I stayed at the Sheraton on the weekend before Xmas 2001. Except for one company xmas party, the place was deserted. Hotel lobby is huge and elegant. I had priceline.com get my reservations so I paid $50 for my room. Before I went, I signed up for a Starwood Preferred card, so when I checked in, I flashed that card and asked for an upgrade. The desk clerk said the concierge was not in but she would give me the best room she could. The room was nice with a view of the Chicago River, Lake Michigan (barely) and the Chicago skyline. The room was clean and looked like any other room.
The hotel was rather empty so we felt like we had the place to ourselves, which we like. The only problem we had was with parking. We wanted to self park because we had things in the car we wanted to be able to access. The self parking lot is under the hotel and the elevator and hallways linking the two is a LONG way from the lobby and leads through the "backstage" area of the hotel. Be sure to drop your luggage off at the lobby before self parking.
Location is great, only 4 blocks from the Navy Pier, 2 blocks from the Mag Mile and 1 block from a nice gourmet grocery to get breakfast and lunch.

Recommended: Yes