Chicago Athletic Association - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt — Hotel in Chicago

Every city has a few unique spaces that truly individualize it from the others. Landmarks, parks, piers, buildings, resturants, and in this case hotels. I discovered this place in 2022, hungry for a burger at Shake Shack. Upon entering however, I realized that I'd discovered more than my craving. Marble staircases, gothic ceilings with goldleaf, hanging lights that were older than my grand parents.

I became enchanted, wandering the first two floors, seeing everything this unique space had to offer. A portal to a lost time period I'd only seen in dusty textbooks and those ancient college halls built by faceless men I'd never meet. I made a note to visit this hotel proper, give it a real chance, not a quick flyer, in the future, price be damned.

A few disclaimers.

One, this a wedding hotel. You come on a weekend, expect brides, grooms, and lots of crowds in the bars and rooms of this hotel. It's an organized affair, for certain, the staff are pros at this.

Two, you're downtown and this building is old. You'll hear the L trains and the cars no matter what. This is a bonus and a burden for a unique hotel like this. I got awoken by garbage trucks in the alley, but it's part of the package.

If you can get over that, you'll find some of the best, most singular experiences you've ever had in this hotel. Cindy's rooftop bar was breathtaking for a view, and an all glass, gothic roof in the restaurant shows you the stars above the bars if you gaze up. The Drawing and Game Room offer immersive, near perfection in terms of old feeling, homely, lived in quality from a time long passed. Fire places, sports trophies, and elaborate hand carved woodwork line the walls of both spaces. Students and patrons line the drawing room on weekends, giving a library-esque atmosphere. The Game Room features skeeball and pop a shot at a single dollar a pop, while pool, chess, and shuffleboard are free. The bar is quick, friendly, with personal bar tenders offering conversation for the stag crowd (like myself).

The real vaccuum for attention however is the unique rooms, with staggering tiled bathrooms, done up to look old with vintage style sinks, wrought iron bars, and old stainless steel. The beds are nothing to write home about, but thankfully are not over stuffed with blankets and pillows. The athletic esthetics of using a horse to set your bags reminds you of the history of the site however.

I mentioned the staff prior, but I feel they deserve their own paragraph. I got in late Friday night, and checked in with Dominic at the front sometime after 8pm. Saturday, I got solid advice on breakfast spots, all within less than a mile and help with the public transit I'd heard through my windows the night prior. Sunday, I suffered a terrible migraine on that left me bed-ridden. The care received from everyone was standout, with understanding from all parties. Once again, Dominic offered superb offerings for Sunday evening and made a bad start into a good finish.

This is not a run of the mill hotel and the service, experience, and staff are all very much what make this place a must-stay location if only just once. I'll absolutely be returning here whenever I visit Chicago, as this is now a place I'm thrilled to have visited, and more so...

Positives: The Location and that is about it. It is directly across from Millennium Park. It’s historic, and has an old school charm.

Negatives: First of all, the rooms are not as advertised at all. They are very dark and feels like a Dungeon or a haunted dormitory. They are small, old, outdated, dark, no view at all. My room had one small window facing a huge air conditioner unit or mechanical unit that was so huge directly outside my window, it might as well not have a window at all.

When I arrived at the hotel, the person at the lobby/check in desk, spoke so fast and seemed so disinterested in her job, I had to ask her politely to repeat and slow down because I had no idea what she said to me. She looked at me and seemed annoyed that I asked her to please repeat the last thing she said. Mind you, I am a writer and editor by profession, so I have a grasp of the English Language. The front desk woman spoke so fast, I felt like I was at a cattle auction.

I am on vacation, I want to feel relaxed and it set the wrong vibe from the beginning. Not everyone is meant to work in hospitality and clearly this person didn’t like her job and wanted to get through checking guests in, even though there was no other guests waiting behind me to check in so she could have slowed down, smiled, talked to me calmly and without making me feel like she was in a rush to hurdle me to my dark dungeon of a hotel room.

When we got into room, the WiFi was so slow and for some reason, I couldn’t even view the menu of the in room dining on my phone because I could not even get a cell signal. I had to step outside my room to the hall way to get any service or internet. I called the front desk, they told me that their WiFi was down.

They said they would send an email to someone to give me the password to their private internal wifi. It took a while but they eventually did call me with the password so at least I could surf the internet and book some activities in the city so I don’t have to spend any more time in the hotel.

The game room was okay…but the hotel advertises it as a family friendly atmosphere, but it is really not a family vibe at all. The game room was filled with adult hotel guests and most of them had been drinking alcohol, so not very family friendly at all, it was very loud and I would never bring my kids here. The website shows pictures of family and what they advertise is not accurate at all from the rooms, the view, or the amenities.

Trust me, stay somewhere else in Chicago, take an Uber to Millennium Park. It’s worth the price of the Uber. I will never stay at the Chicago Athletics Association again even for the location, it is just not worth it. Take your money and I would recommend staying at the Viceroy. It’s the best. Never ever had a bad experience there and every room comes...

We were really pumped for our stay at the Chicago Athletic Association after reading all the reviews and flipping through pictures other reviewers uploaded. Once you make it inside the hotel, it is admittedly quite visually appealing. It doesn't present as a sterile, drab hotel. Instead, it's bursting with personality, with nods to the history of the building. Check-in took a bit longer than expected since there was no line dedicated to Hyatt program members and one of the keycard machines was not working properly. Upon arrival, we were handed two cards for complimentary glasses of sparkling wine as a welcome to the property. When we redeemed them in the Game Room the next day, the bartender was really grumpy about having to pour a glass after initially ignoring us for 3 minutes. When he did pour the glass, he dumped the remnants of the bottle into a couple of whiskey glasses and pushed them at us. The wine ended up flat by the time it reached our lips. When we arrived at our first room, we quickly noticed how warm it was, and we returned to the front desk to alert the staff that the AC was not working properly and requested a new room. Our new room had working AC, but it was certainly a downgrade. The new room felt like we were in a bit of a dungeon based on the strange layout and being eye level with one of the lower roofs in the center of the building. There were sheer pull-down blinds on the windows that did little more than soften the rays of the sun because we could see directly into rooms around us even when they were pulled. Things were arranged in the room rather oddly, and we spent some time just hunting down where things might be placed since there was no central closet that held things like an ironing board and iron. Perhaps the silliest design decision made at this property was the shower design. The shower was designed to not have a door, instead opting for a glass partition that ran halfway across the bathroom and a rain shower head. This resulted in a lot of water splashing out during showers, and either needing to step out into a puddle of water or a water-soaked floor towel. The faucets on the sink and shower were also installed improperly, so turning everything on and getting to the right temperature became a challenge during each use. Thankfully, everything was very clean. At one point the day after check-in, we stopped by the front desk to request that water be delivered to our room, as part of our Hyatt membership program. We were told them were sending up someone right away, but we did not receive our water during the following hour we spent in the room or at any point while we were out...