Hilton Chicago

We stayed here for the weekend for SoxFest. We also brought our two dogs, which sometimes can be a problem at hotels. However, when we checked in, the man at the front desk was very nice and helpful. He even moved us down quite a few floors so that it would be easier to take the dogs outside. As a result, we ended up getting a bigger room, with 2 bathrooms, at no charge. Concierge/​bellman employees were extremely nice & helpful.
Only complaint would be that there is no free wifi.

Stayed here for 2 nights and 3 days during Soxfest. The room was spacious and clean also had a great view overlooking the lake on the 13^th floor. The inside of the hotel is very updated and nice while the outside of the hotel is beautiful goes well with the rest of the building on Michigan avenue.

Under almost all other circumstances, I would give the Hilton Chicago more than on star, but one thing — construction — has made my stay absolutely unbearable.
Every morning, construction (specifically, drilling) has woken me up. This has happened for 7 days and 6 nights. I called the front desk to ask if they could suspend construction over my room (1851) until 10AM or 11AM, but 1) the front desk couldn’t hear me over the noise, and 2) when the front desk finally was able to hear my request, they simply said no; there was nothing they could do.
For such a highly reputed hotel chain, I could not be more disappointed with the Hilton. I would recommend finding any of the other reasonably priced and highly rated hotels in the area.

I was here for the NYE party. The music was good, but that was it. The lines for the bars were insane. The bartenders were slow and mean. I know it’s a lot of ppl they have to serve, but it is no excuse for such rude behaviors. One bartender yelled at a person in front of me to go back to the line if you can’t make up your f*king mind. I was shocked the guy didn’t say anything back. The buffet was worst than Old Country Buffet. I still had a nice time despite the horrendous venue, but that’s just because of good company. It was definitely not worth the ticket price.

Loved the historical feel to this hotel. Staff was very accommodating and during the holidays they had an amazing ginger bread house displayed which was so impressive. The only negative was there was construction going on above us and they were jack hammering before 8am! Not the way you want to wake up on vacation.

First off, the building is nice both inside and out. The staff is nice and helpful. I stayed here on New Year’s Eve for their hotel party. The check in line was long and they were able to accommodate everyone in a timely fashion. The room was nice, much larger than many other hotels I’ve stayed in. Another great benefit was having two bathrooms in our room. We got a discounted rate because of the hotel party however, they did charge an additional $ 25 per person staying in your room. I’m not sure if it was the event or the hotel charging but you were required to have a wristband to be able to go up to your room. I thought that this was a huge inconvenience because it prevented people from visiting you before the event. Also, I did not like that they did not offer free wifi. You either had to be an honors member or pay for it. I also called down to the hotel desk in the morning to double check my facts for the check out process, the woman on the other end of the phone seemed fakely nice and as if she was trying to end a conversation quickly.
Everything else about the hotel was adequate. I would consider staying here again.
I would give the room a ⁴⁄₅ and the service about a 2.5−3÷5. I wasn’t sure whether or not the extra charge came from the hotel so I went with a rating of ³⁄₅ instead of ²⁄₅.

The hotel itself: 4 – 5 stars.
Clean room. My girlfriend, who is much more in shape than I, frequents fitness areas at a lot of hotels we stay in and ranked this as one of the best. I’ve never been a fan of the computer screens that are on in the rooms (while easily turned off, ours came back on around 7am in the morning).
Paying $ 25 per wrist band to get to our hotel room: NOT ACCEPTABLE!
We were staying on New Year’s Eve, so I do understand the idea of perhaps controlling how many people had access to rooms. However, there was NO advanced notification when we booked the room that EACH PERSON had to pay $ 25 for a wrist band just to access our room. Yes, if you’re reading this, it was ADDITIONAL to our hotel room charge. We only found this out when we checked in. Judging from the folks on the elevator who I asked, it was a surprise to them, too. But what were you going to do at 6pm on New Years at the front of the check in line? Find another hotel?
I might add that we were also Hilton Honor members. A lot of good that did us.
The hotel could have easily give the same wristbands to registered guests much like resorts do. The need to charge $ 25 for each wristband… to just get to the room… was ridiculous and deceitful.

