One of our first visits of 2022 took us to the wonderful city of Chicago. We decided to stay in the Embassy Suites, Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile. This is our honest hotel review of the Embassy Suites, Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile.
Location
Location is important for people visiting Chicago, they want to be near places like the Bean, the L-Train, Navy Pier and the vast number of museums, and the location of this hotel is perfect. It has red and blue line stations nearby, and plenty of buses pass a block away.
Cost
This wasn’t the cheapest, nor was it the dearest hotel available during our stay in Chicago. We paid £527 ($697) for 5 nights stay. The hotel also takes $50 a night deposit for an incidentals. I find this very frustrating as it normally takes 7-10 days for the money to be returned. My view is it should be returned instantly after you check out and cleaners do a check of the room. The Embassy suites can be booked on the Hilton website.
Staff
This was strange. When we arrived on Thursday everyone seemed to be in a good mood throughout the hotel, everyone walking around with a smile and happily chatting, there was a real feel of we are glad to have you here. However, on Friday a switch was flicked and no one was in a good mood, no one said ‘Good Morning’ everyone seemed to be on edge. I don’t know if this was down to the hotel getting extremely busy, and perhaps issues with Covid restrictions, but there was a change in atmosphere. On the Thursday Evening during ‘Happy Hour’ we got some amazing tips from the staff who spoke too us.
Happy Hour
We only managed to make 2 out of 5 nights of ‘Happy Hour’. Happy hour was between 5:30pm and 7:00pm, and it was 2 free drinks per guest! It was nothing special, a glass of beer/wine/spirits, but we did like the idea. It gave guests the chance to mingle and also gave the concierge the opportunity to give out hints/tips.
Breakfast
Breakfast was included in our stay. It was one of the better breakfasts we have experienced on our travels. Available were all the warm/cold items you would expect from an American breakfast. Only issue was during busy periods, it can take some time to order your items, but they do have a board out telling people when busy time periods are. If you don’t fancy eating downstairs, you can bring your breakfast to your room.
Amenities
The hotel has a swimming pool and gym, which are both open for long periods of the day. Both looked clean and well maintained, but the pool doesn’t have a lifeguard which put us off from using it. Although it did seem busy enough during our stay.
There is no food service outside of breakfast in the hotel. However, there are plenty of takeaway options in the city and delivery drivers were outside the hotel frequently. Across the road from the hotel is a ‘Whole food’ store which does hot food which you can eat in the store bar, or bring back to your room (just don’t forget to lift cutlery!)
Rooms
On arrival we thought WOW! As we walked into our large room, with a double bed, 2 wide screen TVs, sink, fridge, desk, and a coffee machine (no milk). The room was clean, but felt a bit grubby in some places. The bathroom had a shower and was clean.
However, the room walls were paper thin. Saturday night was the worst night we have ever experienced in a hotel and we have spent hundreds of nights in hotels all over the world. Without going into great detail, our family experienced the most graphic and obscene language and noises for around 3 hours. After kinda getting an apology the next morning from reception, we got a repeat on Monday night. The room on the opposite side had a young family in it, and we could hear their full conversations and they weren’t being loud while they talked.
If you want a hot shower you have to get up and let the bath tap run until hot water comes through, sometimes this was minutes, other times we ran for a full 10 minutes, not very handy or sustainable wasting so much water.
We fed back to the reception they should have a family area of the hotel when it is clear the walls are so thin, but they really couldn’t care less and just smiled us off.
Would we recommend?
The hotel was in a great location, breakfast was enough, the ‘Happy Hour’ was a nice touch, and the rooms were spacious and had everything we needed. Would I return, probably not, the experience of Saturday and Monday night was very off putting. We were possibly just unlucky, but I wouldn’t want to take that risk again.
We hope you have enjoyed reading our Embassy Suites, Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile, Review. If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments section and we will respond.
Thanks
The Lewis Family.
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