I think the first thing on anyone’s list would be to make sure there isn’t a website set up detailing how horrible the hotel is as a result of the fact that hotel employees have been on strike for the last six months. That would be a good thing to check up on.

Not thinking, I booked a room for the Marathon at what seemed like a classic old hotel, with beautiful rooms and an unbeatable location.

My mom, ever the intrepid researcher, did her homework, and found out that not everything is as it seems. Or, to be more to the point, the place is an unmitigated disaster, featuring every kind of hotel-related nightmare you could imagine, from the run of the mill pest and leak issues all the way up to the fact that the bar staff don’t know how to make any drinks. Are Orbitz and other travel websites being responsible when they still offer to book rooms at a hotel that has been charged by the City of Chicago with 68 code violations? Who knows. Time to get my money back and book somewheres else. I knew it was too good to be true…