My stay was characterized by bad service and total lack of attention to detail and customer care:
•Checked into small tired room in main tower on the 17th floor. I left the room at 8pm for a business dinner and set the air conditioning to 74oc. I returned to a room which was 90oc.
• I was moved to a room on the 4th floor at midnight. The new room was dark and overlooked a water tower and a/c duct work – nice!
•New room had an empty mini bar.
•Day 2. My wife called and was left on hold for 9 minutes before being transferred to my room. She said the hotel sounded quite nice from the advertisements she had listened to for the 9 minutes on an international call, particularly the ‘American Girl’ weekends. I warned her not to believe everything you hear.
•Day 4. Phone call from reception to inform me that the credit card for incidentals had not cleared. I informed front desk that I was aware of this as I had not given a credit card at check in. I was part of a group booking that a central credit card had been used to secure incidentals. I informed front desk that I was checking out in the morning and I would happily settle the outstanding $56 charge. I was informed that I needed to go to reception ‘immediately’ with my credit card. – It’s unfortunate that this hotel would not show such sense of urgency in fulfilling customer’s basic needs.
When a customer needs to move room at midnight, I would expect a porter to help with luggage and I would expect a room of similar standard to the one I was leaving due to the inadequacy of the air conditioning facilities. The Intercontinental failed on both.
The hotel has a great location on Michigan Avenue, but there are many other real 4 star hotels nearby including the Swisshotel, Sheraton, Fairmont, Hyatt, and many others.
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