Room 101
I recently stayed at the Wyndham Blake Chicago for business. My company had used a 3rd party for the booking, there were 3 rooms booked under my name. I arrived around 8pm and upon check-in was given room 101. I was told it was on the 1st floor - interesting since we are not in Europe I knew that would be street level, or not very far from that. The front desk clerk said I would have to take the elevator to the 2nd floor and then take a flight of stairs down to my room. I believe my comment was "are you serious?!?". Response: "Yes that is the room reserved for you". I asked if it was safe. I was told "it is a lovely room". Too tired to argue I went to the dungeon I had been banished to by the Hotel Gods. The room was in fact lovely, newly redone, clean, etc. Aside from its location which was HORRENDOUS,I thought this is ok. Looking out the window, the view was an ally, the room is about 10 feet off of street level, dumpsters right below the window and a lovely lamppost, complete with planters and a gigantic light right at the center of the window. The blackout curtains do their best to shield the light however, there is a bright frame formed by the space between the wall and the curtain. I could live with that, I live in NYC, there is seldom total darkness or complete silence for that matter. The fact that someone could climb up the lamppost to get to the room, using the dumpster and the planters, wasn't something I really understood until I walked around back in the morning. I went to dinner-nothing in the Hotel and nothing really good close to the hotel. Returned and went to sleep. At 4:13am the garbage trucks began emptying the dumpsters. Needless to say that was ongoing. After almost loosing my mind from the noise for 3 hours, I got up and checked out. When asked how my stay was, I was very descriptive. The front desk clerks, to their credit, did feel bad, saying yeah, those are bad rooms... Really!?! My colleagues were on the 5th & 8th floors not facing the ally, I'm sure had a different experience (BTW I was not the last to check in, Mr. 8th floor got there at 10pm, so clearly there were other rooms). Had I not said something about the rooms location at check in, I would not be annoyed. I should have made a bigger deal about it upfront, lesson learned. The Hotel should never give that room or any other room at that level unless the people are fully aware that they will have a sleepless night!! Use the room as a courtesy room, shame on you for charging almost $200. I wasn't expecting The Four Seasons, having said that it doesn't matter. The purpose of a hotel is to be comfortable away from home... Well that's not where I live.