The Lounge is just great!
On the 24^th floor has a great view of grant park and the looby is very comfortable very nice hotel.

In recent years Hiltons in general are not the luxury hotels that I grew up knowing them as. Now they’re similar to other chains without that ideal of luxury attached to the brand name. The quality is similar, yet Hilton will charge you for things that are free elsewhere, like internet and breakfast.
Hiltons redeem themselves when you are staying at one of the older ones, like the Hilton Chicago. The building is absolutely beautiful inside and out. There are priceless antiques here and there (not in your room any more at this location). The service remains exceptional and your experience will not be at all like the newer Motel 6-​like new Hiltons by airports.
This location is fantastic to see Chicago sights. It’s also much cheaper than I expected. When I booked, this was the cheapest place available within walking distance to the museum campus, about a hundred dollars a night.
This hotel has a very smart and cool modular room design. If you get a suite, you get an executive room, plus access to a standard room with a direct door in-​between. If you go for a suite, it makes for much more separation/​privacy than other hotels will… Lots of hotels like to charge for a suite when all they do is provide you with a larger room with a glass wall extending halfway across the width of the space without any kind of meaningful privacy or separation.
Long story short, this hotel is surprisingly high quality and inexpensive.

I stayed here and it was so awesome to hear about all of the history that this place has! When i first arrived, i was confused to see that our hotel room had two bathrooms in it. Well rumor has it, the hotel rooms were half the size they are now, and during recomstruction, the tore down the middle wall!!! This hotel has hosted people during the war and every president of the United States. The architecture of this place is also phanominal!!!
Why i give this place a four star:
Stay away from the resteraunt. For two drinks and a steak (came with a side of fries) I PAID $ 70 BEFORE TIP!!! that didnt include a soup or salad. JUST A STEAK AND A SIDE OF FRIES. Complete rip off. Eat somewhere else

We had a suite on the 19^th floor. Views of the Essex Hotel, Shedd and the water were definitely notable for our 4-​day stay. The hotel itself is quite old, which definitely adds to the charm, but didn’t add to the square footage of our bathroom.
The bed was what to expect from the Hilton brand; super comfy and cozy and one I was definitely not excited to roll out of in the morning for those early meetings.
Take a walk through the hotel to see some of the ballrooms. It will be well worth your visit. Superb!

Enjoyed our night’s stay here very much. Wonderful service. Our room was noted as being updated. A two bed~ queen and the added comfort of the amenities entailed to separate full bathtub restrooms. The executive lounge array of meals and beverages added to our comfort. Nothing ordinary about the exceptional experience. Views from the executive lounge even included the water. Beautiful lobby. Hotel is close enough (a nice walk) to Millennium Park off Michigan Ave and really convenient to all the shopping amenities and restaurants we could need. I enjoyed my stay very much. Look forward to returning to Chicago!

Never in my life.
I have stayed in upscale hotels in cities all across the U.S. and Europe and never have I seen a bug the size of the cockroach that has made the 18^th floor of the Hilton Chicago its home. Lord knows how long it takes for a roach to reach nearly 3″ long, but it only took me an instant to turn right around and check out.
Front desk was sympathetic and understanding which is why this experience gets 1-​star.

