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Google Reviews

Verified by Google
3.6
★★★★★
912 reviews

Based on 912 Google reviews.

Karen Katz
Karen Katz Jun 2026
★★★★★

Wanted a different stay, and James Hotel delivered. With its BoHo decor and helpful staff, makes South Beach even better

Brenda Maiques
Brenda Maiques May 2026
★★★★★

Pleasant with very professional staff eager to please customers, my room and bathroom were clean, and it is excellently located.

Tyler Hernandez
Tyler Hernandez May 2026
★★★★★

Stay away!!! Easily the worst hotel experience of my life. Extremely passive aggressive and rude hotel manager, unclean rooms, and ac units way too small for the rooms. We booked this hotel as we enjoyed our stay last year, but I will not be staying again. Rooms were 80+ degrees and the AC Units didn’t work. The central air vent was taped over so that only a sliver of air could flow out. The shower was not clean, and the handle rubber banded to the stopper to stay up. The power was surging and going out on the floor. I had to leave and book an Airbnb as the rooms were not suitable to stay in. I’m sure the electrical issues alone are unsafe and are major code violations. The woman who was the manager was extremely rude and passive aggressive. I brought all of these concerns to her she dismissed all of them and blamed her housekeeping staff. She alleged that the power issues were the city’s fault, the unclean shower was housekeepings fault, and then she said the rooms were hot because I mistakenly booked for a party of 2 instead of 4. She didn’t understand that ac units are rated for square footage not number of people. I asked for a refund as the rooms were unusable and she said no. So I will be pursing a refund via other means. This hotel has gone down hill fast. I’d leave 0 stars if I could. Not worth any price.

Joseph Ruiz
Joseph Ruiz May 2026
★★★★★

absolutely horrible stay, never again. ceiling fan didn’t work, Walk unit kept cutting off. room was a furnace super hot . we literally had to check out an hour later no accountability whatsoever

Salvador Pereyra
Salvador Pereyra May 2026
★★★★★

The hotel itself was decent. However, in the rooms, there was low voltage; the lights flickered and went out, the air conditioning didn't work, and neither did the refrigerator. The staff was poorly trained, and everything was out of service. It's not worth the price.

Martinescapes402 Salgado
Martinescapes402 Salgado May 2026
★★★★★
Zafer KOCAOĞLU
Zafer KOCAOĞLU May 2026
★★★★★

Our room was clean enough, the location was very good, the air conditioning worked adequately, and we were pleased with the reasonable price; we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it if we had paid more. There is free parking, but they need to implement a system for entry and exit; a door that opens with a room card or something similar would be great. Having to remove and replace the barriers every time we come and go isn't very pleasant in the summer heat.

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Last updated on 2 November 2026

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