To start with the positives:
- Good value for the quality of the room and location, which is excellent for a short stay
- Room very well furnished and well decorated, with great views from a higher floor (and I think the views lower down would probably also be not half bad)
- Everything clean enough, although bath had some rather odd scratches and the sink overflow could do with a deep clean, there were a few black stains visible when I bent down towards it whilst brushing my teeth.
- Soap appeared to be vegetarian (although no way of knowing with the shampoo and shower gels, which wasn’t so good – vegetarian guests want to know that kind of information)
- Clear emergency exit signs, and checking the fire exit I found it was completely clear and I had confidence that the place was safe, with a smoke detector and I think a fire suppressor (sprinkler) in the room
- Very quiet, with no noise disturbance from other rooms, the corridor or outside
Good quality flat screen tv able to accept HD television, with a good range of channels including HD
- Excellent air conditioning – could go cool without becoming too noisy
- Free and very rapid internet / printer in the business centre, good quality machine and screen, and clean keyboard and mouse
- Allowed early check-in, as the room was already open – which I thought was great, although obviously that is just luck
- A highly professional manager who sorted out some serious problems that arose during my stay….
So, with such a lot going for it, it is a pity to report that there were some negatives that badly spoiled my visit….
A few minor negatives to start with
- No kettle, tea or coffee – it’s too posh for that, which I find annoying and pretentious. Waking up early I like a cup of coffee before I dress and leave to face the world (and that includes going to a hotel dining room) - it’s poor that some hotels (generally better ones) consider that too common for them. When I’ve asked, I’ve been brought a cafitierre and kettle before in better hotels than this, but given the level of comprehension and friendliness I'd encountered at check-in I didn’t fancy my chances so didn’t bother asking.
- A minifridge you cant put your own water in, because it’s one of those spring-loaded things that automatically bills you if you even move one of the bottles already in there. Annoying, but as noted in the “positives”, the ac was good.
- Slightly soft bed with only feather mattress and pillows – I prefer non-animal bedding products but this isn’t an option.
And then the real problem, which is the reception and concierge staff….
- Check-in was about as limp as I’ve encountered. She struggled with my fairly simple English surname, and hadn’t been taught to repeat letters spoken to you, so it took longer than it should for her to understand my fairly simple surname. “A” “E?” “No A, for Adam” “E?” “No A”,.. Painful, and heaven help people with less common surnames. I suspected she was French, as the A/E thing can happen with native French speakers and my French is awful so I'm not being anti-French. No welcome, no explanation of any facilities (are there any? After leaving I heard there is a fitness centre, but wasn’t told so wasn’t aware of it), and she was already walking away when I got to ask a question “is breakfast included in my rate”, which met with a simple “no” – not a “No, but you can buy it…….or no, but there are nice cafes nearby”, just “no”., and she was gone, so lucky I didn’t have any more questions. I don’t like gushing welcomes, but basic hospitality is important and it was absent.
- Checking out I asked for directions by public transport to the airport. The receptionist informed me that was no public transport available, the only way to get to the airport was by taxi, it cost “about fifty bucks”, and I could get one from outside. I explained that I prefer not to travel in motor cars / automobiles (no good reason – I just don’t like them) and had never been to a big city airport that couldn’t be accessed by public transport of some form, be it a train or a bus (I'd arrived in Chicago by train, my first visit there, so it was a genuine question I needed an answer to). Again he insisted it just wasn’t possible. I said I found that simply incredible and said would go to the internet machine nearby and find the route myself, at which point he went to confer with a colleague and returned with a nicely printed out direction card for the simple, cheap ($2.25) and quick (1 hour door to door) route from the hotel to O’Hare via the metro. No “I’ve just learned something” or sense that he’d learned anything that would help him serve future customers, just the same blank, limp, half-baked, can’t give a damn attitude I’d already encountered there.
