Let me start this review by stating that I am not the target demographic that aspires to this hip hotel brand. I lucked out (or so I thought) purchasing a room for myself for a weekend in Chicago. I did not choose the W-Lakeshore, I purchased it blind through Hotwire and was enticed after learning it was a 4-star hotel and I had received an amazing deal. After staying here for the last 2 nights, I cannot recommend this hotel and in fact, have stayed at far better 2 and 3 star hotels.
My biggest gripe with the room was the connecting doors between rooms. I was awoken at 4 AM by incredibly ignorant, drunk and loud morons from the room next door. After banging on the adjoining door and asking them to keep it down, I finally called security. While I understand that being situated near unruly hotel guests is unfortunate luck, I am surprised that a 4-star hotel would have this feature in their guest rooms. The rooms design also leaves much to be desired as the bathroom sliding door and windows do not retain heat well from the shower- a definite plus for colder Chicago AMs, when you step out of the shower. Additionally, the shades covering the windows do not do a very good job of blocking out the light, so an early wake-up was my bonus for staying in such a chic botique hotel room.
Two other things really made me feel that the W-Lakeshore was nickel and diming their customers. The first was being given a complimentary plastic water bottle on arrival into the room. I also saw two other bottles of water in the room as well, but when I read the tags on the other bottles I realized that these were $2 each. I imagine some W Marketing genius decided that this was a great way to "increase value" at the hotel. I call that deceptive and gouging. The other nickle-and-dime move is the hotel charging fees for WiFi use. What's the matter Starwood, the room rate isn't enough for you? I've stayed at 2 and 3-star hotels that gave me free WiFi- plus I even got a chocolate chip cookie...for free.
So in conclusion- W-Lakeshore bad; W-group- I don't see the value in your brand, but perhaps that's the point, I'm just not cool enough to get it.
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