I stayed at this hotel for a conference at the end of November. Walking into the hotel you see this grand setting with ornate decorations with a very upscale feel. Once you head to the rooms and other areas of the restaurant, that feeling immediately disappeared. I arrived on a Sunday and the hotel was filled with Bears fans from the game going on that day as the hotel was close to the stadium. At times this made me feel a bit out of place as a business traveler surrounded by a ton of football fans. Beginning Monday, the atmosphere transformed to a business setting.
Check-In
Check-in was smooth and I was able to check-in around 1pm. I was able to go up to my room immediately and freshen up.
Room
I arrived in my room on the 15th floor and walked into what was probably the smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in, even smaller than the European hotel rooms that are notoriously small. The TV was practically on top of the bed. When I turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels I came across a fitness channel with someone doing Yoga. I looked around and didn't know where anyone could possibly even do something like that in this room. Small doesn't even begin to describe it. I also found the lighting to be very poor. I needed to turn on about 6 different lights in order to be able to read and even then the lighting wasn't very great.
Unfortunately, the bathroom wasn't much better. I began referring to the bathroom as the "Brown Room" because everything, from floor to ceiling was some shade of brown. It was very depressing. The bright side was that there was a TON of counter space and a full size hair dryer was provided. On the down side, I found the bathroom to be pretty dirty, as though it wasn't really cleaned after the previous guest. This feeling was confirmed when I went to take a shower that night and discovered that the shower gel that was provided in the shower was previously used. I was not very happy and didn't exactly feel very clean. I called down to housekeeping to ask for more shower gel to finish cleaning up and asked that the bathroom be cleaned the next day. I did receive more shower gel about 30 minutes later but the bathroom was never really cleaned. Mildew was on both of the soap holders in the shower for the entire trip. At one point I took a wet towel and wiped things down because I just didn't feel clean. There were two other things that bothered me about the bathroom. The toilet was one of those commercial toilets that everyone flushes by kicking with their foot. You know the kind I mean. I really prefer a standard toilet in my hotel bathrooms with your standard handle. It bothered me, but was something that I got over. The final thing that bothered me about the bathroom was that the shower curtain didn't go completely around the shower so a lot of cold air from the window at one end of the shower would flow into the shower as you were taking one. I had to crank up the temperature of the water to stay warm. Luckily, there was plenty of hot water to do that.
I will say that for a hotel in the city, I did not hear the city noise except for the occasional siren. This was one of the best hotels I've stayed at in a city for cutting out city noise.
Food
The first night I stayed here I ate at the restaurant in the hotel lobby. I thought the selection of entrees was a bit weak and not exactly appealing. I started with the buffalo shrimp, which were FANTASTIC!!! After that, I don't think I had anything that I really cared for. I had the meatloaf entree since it was the least unappealing thing to me and it wasn't very good. Service, however, was great and very attentive. Later on that week I had room service while I was working in my room. The food arrived about 30 minutes after ordering. I had the BLT sandwich, which was probably the worst BLT I've ever had. After those two experiences I didn't eat at the hotel again for the rest of the trip. I don't drink caffeine, but for those that do, there's a Starbucks just past the check-in counter.
Cleanliness
As you could tell by my previous note about the bathroom, I was pretty disappointed with the cleanliness of the hotel. I think my experience with the bathroom pretty much sums things up well. Housekeeping didn't come one day to clean my room. I'm guessing this is because I didn't leave my room until about 9:30/10:00am to head to the conference after doing some work in the room. Still, for a hotel like this, I should have received housekeeping by the time I returned to my room that evening. It wasn't like I had the "do not disturb" sign on my door either.
Service
Service at the hotel was hit or miss. I had good service at check-in and at the restaurant, but other than that I felt like just another number and as though they didn't really care.
Location
The location of this hotel is great if you're going to a Bears game or don't mind walking. I walked around downtown the first day I arrived and had to walk far to get to where a lot of the action was. The nights that I went out for dinner I found it very difficult to find a half way decent restaurant in the area. Because there are several colleges around I found a lot of Subway restaurants (which I hate) and McDonalds, but no real restaurants except for those in other hotels. If I were to come back to Chicago for pleasure I would stay somewhere different and a little closer to the action.
All in all, I thought this hotel was just very average. Nothing made it stand out in a positive way and there were multiple things that just weren't that great. I wouldn't return to this hotel and probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
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