We just returned from a trip to Chicago, where we stayed at the W Lakeshore. The location of the hotel is pleasant, overlooking (as its name suggests) beautiful Lakeshore Drive and Lake Michigan. The atmosphere, especially downstairs, is about what you might expect from W properties, a veneer of swankiness complimented by thumping techno music and a bar scene that befits a eurotrash pick up bar more than a hotel lobby. When we arrived, bleary-eyed from a red-eye from the west coast, this was not the sort of greeting we wanted but we accepted it as the W brand. Fine. The rooms, however, showed the the swankiness and design consciousness of the brand is just a veneer that masks some rather awful, poorly thought out design choices that run counter to the "Whatever-Whenever" comfort philosophy espoused by every staff member from the front desk to the room service servers. First, the bathrooms. As other reviewers have pointed out, the bathroom is separated from the bedroom by a shuttered window. The idea behind this design is understandable, sensible, and shared by a number of many a luxury hotel (such as the Park Hyatt in Chicago or the St. Regis in San Francisco) -- while you take your bath or shower, you can look out both onto your lovely, tastefully appointed bedroom as well as a splendid view of the city. In execution, the W falls flat on its face. The above-mentioned hotels that share this design concept use a sliding partition that can block out the sound of the bathroom at night; the shutter system used in the W rooms does nothing to block out sound and the problem is compounded by the fact that the toilet (at least in our room, though I know it is a feature in most rooms) is not located behind its own door. So, lets say you're trying to fall asleep in your lovely bed and at say, 3 a.m. your significant other has to get up and use the bathroom -- you'll hear everything he/she does. Some might call this intimacy; we thought this terribly off-putting. When we raised this issue with the hotel staff, they apologized but said that all rooms were like this and that this was part of the hotel's charming, design-forward aesthetic. Our response: is this aesthetic scatalogical? The second problem, is the a/c system. While we had set the temperature to a usually comfortable 68 degrees at night, we woke up numerous times overheated. I kept running over to the thermostat to try to ensure that the system was working. We understandably called a maintenance person, who informed us that the a/c system is controlled by a motion sensor. Being from green-conscious California, the idea of saving energy through motion-sensing technology is a good concept and we applaud the W for that effort but, once again, the design was flawed. If you are in the room, the lights are out and you're in bed sleeping, this means that there is no motion in the room. So, no matter how low you set the temp, you'll be burning up around 3am. In sum, we would only recommend this ill-conceived and poorly re-developed property to someone who got a rate for well-under the advertised rack rate. For all the design flaws (and we only mentioned two), the regular room rate should not be around $300 in the summer. This hotel is a blemish on the Starwood brand. If you're already paying $300 for a regular king-sized bed for two people at the W, save yourself the aggravation and stay at a nicer property (and in Chicago, there are plenty).
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