Not what I expected
I had a trade show to coordinate and set up and attend and I was responsible for picking this property from the many available hotels through the housing office at the trade show. This is a large show and many hotels to choose from however, the Chicago Marathon was also going on so my choices were a bit limited, to add to the mix I had 11 other people to register. Total room nights for the Fairmont - 68!
I needed one hotel for everyone, no moving people from one property to another or splitting up staff. I ended up with the Fairmont.
This property is around the corner from the Chicago Hyatt Regency and at the North end of Millennium Park, a nice walk to some of the fun spots on the North side of the river and I had hopped a good experience for the group.
I checked in on 2 October and departed on 11 October - 9 not so special nights.
The rooms are interesting as they have fairly large bathrooms with a separate shower and tub, decent sized sink area and amenities. But they do not have a chest of drawers for clothes so one must store items in the night stands or small seating area.
I arrived a bit early it appears for the hotel 1:30 PM and was informed my room wasn't ready. I made do with a lunch at the Sushi bar and took a walk and when I returned at 3:00 I was given a room on the 35th floor near the elevators and a "city" view. I cannot say it was a fun or in any way welcoming experience to check into this hotel, it was quite the opposite. The front desk staff was not in anyway friendly or welcoming, rather a great deal of attitude. Now this may be because we had a special rate, not cheap by any means but reduced certainly from the rack rack rates.
I am a Fairmont member but to the best of my knowledge I wasn't afforded any special treatment and as a matter of fact was told that if I wanted the "Gold" floor it would be $55 more per night, seems that bringing guests to the hotel and 65 room nights does not cut any slack at this hotel.
The housekeeping was good, the bed was decent but not outstanding, the restaurants are expensive, the bar just OK. Room service was very good and very expensive.
I spent the longest at the hotel, several arrived on the 3rd, more on the 4th and we departed from the 9th to the 11th. No one was particularly impressed with the property and none of us was greatly distressed, we just were not excited either.
We spent much or our off time before dinners or nightly activity at the "Big Bar" at the Hyatt around the corner. At no time did I feel like I wanted to come back to this hotel and I can assure you I will not. There are many good hotels in Chicago, I have stayed at many of them and what I had hoped would be a great stay turned out to be a very ordinary at best effort.
If you can stay someplace else in Chicago, do yourself a favor and do so.
I guess I could rate this stay average but the attitude of the front desk staff was a turnoff and I rate it a poor stay.