I stayed in a king room on one of the two executive floors- the room was lovely-spacious, very nice furnishings and modernised (but tasteful) bathroom.Executive floors have their own elevators-this is nice.The public areas are beautiful and the hotel if properly managed could easily ooze opulence but it doesn't- such a lost opportunity.
The executive lounge was a disgrace- firstly it is a series of leftover spaces- the largest of which is an elevator lobby- so there is constant foot traffic passing the tables- another area is a passageway with a couple of tables to the side. There are also guest rooms accessed via these passageways.
Secondly there are two very large floors of rooms that have access to this area plus any Hilton diamonds staying in the hotel, and the space is way too small to accommodate this number of people.Staff are not provided to help guests as in genuine executive lounges-there is a desk with a phone on it- I never saw an actual person sitting there. Overall the atmosphere was more bus station than classy hotel.
The barely continental breakfast is Hampton Inn style- cereal unlabelled in dispensers, coffee pots full of undrinkable stewed coffee-awful, a lonely apple in a bowl.Dirty glassware stained with stuck on food,grease, lipstick. Understaffed so not enough attention to replenishing the always disappearing offerings.
The happy hour is not happy- poor quality cheap canapés and no alcohol- you can buy drinks from the pleasant barman-unheard of in any decent lounge.
By the way Chicago is a wonderful city to visit. I did 2 Chicago Architecture Foundation tours and both were fantastic. There are a huge number of tours run on any day- book ahead online so you don't miss out.
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