This hotel has incredible history and beautiful architecture but once you've seen all the magnificant common rooms (lobby, ballroom, Palm Court, old style elevators) it isn't any different than any other overpriced, 4 star historical hotel.
Our friends were getting married in the ballroom so we thought that we would take this opportunity to stay at The Drake since I'm pregnant and it would be an easy escape for me to my room in the wee hours. Check in was at 3:00 and we were there on time as the wedding trolley was leaving at 5:30 and we needed time to get ready. At check in we were offered a deluxe upgrade on our king room but the hitch was that it wouldn't be ready for over an hour. Talk about dangling the carrot and yanking it away! We couldn't wait an hour and considering check in wasn't until 3:00 I can't imagine why the room wasn't ready.
We settled for our existing king reservation (at $250) and found the room to be fine but of course our view was of the air conditioning units and we were next door to the Fitness area. So much for wedding party group booking bonus! I can't imagine how much money our friends spent for their wedding at The Drake but I'm sure they would have been mortified to hear about the rooms that their guests were given especially since they were "promised" that everyone under the group booking would be nicely taken care of.
Pro's - decor was decent, slightly dated but clean. room was decent size, noise between rooms/floors was negligible. Bathroom was ok in size but only suitable for one person at a time. Con's - heating system was horribly loud, had to turn it off at night to sleep, no exhaust fan in bathroom, wireless access was not free, bottled water was $7.00 for a small bottle, split of wine was over $25, breakfast was over $25 per person with another 20% markup for room service. There was coffee in the room but I wasn't sure if it was free and the room service menu said it was $15 so we popped over to Starbucks instead. Parking was ok at $39 a night if you use the public parking lot two doors down - you can even charge it to your room tab.
We ended arriving a day early and didn't have a room booked. On Hotwire we found a 3 star hotel for $63 a night in the magnificant mile area. We weren't getting in until 11:00 p.m. so we weren't that picky. The hotel ended up being the Holiday Inn Express. Of course for $63 our room overlooked the air conditioning units here as well but we had a very comfortable king bed, huge plasma tv, wonderfully decorated room, free breakfast, free wireless and a great location. The room was super small - basically just enough room for the king bed and a really small bathroom but for the money it was so much more worth it than The Drake. The building was beautiful, location was great, personnel were very friendly, self parking was around the corner. Ok, there's no ballroom, no Palm Court and Queen Elizabeth didn't stay here but does that really matter??? Save your money, skip The Drake, walk through it if you want to check it out, but there are plenty of beautiful hotels in the magnificant mile area for alot less money!
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