Hilton Chicago

Old classic hotel. I stayed here for one night. And the stay was fine. The front desk guy was quite nice and apologized a lot but my room wasn’t ready until 445pm. The room was nice and had a great view of the lake. It was also very clean. The elevators are not great and take forever and sometimes they do random stuff like reset and change directions. The valet was super super slow so leave at least 30 minutes to get your car.

Skip it Convenient location, but I would good elsewhere. Not the cleanest of rooms, receipts and dirty Kleenex on the floor from previous visitors. I am babbling because I need to fill in for a minimum of two hundred characters and I have nothing positive left to say

Time for renovation Was last in this hotel for business in 2012, and I came again now for business in 2024. It looks exactly the same! Rooms, decor, etc. all look the same. Seems the hotel was still stuck in the 1980s. Lobby gets crowded and nosiy like in a mall. There is no room service, which is shocking, so I had to buy sandwiches and stuff from the cafeteria downstairs. The atmosphere is dark and timely. The bed is comfortable though, room is a decent size for American standards. Wifi connection good. The restaurant downstairs had good food and service. Staff were nice. It's good for a short business trip of 3-4 days max. The location is good. It's definitely time for a renovation and bringing this hotel into the 21st century. The exterior can still look historical, but the rooms and interior definitely need enhancements. Hotel has some positives like location and wifi for a short business stay, but if you're looking for a vacation hotel or something fancy, this is not it.

Hotel is fine. Hilton Grand Vacations Salespeople are not Stayed in the hotel for one night to go to a concert at a nearby venue. For that purpose, it was ok. There was one annoyance and one dealbreaker for me ever returning. The annoyance was that the check in process was extraordinarily slow. This was likely due to some confusion in the way the line was oriented. There were two lines and the signs weren’t super clear that one line was for honors and the other was regular check in. Both lines were long due to the confusion. Not the best but also it’s a bustling hotel in a bustling city so forgivable. What is entirely unforgivable are the predatory salesmen lurking at the check out counter selling you Hilton Grand Vacation Club packages under the guise of being Hilton employees. I was greeted on my way out of the hotel by a man offering to help with our check out. After he pressed some buttons on his tablet and confirmed I was checked out, I was offered a package in Chicago and some Honors points that sounded like a great offer. I repeatedly asked “what’s the catch?” and “this isn’t timeshares, right?”. To those questions, I was met with assurances that this was just part of being an Honors member. Since this sounded like something outside the sphere of “vacation ownership” I signed up and paid a deposit to secure what sounded awesome. A couple hours later, I get an email from Hilton Grand Vacations for a property in Orlando that I can book for more than I agreed to with the catch of having to listen to a timeshare presentation. I am now working my way through the refund process because I am absolutely not interested in this and frankly horrified that Hilton allows these folks to sully their brand. I know Hilton Grand Vacations is a separate entity and Hilton should treat them as such because I’ve come away with a bad impression of both in this case. So be careful out there folks. If you get approached when leaving this hotel ask the person offering you deals their affiliation. If you’re interested in time shares then by all means talk to them. If not, run! (Or check out online and make no eye contact on your way out)

Historic but wouldn't return I booked the Hilton via Expedia for 1 night as I wanted to experience the history of the hotel. Cost was $240 plus a $25 destination fee redeemable against F&B and laundry. Checkin was ok, but I was surprised that bottled water wasn't provided in the room and I had to ask for a complimentary bottle. The hotel has no concierge which I found surprising for such a big brand name hotel. My room was on the 5th floor and was small but functional. However it was noisy as I could hear everyone passing outside, traffic noise and worst of all plumbing sounds from the room above. Instead of a concierge the room has a tablet which apparently provides key information, however I couldn't get it to work. The public areas of the hotel are very impressive and worth a look, but also very busy. It felt like you were in an airport or train station. There isn't much of interest around the hotel as the major shopping and entertainment areas are further north. Grant Park opposite is nice for walking, but was largely closed off for Lollapalooza 2024, which I'm sure you'd be able to hear from your hotel room. The streets west of the hotel have a few good bars, restaurants and convenience stores, though its a bit sketchy at night. In the morning I called down for a late checkout, but was told it was unavailable and checkout was at 11:00, not midday as I would expect. I wouldn't return as there are newer, better and cheaper hotels closer to the river and Magnificent Mile.