Disappointing
Recently, I was fortunate enough to head down to Chicago for a long weekend getaway to do some shopping and of course eating. If you have followed any of my other reviews you will know that Chicago is one of my favorite cities that I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many times over the past few years. The party I was traveling with for this trip were coming to town for a convention held at the Hilton Chicago, which was disappointing because as you can read in my other review you will know that I really enjoyed the past 3 stays at the Palmer House Hilton. However, I wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity to fly down to Chicago for a few days.
 One thing is for sure: the Hilton Chicago is massive. From the second you get off the GO Airport Shuttle you realize that the hotel is very large covering an entire city block. There are some trivia questions on the elevators that tell you exactly how many rooms are in the hotel, but I can’t remember how many they have and can’t be bothered to wait in the elevator for that one piece of information to show up. I’m sure you’re asking: “why don’t you just Google it?” to which I would respond that I am not going to held up to their highway robbery for internet at nearly $14/day.
 Check-in was quick and smooth. We were given a room on the 18th floor with 2 beds and 2 bathrooms. Let’s just quickly confirm, that was one room with 2 beds and a bathroom on each side. It turns out that the room was at one point renovated to combine 2 existing single rooms into 1… “new” single room. I couldn’t imagine how snug it would have been if the two rooms were combined, it would be nearly impossible to get all of the furniture into the rooms. Because the hotel was hosting a convention that meant that rates skyrocketed to a level which I would classify as ridiculous. For the standard room we had we were charged over $300.00 per night! When you pay this much for a room at what Hilton would classify one of their flagship hotels you would expect near perfection. I thought this would be an easy review but was I ever wrong.
Everything about the room itself was just “ok”. We were staying on a non-renovated floor (with the ongoing recent renovation scheme they have going on) within the indent between 2 of the 3 towers. We had a neat view of the waterfront and Millennium Park from in-between the two towers, it would have been better if we were at the front of the towers but it was good enough. The room was dated and had a mishmash of different characteristics. One interesting thing in the room is the HCN Navigator. It’s like a computer, but is full of features that are charged directly to your room bill. How convenient. It is a great idea because it effectively replaces the antiquated hotel guidebook that you would find in your room on a coffee table or in the desk drawer with a directory of all information you may need. It was all fine and dandy, until it stopped working. I woke up the day after we checked in and was greeted to “OOPS! This terminal is not authorized to use HCN” or something along those lines. Interesting.
What was really disappointing, no that isn’t the right word for it, disgusting was the bathroom, specifically the shower. I have never seen a filthier shower in all my travels, and what shocked me the most was that it was at a flagship Hilton. What was really bothersome was the mold. It wasn’t just a little bit that had been building up over a few days of not getting scrubbed instead it was a fuzzy dark green line that went almost around the entire base of the shower. What’s worse, the place where you set down your bar of soap in the shower was equally filthy resulting in the bar of white soap getting a very attractive set of green lines which turned out to be mold. I mean, really? A 5-star hotel with a mold problem, come on.
Bottom line, at over $300.00/night you would expect a lot more from a hotel. For starters, you would think that it would be clean. Secondly it is disappointing to that the hotel charges so much for so little. While I don’t use the fitness center it was an extra charge. The Internet, while I would have used it I refused to do so because it would have been a small fortune to connect. As a consolation you are able to go to the lobby and use the internet free of charge. But it’s really disappointing in this day and age not offering internet as a standard complimentary service.
When I return to Chicago in the near future, I have a strong suspicion that I won’t be returning to this hotel. The hotel rides on its namesake as one of the grand hotels in Chicago that commands these prices/respect. Don’t buy into the hype, you are better off finding a hotel that’s closer to the Loop, the Magnificent Mile, or someone north of Millennium Park. Sure, it’s old but with age comes a responsibility to keep up with the times and make sure that the hotel is maintained and upgraded accordingly. Look at the Palmer House, they just completed a massive renovation that brought the rooms up to date and kept costs down without committing highway robbery on their guests.
Bottom line, I didn’t find this to be a great/grand place to stay. With the ridiculous pricing, expensive add-ins, and mold it did not make for a good stay. As said earlier, you are better off staying somewhere else in a better location, in my opinion. I came to the decision that I would rate the hotel a 2/5 after debating whether it deserved a 3/5. It is an average stay (while very expensive)