Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile — Hotel in Chicago

Date of stay - Sept/Oct 2024 (3 nights)

We loved our stay in Chicago. We chose this hotel because it was affordable, well located and dog friendly.

Check in was easy - if you drive, there is a pull through 'road' at ground level where you can drive in and unload. There are one way streets on both sides of the hotel. You pull into this area on the one way street that travels towards the lake. They have concierges to help unload and take stuff to your room. There is no cost, other than a tip :) (And they were WONDERFUL). Parking was at the low end of what we were quoted elsewhere (expensive, of course, but parking was expensive everywhere). The parking is right under the hotel. There are 4 levels. We checked on the car every day, and never had an issue.

The rooms are mostly the same, I think. The entrance door enters into a sitting room with couch, TV, desk. The far end is the bedroom (with a view of the city) and in the middle is the bathroom with a kitchenette across from it (microwave, fridge, sink). Plenty of space. The beds were comfortable. The AC worked well. There was good water pressure. The room was clean. Some of the reviews speak to it being loud. That wasn't our experience. Now, the hotel itself has one great atrium with bar/restaurant/public area on the sky lobby floor, and then each floor has path on the outside of the atrium where you access your room (so the door to your room points into the atrium). Maybe it depends on your floor if you hear noise from the sky lobby level. We were on 14 and it was quiet. We also heard very little foot traffic past our room.

The elevators - yes, they were a bit of a PITA. You enter from the street into a mini-lobby and access elevators to take you to the sky lobby. The you have to walk across the sky lobby floor to access another elevator to go up to your floor. AND if you are parked underground, you have to first take an elevator up to ground, another to the sky lobby and a third to the floors. However, wait times never seemed too bad (and the hotel was quite full). And because everyone waiting for an elevator in the lobby was always going the same way (up to a room or down to the street level), there was never confusion or extra congestion. For the overall experience, this was not a big deal. (FYI for those who this matters to - the elevators are glass walled with a view of the city. If you are a little scared of heights, it's probably not a big deal. If you are very scare of heights, you may want to think about it).

The location - AMAZING! Easy walking distance to the Navy Pier, the river and shopping. And if you need a cab to go to something further, they can use the drive through section underneath to pick up/drop off.

Tips for staying here with a dog - we spent three nights with a large breed dog. The hotel and staff were very inviting and friendly. The sky lobby level has a somewhat controlled section with tables for breakfast and evening drinks/dinner, where dogs are not welcome (understandably). BUT, dogs ARE allowed at table outside the 'fenced' area. This meant we could actually take part in the breakfast (which was included, and huge) and the evening drinks/snacks (also included). There is also a grass/wood chip area right across the street for dogs to relieve themselves. And there is a dog park about a block down the road towards the lake (though there is no grass there, it's just a small...

Updated review for October 2024 stay

This will be our last stay. It's obvious management is not interested in improving the property. Upon check in, our first room had blackout curtains that won't close. The hooks holding the curtains are all jammed in to fix ripped curtains, so they don't close properly. We requested a new room as we know how bright the city lights can be.

The hallway on the 11Th floor had popcorn or crackers on the floor our first night, it's still there on our second night. A dish has been on the floor in the hallway since this morning.

Our next room was fine but it's truly time for the rooms to be remodeled. The sofa cushions are thin, no support and comfortable for just a short time.

The tub is stained, making it appear dirty. Hooks on wall for towels have come out, rehung and are loose again. The bottom shelf in bathroom dusty, obviously not wiped down in some time.

The door to the bedroom has a large crack. The USB port on the lamp isn't working.

Our first morning I find the hairdryer blows only cold air and no body wash in the shower. The Mr. informed the front desk of these issues and he was assured they would be resolved.

