The Emily Hotel — Hotel in West Chicago Township

Do not book your room blocks here for any special events. The level of unprofessionalism and disregard for our special occasion was truly shocking, leaving us with an unforgettable negative experience.

To begin with, the check-in process was disorganized and chaotic. Despite having made prior arrangements and confirming our reservation multiple times, we were met with confusion and a complete lack of preparedness. The front desk staff appeared uninformed and untrained, leading to a significant delay in receiving our room keys. This unnecessary wait put a damper on our wedding night excitement and left a sour taste in our, and our guests mouths.

My Fiance went to Check-in early once he received the text that our room was ready for checkin at 11:46am and was told by someone at the front desk that he was all set and that all we had to do when we return is come and get our keys from the front desk. He was told it was handled and that he would even inform the night staff as well. When we arrived after our wedding expecting to just pick up the room keys we were told there is no reservation under my name (the name used to book the reservation a year ago). Adding to our discontent, the staff displayed a dismissive and apathetic attitude when we brought these issues to their attention. Instead of taking immediate action to rectify the situation and apologize for the inconvenience caused, we were met with indifference and defensiveness. The lack of empathy and accountability from the hotel staff only added insult to injury, leaving us feeling unheard and disrespected.

I proceeded to pull up my confirmation email and read her the exact confirmation number and was still told "unfortunately" she could not find the reservation. I even had the list of every single guest from my wedding that was staying at the hotel with their individual confirmation numbers that the Emily had sent me a week prior for the hotel wedding gift bags so it's hard to believe she did not find our reservation. She then proceeded to give me a hard time about showing her my ID for the reservation, when I'm standing there in my wedding dress with 20 bags in my hand and I wasn't sure where it was. I had my phone and knew I had a picture of my ID on my phone and she still would not accept it so, I then had to spend another 10 minutes digging through all the bags in the lobby looking for the ID when I already provided the confirmation numbers and names. I understand this is protocol but isn't there any common sense these days? Once I finally was able to locate my physical ID and show her, we were told since we didn't check in, they no longer had our room available and they were basically sold out so room rates were now $900. We had agreed upon the $399 hotel room block rate a year ago and even had it in writing in the confirmation email that was shown. Instead of the staff being proactive and just saying we can figure out the misunderstanding in the morning and getting us our keys this went on for another 15 mins while our 30 guests sat in the lobby waiting.

The level of service we expected from your staff was the bare minimum and that was not even met. Not to mention, once we finally got keys and entered the room a half hour later there were no special touches, such as rose petals, champagne, or even a personalized note to celebrate our wedding (the bare minimum). This lack of care and attention to detail was a significant letdown and diminished the overall experience we were hoping for.

As newlyweds, we had anticipated a memorable and enjoyable stay at the Emily Hotel. Instead, our wedding night turned into a nightmare, tarnishing what should have been a joyous and celebratory occasion. The level of service and overall experience provided by your hotel fell far below the basic expectations of a reputable establishment, let alone one catering to special events. There are plenty of other amazing hotels nearby like the Hoxton or the Robey, so save yourself the frustration and do not book with The...

A very pretty hotel with wonderful staff that is throughly ruined by the room interior and furnishing decisions. Inside the rooms:

The lighting is awful, either too dim or far too bright and unfiltered. It’s constantly annoying as you try to find a medium that’s usable before you eventually give up.

The shower design makes it impossible to actually be warm unless you close the bathroom door, and doing so of course makes the bathroom a swamp.

The water pressure to the sink is life-threatening, and the water pressure to the shower is a cruel reminder of what hotel showers once were. I’ve never before seen a shower actually shrug at me but here we are.

The bed is simply the worst I’ve ever experienced outside of someplace with the word “motel” or “hostel” in its name. Three nights of terrible sleep, three mornings of back pain. When I got home I slept for eleven straight hours. Really.

The in-room seating is designed such that using the provided chair and desk-like surface means your choice of view is the outside or the curtains you have drawn because the view outside is mostly people in other buildings looking at you. The TV is actually behind you when using the desk. Oh right. The TV situation.

The TV is easily the least functional hotel TV i can recall in my entire life. Half the channels don’t load. The IPTV network goes in and out. There’s no unified casting method (samsung’s proprietary thing is the only option, and i don’t know if it works or not because nothing i had was compatible). It appears the whole “tv in your room thing” stopped implementation in stage one or two of a 20 stage product and everyone forgot about finishing it up. Maybe because if you need to do some work in the room the TV is BEHIND YOU and as such easily forgotten.

The general room decor vibe is best described as “a good place to be depressed about living in a near-future dystopia.”

Things that aren’t complaints:

The wifi is solid. Which is good. Except you won’t want to use it because working in the brutally uncomfortable bed is unpleasant and the desk situation is worse. Ok. I guess this is still a complaint.

Restaurant and cafe were both fine. Really. Nothing to write home about but perfectly fine and the staff was wonderful.

The area is lovely and there are many great places to eat near by. There are also many other twee hotels. Presumably, some of them are a better option than the Emily. I doubt any of them are...

My wife and I have very mixed feelings about the Emily. We stayed at the Emily this last weekend for my best friends' wedding. The location is fantastic and located close to a lot of great restaurants and bars. The lobby is absolutely beautiful. We dined at the restaurant and the coffee bar and had great experiences. The front desk attendant was pleasant and very accommodating.

Our positive feelings about the location and everything mentioned above contrast greatly to our opinion of our room and the hotel lounge/bar upstairs. The room was very clean and quiet, but pretty awful otherwise. We stayed in a "luxury king" room. The decor looks like a trendy hostel. The bed looks like it was taken from a hospital room in the 50's and all the furniture was made from plywood with a high polish veneer. The ceilings were concrete and made to look like painted black plywood. Complete with pieces of tape and the chalk writing from where they marked where the electrical went. The closet was made from plywood painted black with hardware store organization pegboard serving as the closet door. Nothing about the room said "luxury" and was in stark contrast to the impressions we had when entering the lobby and dining in the restaurant downstairs.

We went to the upstairs lounge bar on Saturday night with our friends from the wedding. The hostess was incredibly rude and treated us as if we were unwelcome and not good enough to be in that area. The bartender was great, but the bar manager closed the bar an hour early citing that "she was short staffed and was closing early because she couldn't keep running around being a bar back, busser and manager". As someone that worked in restaurants for 20 years, I found her to be rude and couldn't see any valid reason why they would close an hour early. I felt for the bartender because he was pretty upset they were closing early and it directly hurt how much money he was going to earn that night.

The only saving grace is that we got a discounted block rate with the wedding party. I would never stay at the Emily again and pay the normal rate. As it is, I still cringe knowing that we paid the amount that we did. There were other hotels throughout that same district that offered much better rates and rooms that were far more...