The Blackstone, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Chicago

As a small business owner, I understand the negative impact of any review, so I am generally hesitant to leave overly negative reviews. Occasionally, however, situations arise that I believe warrant comment. I will also preface this review by noting that I screwed up. My son and I were planning a last minute trip to Chicago. I was attempting to book through the Marriott Bonvoy page in the afternoon. A client called and I got distracted and the timer ran out. I went back to the page and I didn't pay close enough attention and accidently booked the room for March 26, rather than March 27th, when we were actually going to Chicago. Imagine my surprise when I received an email at 0600 asking if I enjoyed my stay and indicating that my room would be billed. Keeping in mind that I never checked in to the hotel and had no idea of my error. Yes, I received the confirmation email but didn't read it closely enough. I saw the date 03.27.2024 and moved on. I agree this is my error. I called immediately to correct the error and the person I spoke with in reservations, told me that she couldn't do anything about it but that she would make a detailed note, including the fact that I did go ahead and book the room for the correct date. She gave me a reference number and told me to speak with the manager when I checked-in and she was sure that they could work with me on my error. So, this story continues, but I will digress to my assessment of this hotel. The decor of this hotel can best be described as "business man taking his lover to the City". From the amenities to the floor layout, the decor screams "we're doing something we shouldn't." The abrasive surface in the shower, which does have great water pressure, does not actually extend to the area under the waterfall shower head, causing a slipping hazard that had I been unscrupulous, I could have likely used to my advantage to address my prior described error. None of the light fixtures have seen a dusting in a while, there are black fingerprint smudges on all of the doors and white surfaces. The vaunted "lake view" can only be seen from the single wingback chair that I am certain would shine like a Jackson Pollock painting under a black light. And the view, while good, is quite limited. The location is not really convenient to anything. The transit locations are all several blocks away and there really is not much about which to write home. I can, however, forgive all of these things. I can forgive being told that my error was my error (which I was told), but I cannot abide by the treatment I received from the Front Office Manager, Ishiante Bogan. When I arrived, having driven most of the way and taken a train the last bit, I did as instructed and attempted to speak with Ms. Bogan, and was rudely rebuked. I don't know if she disliked my appearance because I was dressed in jeans and a flannel or is just generally rude to everyone. When I attempted to discuss this matter and provide her with the reference number (as instructed), I was told that there was nothing she could do because of "policy" and didn't care for my reference number. I was told that I should have called on the date in question and when I told her I called as soon as learned about the issue, she told me I should have called on March 26, 2024. When I attempted to explain that I could not have done so, she made clear that our conversation was concluded and I would receive no recourse from her. When I asked to speak to the general manager, I was told that they were not on-site, but she gave me her business card to make sure I spelled her name correctly. In addition to her general unprofessionalism, I would also note that Ms. Bogan should grammar check her business card, that perhaps you should focus more on service over "thriving" and the great poet that provided you with your inspirational quote spells her name "Maya Angelou" - at least that is how she spelled it...

I recently had the worst experience of any hotel stay at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. We were traveling from Brazil to Chicago on Christmas Eve and had a layover until the next day so I looked for a hotel to provide necessary accommodation and services on a holiday. Before booking, I chatted with the hotel to ensure that they would have operating restaurants and services even though it was a holiday. They assured me that they would be open for breakfast and dinner and would be able to accommodate us.

We arrived late on Christmas Eve and checked in to the hotel. We were coming from overseas and had several suitcases each. The hotel didn’t have a doorman and there were quite a few stairs to drag our things up to get to the lobby. The lady that checked us in gave us our keys and all the information on the hotel, including where breakfast would be served the next day - Christmas Day. She assured us that breakfast would be as usual.

The next morning, we went downstairs to a quiet hotel and nothing open. So I went to the front desk and asked where breakfast was served thinking that it might be somewhere different. She lady in the morning told me that the restaurant was closed that day and would not open until dinner with a set price menu. We told her that we were assured before booking the hotel and at check in that breakfast would be provided. She apologized and said that she didn’t know it was closed until she arrived for work. That left us with not a lot of options since it was.. Christmas Day and nothing was open. She told us we could go to Starbucks in the Hilton across the street.

At this time the manager came around the corner mumbling under her breathe about “someone else complaining”. We explained the situation to her and she just said that there was nothing she could do and that they all knew the restaurant was closed on the holiday. When we said that the other lady had told us she didn’t know, the lady then lied to her manager and said that she didn’t say that and that she hadn’t told us to go to Starbucks.

The manager continued to lecture us and tell us that she couldn’t do anything so we decided to leave the hotel and go to the Sheraton where the restaurant was open.

Understanding that things work differently on holidays we made sure to verify ahead of time. We lived in a Marriott hotel for almost 3 years so we know how things work. The problem was that we were told one thing before arrival and upon checking in and then we were lied to by the morning staff and lectured by the rude manager. I have never seen a hotel manager with such disrespect for hotel guests. Everything that we had asked for before we arrived was not done and then the horrible experience with the manager made us leave. This is not the level of service I expect from a...

I’m not really a picky person but from the beginning to the end this place was really stressful to work with. I don’t think it’s necessarily the staffs fault but there’s clearly miscommunication between the employees. From the beginning we parked across the street at the Hilton and were told our parking would be validated. The location was great because it was so close to museums and the park, so that saved money on Uber trips/parking down the street. We check in and are told we have to wait for the room to be cleaned or settle for a lower floor room (we had paid for a room above the 20th floor since it’s our anniversary). It’s 4pm. We’re like okay cool, they pay for a drink while we wait (which we didn’t use because we don’t drink lol) We come back and they give us a different room key. My boyfriend realizes it’s a different floor than we paid for, we go back and ask about it. They admit to clicking the wrong floor and say that we have to wait longer for the room to be cleaned. Why was the room not cleaned prior to check in? It’s like 4:30pm at this point and we had a concert at 6:30pm and I hadn’t done my makeup, we had just driven five hours to get here. I was panicking because I wasn’t gonna be ready in time. My boyfriend keeps going up to the desk and then finally we get in the room after 5pm. A little hiccup, we don’t have time to get dinner so we doordash it. We also wanted to add a night to our stay and did it through a third party (which they had approved of) and they told us once it came in they would add it to our stay. The next morning we come down for breakfast, which we’re told is complimentary, and to double check our stay was extended. They didn’t add the night and had us leaving for that day. Then we had to reserve the room right there and if we hadn’t checked then we would’ve been super surprised later that we were scheduled to leave. The breakfast isn’t complimentary, it only takes off $30. So we still paid for breakfast…which we could’ve gotten somewhere else. This morning we go to leave and as it turns out the employee who told us he validated our parking lied, because hotel staff told us they don’t validate parking this morning, and we paid $70 to park across the street. So all in all I loved the location, but for a $600+ stay with a lot of hidden fees for breakfast and parking, and a delay getting into our room, it didn’t make things go smoother. The vouchers weren’t enough to make any difference and overall I wish we’d stayed somewhere else. If you have the time and money to sort out these kinds of issues then this is your place. I don’t. I also don’t really know why the view was emphasized, because our window was super small and we couldn’t...