Rude Staff, Noisy & Lack Luster
Although a frequent business traveler to Chicago, this was the first time I stayed at the Westin on Michigan Avenue. Unfortunately, my first introduction to this hotel was riddled with problems, which mainly point to issues with rude staff and poor housekeeping. This will be my last visit to this below-par property. 
My stay started out on the wrong foot: upon check-in, I discovered the bathroom wasn’t clean; suffice to say that toilet was visibly used & unflushed. The front desk manager quickly offered me an alternate room on the same floor. This time, however, there was a dog barking at the top of his lungs next door; the bellman (who provided me the room keys) also heard the noise and agreed that this would not be an acceptable room either. The third assigned room appeared to be clean and noise-free … until early the next morning. At 8AM (Saturday), I was jolted out of a sound sleep by all sorts of racket arising from slamming doors (made by guests and housekeepers). The physical make-up of the hotel rooms seems not to muffle outside, hallway noise … regardless of the room, I think I probably would have experienced the same annoying hallway noise, so no sense in trying to change rooms (again) … I resorted to earplugs. 
The physical hotel itself isn’t anything to write home about. Although I was staying on one of the “preferred” floors, it wasn’t obvious to me that there was anything special about the hallways or rooms. Perhaps the bathrobe? The room looked worn: the furnishings looked beat-up; the bathroom ceiling has chipped paint from what looked like a previous flood; the vanity in the bathroom needed to be repainted or replaced. The only good thing was the bed, which was comfortable & firm. 
On the second day there, I was temporarily leaving my room (to grab a Starbucks from the lobby and return to my room) when a rude housekeeper barked at me and asked when I was leaving my room (I had a “do not disturb” sign on the door); I said I would be vacating the room around 2pm and would call housekeeping to let them know when I needed service. In a confrontational manner, she said, “Well, I have another floor to clean and will not be back here at 2!” I indicated once again that I would call the housekeeping department when I was leaving the hotel (which I did at approximately 2pm). Housekeeping said that they would send someone up to clean the room. By the way, the maid's chart was parked in front of a room across the hallway as I left for the day (the “do not disturb” sign was removed as I left the room). When I returned to the hotel at 1:30AM, the room hadn’t been serviced. I called to the front desk and complained. They sent up clean towels and replenished the coffee supplies for the coffeemaker. The evening front desk manager also gave me a voucher for $35 to be used for room service to compensate me for the inconvenience. I appreciated his gesture at trying to remediate the situation. 
The final blow was at checkout : the front desk clerk was unbelievably rude and nasty especially when she was asked to research why the voucher for $35 for a room service comp didn’t appear on my bill (I had handy the receipt from room service which showed the credit). I seriously thought she was going to bite my head off. She wanted me to step aside and let her check other guests in first before she dealt with clearly up my bill issue. Even though I was rushing to meet a departing flight, I brought this incident to the attention on the manager on duty, who told me he would address the situation. 
I really can’t remember the last time I had such bad service in a hotel – especially in Chicago wherein guest service is very good. Something is seriously wrong with either recruitment of good personnel and / or proper guest service training. Further, the hotel could benefit from some rehab and TLC. Nothing special here. My recommendation would be to avoid and use other hotels in the area. 
Follow-up to my visit & for the record: the front desk manager sent me an email to apologize for my issue at check-out and added a poultry allotment “Starpoints” to my Starwood Preferred account. While a nice gesture (better than nothing I suppose), the points really didn’t add up to much and hardly worth the effort or fanfare. Also for the record, I didn’t ask for any compensation, refunds, or discounts for any of my problems.