Chateau Hotel & Conference Center

The Chateau Hotel looks like a German lodge or castle, and its lobby is a thing of beauty, what with its elaborately designed front desk, interior fountain and sunken fireplace nook, offering a great place to curl up with a book or newspaper. And you'll be hard-pressed to find a hotel anywhere nearby that offers rooms so sound-tight that you won't hear a car or another hotel guest no matter how close you might be to the parking lot or elevator. Plus, it's in a great location -- just a few miles off of Interstate-55 and in the heart of Bloomington-Normal's shopping district. But the hotel could stand a little more attention to detail when it comes to the guest rooms. Things are beginning to look a bit tired, and there were too many problems for us not to take note. Among them, a burned-out light that rendered the secondary sink useless, a toilet that wouldn't flush without holding down the handle for 20 seconds, a flashing clock that the maid hadn't reset, and a malfunctioning key card that left us locked outside the hotel. Given that room prices are fairly high for central Illinois ($119 to $149 in the summer), it was disappointing to find so many small but annoying problems. Fortunately, all are easily fixable --and hopefully will be.