I really enjoyed my time here. Key instances that validate why I would stay here again:
1) Vanessa at the front desk = welcoming and so friendly!
2) Executive suites were clean, have separate bathrooms (in the double bed rooms)
3) Associate that was in the food area on the 24^th floor, last name Johnson: My friend spilled coffee on her white skirt. He saw us trying to get the stain out right away and left, but came back with a damp paper towel and some dish soap, in addition to suggestions on how to get stains out right away (that he had printed off!). I was so impressed with his hospitality.
4) Obviously a historical and beautiful place. Great for the conference I was at, beautiful and clean rooms and easy to navigate.
5) Meals during large banquets sufficed
Only small negatives:
1) I was there for a conference. Staying on the upper level floors can be a pain where there is so many people because there are only 4 elevators. Kind of unavoidable, but just have to manage your time. [Other floors/​levels have approx. 8 – 10 elevators]
2) At the few banquet dinners we had (during this conference), one of the ladies I was sitting with had a nut allergy and the organization we were with had «tickets» for this purpose, but they were never taken or referred to. So, when my table mate would ask the server if there was any nuts in her meal (three course) it would take forever to get an answer. Granted, it was busy, but you’d hope the answer wouldn’t be far away or the servers would know it offhand. People started to avoid her so that their meals wouldn’t get delayed because it was a recurring problem during our time there!

This is a review of a convention only, not a hotel stay.
The venue is beautiful. A historic and gracious building that’s truly a gem. In terms of places to sit and hear lectures, I think it’s great.
The food is horrendous. Nearly inedible. Obviously when you’re cooking for 1,000 people, you can’t expect a gourmet meal, and I’m sympathetic to that. But the portions are tiny and the flavor is horrible. I was hungry all weekend. My friend is a vegetarian and her meals consisted of barely steamed vegetables. No tofu, no beans, no eggs, no protein to be found. Strangely enough, all dietary restrictions were grouped together. So someone allergic to dairy was given this ridiculous vegetarian meal. The amount of money we paid for this crap is criminal.
The wait staff also leaves a lot to be desired. At one dinner, I was never served a salad. Everyone at my table had one but me, and the server never returned. Overall they were unfriendly and careless. At almost every meal, a tray of plates was dropped. Another woman found pieces of broken china in her food.

I loved the location but I am SUPER annoyed at the service here. I specifically booked a lake view room (and paid more money to do so) at this hotel. I booked a couple of months in advance. When my plane to Chicago was delayed (we’d be arriving after midnight), I even called the hotel to confirm my late arrival. I just had a feeling they were going to try to pull one of those hotel games that they always seem to pull — you check in late, you get screwed out of the nice room you booked. And yep, that’s exactly what happened.
Got to the front desk: «Oh, we are sorry but we don’t have any more lakeview rooms, but we are upgrading you to a junior suite.» Okay, that sounds nice! We got our keys and headed up.
Yes, the Hilton Chicago loves the «we upgraded you to a suite» game. The suite looked like, I kid you not, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Old rickety furniture, oxidized bathroom fixtures, and it smelled musty and ancient. All that was missing was Madame Leota and cobwebs in every corner. We took a look around and back downstairs we went.
They gave us the key to another «suite.» Again the same, but this one reeked of cigarette smoke. «But we are a nonsmoking hotel.» Um, maybe so but some inconsiderate jerk obviously smoked in this room.
Back downstairs AGAIN.
Let me remind you that now it’s about 2:15 am and we suffered through a 4 hour flight with a nearly 5 hour flight delay. We were traveling with lots of bags because my husband was in town for a convention and had to bring casual tourist clothes as well as dress clothes.
This time we asked if they could just please put us in an upgraded room, NOT a «suite.» Lo and behold they found a room for us. It was an accessible room with a horrible view of the noisy trains and not a sliver of lake was visible, but at least it looked like a room from this century.
I’m still SUPER angry about this because I specifically booked a lake view room and I paid extra for it. They never could find a lake view room for us during our entire stay. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone and for the love of god, don’t pay extra for a lake view room because you might get the old «suite upgrade» scam played on you.