We had appointments all morning. Our room was available to clean from 8:00. When we returned at 1:45 it had not been touched. We went downstairs to wait as the housekeeper was two rooms away. We waited approximately 1.5 hours and she was just in the room next door so we went for a walk. We couldn't relax in the room until 4:00 which is unacceptable. When we returned the beds were made but no vacuuming had been done, side tables weren't wiped down. Upon closer look, it's obvious the room has not been cleaned well. To make things worse, the hairdryer wasn't replaced and the body wash still empty necessitating a trip to the front desk. I approached the housekeeper as she was in the hall upon my return, asking her if she had a hairdryer and body wash. She took the broken hairdryer but couldn't replace it and didn't have body wash. They did bring a new hairdryer but we still don't have body wash and won't bother now as we check out early. Shampoo will suffice. After reading other reviews body wash seems to be an issue even after management is stating they will address the issue.

After these disappointing issues I went to iron pants and the iron doesn't work.

After really looking over the room, it needs a deep cleaning. I'm in no way a germaphobe either but lamp bases are dusty, fingerprints on televisions, closet doors, door frames and door lock.

Standards have definitely dropped and we will look elsewhere for our stay in Chicago next year.

Full disclosure, we are here as the Mr. has Parkinson's. He participates in a research study at Northwestern. Our visit is paid for by the PPMI study. We do plenty of travel on our own and we would not pay for a room here, not unless things improve.

This review is from 2023: We stay here twice per year and have found it consistently comfortable.

Check in is simple, staff friendly and helpful. We stay here due to location as it is in walking distance to Northwestern. It is also within walking distance to Michigan Ave, the waterfront and Navy Pier. Plenty of dining options in the area.

The rooms are starting to look outdated and hope they have plans to remodel and upgrade. Although everything was clean, they just look tired. Beds are...

The location of this hotel is great. They offer a lot of amenities. Unfortunately, that’s as far as the good goes. There was a woman working at the front desk upon our check in. There was a group of 3 of us checking in at time. 2 of us stood pretty far back behind our guest that was checking us in so as to be out of the way of people who were checking in. She YELLED at us “THE LINE TO CHECK IN IS OVER THERE!” And pointed to the other checkout. Before we even had a chance to respond, she rudely yelled it to us again. I stated we were waiting for the person in her line to check us in. No apology for the hostility, no “my bad”, nothing.

From there, we went to our room. It was extremely humid in our room, to the point we didn’t even want to stay in it so we turned the thermostat to the lowest setting it would go to, which I believe was 68°. We then left the room to give it a chance to cool off and took a walk and went sightseeing. We came back approximately two hours later to a still humid room. By that point, we were hot and tired, so we just remained in the uncomfortable room.

The beds were supposed to be queen, but they were full size and uncomfortable, the pillows were basically flat and had no fluff to them whatsoever. We were staying in a suite so it also had a pullout couch. The couch was in horrible shape, with stuffing coming out of the side-We pulled out the couch for someone to sleep on And the mattress on it was like paper, thin and extremely uncomfortable so we just ended up putting it back together as a couch and sleeping on that. We stayed for 2 days, and the room never did cool down.

We ended up ordering a pizza from the restaurant in the hotel and 5 out of 6 of us got sick from it, definitely got food poisoning. We were all having to take turns to use the bathroom to vomit. Walls were thin and we could hear the neighbors conversation all night. We got two breakfast tickets per each room but had large groups in each so there weren’t enough for everyone to eat breakfast and so we ate elsewhere. So I can’t even speak for the breakfast, but the way they do it is pretty awful with only 2 being able to eat. Either way, we were still traumatized from the poisonous pizza, so we were ok with not eating there again.

The elevators were extremely slow, with a long wait time and once they finally did arrive, were full to the brim with people so more waiting. We ended up taking the 5 flights of stairs for the entire weekend, which is ridiculous.

Overall we had an enjoyable experience in Chicago, but the hotel was an awful experience. I definitely recommend staying at one of the many great hotels in the area, just not this one. It is in desperate need of repairs and updates, and for what they charge for rooms, parking and food, there’s no excuse for all the problems they have. There is no “luxury” to...