Hotel Chicago Downtown, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Chicago

My family's stay exceeded (by far) any possible expectations ALL 7 OF US had for your hotel !! I travelled with my wife and 8 year old daughter from California, to stay at your hotel with my mom and my brother and his wife and my niece. This was a family reunion-- we are all originally from Chicago. During our stay my daughter turned 9 years old (B-Day on 12/28). So needless to say selecting the right hotel was extremely important to us! Man oh man, did your hotel staff come through for all of us, time after time during our stay. Rory was the person who checked us in and he was warm, personable, and welcoming-- a great start to a great stay. Rory took care of all of us and even managed to have our three rooms placed on the same floor (12th floor). Regarding rooms, Rory made sure to handle each and every request made by all three parties of our group. He called up to my room shortly after we went up to make sure we were happy with our accommodations. He was just great!! Jasmine and Lakisha worked hard to make us feel at home and were always ready, willing, and able to help us out with any request while we were down in the lobby. Such nice and friendly people!! In fact these staff members really added to the warm and professional ambience created overall at the hotel. JD came to the rescue for me on the morning of 12/28, on my daughter's birthday.. I had a birthday cake ready for my daughter but no silverware or plates (I only had cheesey paper plates and plastic utensils). I casually asked JD if I could borrow a cake cutting utensil from the kitchen-- he was able to read the situation in a second and immediately disappeared into the kitchen, returning right away with not only a stainless steel cake cutting utensil, but also a stack of beautiful plates, fancy napkins, and silverware for all!! We sang happy birthday to my daughter in the hotel lobby and JD made the moment (and memories, ie photographs) much classier than they would have been had it not been for his ability to intelligently read the situation and make an "above and beyond" contribution. He also made sure the hotel would handle cleaning up the table and let us know we should not worry about it and just enjoy ourselves. Way to go, and thank you!! Russell was consistently in great spirits, and always available to serve us with pleasure! What a friendly man. So courteous and professional, and willing to help out with whatever you need at all times, regardless of whether or not he's...

We stayed here for the first time and had an OK experience. Upon arrival, there wasn’t anyone in sight to help us with our bags. We found this odd for a downtown Chicago hotel, especially when we were the only car pulled up in front of the hotel. The staff members checking us in was friendly although failed to mention anything about my Platinum Elite status? This usually isn’t a big deal although most other hotels at least acknowledge my status and thank me for being such a loyal customer. The lobby area was clean and had a good vibe. Our room was a decent size although it seemed somewhat dated and some of the items within the room looked like they needed to be replaced, or at least needed some kind of maintenance to them. The wood of the TV stand/desk area had worn down in many places and the bedside lamp shades had some of the interior of the lamp poking out of the shade. Again small things but it just didn’t feel like a “comfortable” room. The bathroom was a decent size but it was setup terribly and wasted a ton of space. The sink area was very small, which was surprising as there was a good 2 feet on the left side where it could have been extended. The shower/tub was tiny, 1 person could barely fit. And there was a huge empty space in front of the toilet, just another example of wasted space in the room. Really the only good thing about the room was the bed, which was super comfortable. We had an odd encounter with the housekeeping staff. Right after we checked in and took our bags to the room, we were leaving to grab lunch. Right as we walked out of our room, the staff members (who was maybe the housekeeping manager?) asked us if we were checking out. We told him that we just checked in and he asked if he could go into our room and check the mini bar? We had our privacy door tag on the door but he continued to let himself into our room? This struck me as odd because wouldn’t you have already checked the mini bar when initially cleaning the room and getting it ready for the next guest? This made us feel very uncomfortable as housekeeping clearly didn’t have any respect for the privacy sign on the door which made me wonder if they would just let themselves in another time even if the privacy sign was up on the door? With so many other hotels downtown, this place has a lot to improve upon. I can’t say we’ll be back...

I had a less than stellar check-in process. I had used the mobile check-in, which typically provides for an expedited check-in process. Not so much the case at this hotel; my check-in was not expedited.

The hotel is modern, clean and easy to navigate. It's also conveniently located for almost any traveler's needs. No complaints.

The room was spacious but lacked outlets for the most common uses. The desk had only 1 available outlet for use and there was no outlet adjacent to the bed for plugging in a cell phone. The room included a fridge, which is nice.

I was thirsty and the room didn't have any bottles of water for sale. So, I went to the lobby in search of a sundry shop - only to find the hotel has no sundry shop for purchasing basics or snacks. The employee behind the front desk told me that they offer complimentary bottles of water but then quickly checked my account and said , "Sorry, I misspoke. You're only silver so I can't help you out." So, no water - I couldn't even buy the bottle. But the woman at the front desk did offer up the suggestion, "You can drink the water from the sink. It's safe."

The one part of my stay where I felt I had great service from the staff was a young gentleman working the front desk one evening. I stopped in after my meetings and asked if he could store my backpack because I didn't have time to run up to my room (I had a ride outside waiting). The young man (without hesitation) offered to take the bag to my room. I told him it wasn't necessary but he gladly did it. So, thanks to that staff member.

The stay at this hotel was just unremarkable overall. I thought perhaps the Autograph Collection just offers a more basic level of service than the other brands in the...