For a room $ 200+, I expected more out of our stay at this Hilton location.
Sure, it’s located in the heart of South Loop on Michigan Avenue, has a gorgeous lobby, and bumpin’ lounge/​restaurant area, however, I think they really dropped the ball (at least during our time there) on the core essentials that make a hotel great. Below is the breakdown.
I. ROOM: Aside from the bathroom, everything else seemed incredibly worn and was in dire need of a facelift. We saw the edges of the wallpaper peel, the carpet felt dingy between the toes, and a good amount of dust had settled on all the furniture. (We wiped it off ourselves.) In other words, it was worn and dirty. Not to mention, some of the outlets didn’t even work. And the ones that did couldn’t even charge my phone or computer. They need to up the amps on the main panel or something.
II. BED: The droopy mattress was incredibly soft and old. I definitely did not enjoy laying on it after our six-​hour drive. How was my sleep that night? Pretty terrible.
III. BATHROOM: Clean with gold trim everywhere. Probably the best part of our room.
IV. SERVICE: I understand that it’s an incredibly large hotel, but I would think 35 minutes is more than enough time to deliver towels to our room. And this is following our first call to the lobby when nobody came up.
V. OVERALL: Although convenient, I wouldn’t recommend this Hilton location.

This is an impressive looking hotel, was plenty of charm in its history. Check-​in was very fast and friendly, and the front desk agent quickly explained where I needed to go and where all the important areas were. However, the nice looking common areas belie some of the problems I experienced with the room itself.
PROS:
–Great gym
–Located just south of the Loop, so most everything is walkable, or a sub-​$ 10 cab ride
CONS:
–The train is only a block away so you will definitely hear it if you have a rear facing room. Very annoying especially at night.
–All the furniture and carpeting was very dated if you are not on one of the remodeled floors (see photos)
–There is no mini fridge in the room. You must call and specifically ask for one.
–Pillows are soft but super thick. Ended up sleeping without them
–Faucet was leaky, had to keep bathroom door closed at all times
–Noticeable grime and mold on soap dish (see photo)
–Room service tray from neighboring room was left in hallway for 3 days.
–They actually charge you $ 2 per bag to check them. Every hotel I’ve ever been to has been complimentary (plus tip, of course).
Overall the hotel itself is nice with lots of amenities, but the rooms need a lot of work, as well as the service. Had this room not been paid by work, I would have been much more upset at what I ended up with.

Just came back from a wonderful three night stay at the Hilton Chicago. Their location across from Grant Park is very convenient. I was attending a conference down at McCormick Place and found it easy to walk along the lake front trail down there in about 30 to 40 minutes.
Their staff are great as well. Joe working the front door is awesome and hailed many a cab for us as well as welcomed us home at the end of every night out. Housekeeping was great. Our room was always promptly and well serviced each morning. The room itself was a small but comfortable west facing room with a view of the big buildings. Some of the fixtures looked a little dated and tired in the room but everything worked well. The bed was comfortable and the room temperature pleasant without us having to adjust anything.
Loved the history of the hotel. They have displays in the lobby with memorabilia from over the years as well as a beat video and display of all the movies and TV shows filmed here.

I’ll preface this review with the fact the the hotel itself is beautiful. Upon arrival I was in awe of the gorgeous lobby, high ceilings, and overall classiness of the joint.
The guest room that we stayed in seemed antiquated. Everything just felt old. The bed was fine but the pillows were awful and very, very flat. We also had difficulty maintaining a comfortable room temperature, which is awful when trying to curl your hair with a 400 degree curling iron. Am I right, ladies?!
Our room also had a computer monitor equipped with what to see/​do activities nearby. I thought this would be helpful but the program runs on Netscape Navigator — the oldest browser in the book, so it was just easier to pull out a phone and look up a Unilocal review or two.
As a regular (peasant by Hilton standards) guest you’re charged $ 15 to use the gym. The equipment seemed new and was very clean, but $ 15 doesn’t warrant the use of standard gym equipment when you’re already paying an arm and a leg to stay in the vicinity.
The overall experience at the hotel was ‘fine.’ Nothing to write home about, but the convenient of the hotel being near Grant Park made it worth the stay.