I wanted to pay cash (gives me a better exchange rate) and that request was met as though I’d said something a bit weird. I’ve paid cash in other American hotels, no issue at all, but to this person it seemed odd. He went to check that it was okay, and I was transferred to another staff member who took my money. She was the same as the others - no engagement, no energy, no understanding that transactions can be courteous and friendly and don’t have to be monosyballic and no-eye-contact- got-over-with-as-soon-as-possible affairs. That was the tone throughout the hotel. As I say, I’m personally not hugely into excessive friendliness or fakeness, but the staff at this hotel are on the wrong side of the line and I felt they didn’t actually understand that I was a paying guest who happened to be paying their salary for the time they were dealing with me. It may be they are all new and inexperienced and just lacking in confidence dealing with foreigners, but if that is the case they need some training.
It got worse, although I only found out after checking out. My brother, who couldn’t contact me by cell but was planning to check into a nearby hotel with friends, had arranged to call me so we could meet up for dinner – we’d not seen each other for a long time. He called the hotel only to be told I was not staying there – I was actually waiting in my room for his call and stayed in, checking for messages! He repeated my surname several times (he found that they don't know the basic technique of repeating each letter to confirm if its mutually understood - he speaks very clear south of England English, as do I, so it's not as though we have heavily accented English that could have thrown them). He then asked if they would do a search on my first name, as there couldn’t be that many people of that name staying. He was transferred now to the front desk, who simply declined to search by first name, in a sort of “Sorry, can’t help” limp kind of way, which reminded me, when I was told about it, by the half-baked way I was originally “greeted” when I checked-in. So he thought I’d not checked-in and was worried about where I was.
We met up the next day as I tracked down his hotel via a friend so we did get to meet up, but I’d missed the dinner the previous evening and one friend I didn’t get to see as he’d left town in the morning. I returned (I had to collect my bag from the concierge en route to the airport) and asked the concierge if I could see the duty manager (it was early evening, and I didn’t expect the hotel manager necessarily to be there). “Duty manager?” he said incredulously, as if he’d never heard such a term and needed it explaining. “Yes, the manager who is on duty”. “Oh, do you have an appointment?” “No, I have a complaint – do I need an appointment to make a complaint?” “He is over there” (he pointed to the guy near him on reception). Appointment indeed! What absolutely second-rate impertinence.
The manager couldn’t find any record of my stay on their system, and it was only when I produced my receipt that he explained what the problem was – I’d been booked in, unbeknown to me, with my surname and first name reversed. He said that should have been sorted at check-in. He agreed, however, that this didn’t explain why his staff had declined to search for me by first name as well as second name when asked to do so by my brother. I complained to him not just about this, but the general poor quality of reception and concierge service I had received – one of them was standing nearby and was literally gawping at me as I spoke to the manager, too poorly trained to understand that this type of “audience” can only exacerbate a difficult conversation. Professional front desk staff know how to behave and with the exception of the manager the people at that front-desk didn’t have a clue.
The manager recovered the situation with a fulsome apology, and, I have to hope, an understanding that he needed to sort out some staffing issues. He made a courtesy reduction on my bill which made me feel his apology was a sincere one and this retrieved the situation so I’d consider staying at the chain again – I explained to him I’ve stayed in other accor and Sofitel hotels outside the US and always experienced good service in the past.
So I don’t feel as if I can actually recommend this hotel at the moment. I am returning to Chicago next year and I'd like to stay, but I'd want to know the staffing situation had been sorted out. Currently, there are staff who don’t know that they should know the names of their guests, that they should be prepared to look at a simple list to locate a guest when someone wishes to speak to them; they don’t know that they shouldn’t be phased when someone wants to pay in cash; they don’t know that part of their job is to briefly summarise available facilities; they don’t know that it is provocative to ask a customer with a complaint if they have an “appointment” to speak to the manager who is on duty a few feet away; they don’t know that there is a metro to the airport and that it is wrong to insist that you can only there by taxi. This catalogue of half-baked, rude and ridiculous incidents involves several staff, not just one, so I think it’s a total culture change they need – if I was a high-up person with accor I'd consider closing the place for a week and training up new staff. I would repeat, however, that the manager was professional and courteous and did apologise for the errors, so there has to be some hope there I suppose.
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