Chicago may be the City with Big Shoulders, but the Fairmont Chicago would like to change that perception. It’s what I think of as a “BusinessLuxe Hotel” one designed for business travelers but aiming at the high-end types among them. We’re all familiar with business hotels that charge fees for everything in sight on the assumption that the costs will simply disappear into one’s expense report – Hyatt and Hilton, for instance. A BusinessLuxe Hotel, on the other hand, charges these fees, but also offers more of those add-on amenities (at a price, of course). Whether it’s to pamper the business traveler or to provide services for his (or her) traveling companion, such properties also offer after-hours diversions like spas, health clubs, fine dining, and – in the case of the Fairmont Chicago - in-room “serenity baths.” That's Deee!Luxe! I believe.

The Fairmont occupies a 37-story (probably 38, but we’re not supposed to know about that penthouse) building just a few blocks from Millennium Park, The Loop, and Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile of shopping. Built in the late 1980s, it sits between the city’s bustling business district and the Lake Michigan beach. The 687-room hotel prides itself in luxurious accommodations, claiming oversized guest rooms and whisper-quiet service. In fact, the guest rooms are large for the hotel class, and the service is friendly and respectful while not quite reaching fawning. Guests have access to a variety of diversions in and near the hotel, including a lobby restaurant (aria; their lower-case, not mine), twenty-four-hour room service, and a lobby lounge should one find the room’s minibar insufficiently stocked. aria, though an American restaurant, claims to be “culturally inspired, comfortably American,” serving international varieties of comfort food. Japanese seems predominant, with a sushi bar facing the entrance. aria is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Guests also have access to the astonishingly well-equipped Lakeshore Athletic Club, a 120,000-ft² facility immediately adjacent to the hotel and the Aon Center next door. The athletic club comprises six floors, with a climbing wall, indoor running track, courts of every description, fitness classes and, of course, weights and machine training. The Lakeshore also boasts a full-service European spa, Waves, for massages and other pampering.

Parking is available in the garage under the hotel; or you can use the Chicago Transit Authority (the El), taxis, and Metra trains to get around – two Metra lines terminate at Millenium Station, just three blocks away.


Our guest room, a single king, was every bit as spacious as advertised (about the size of the apartment we had in graduate school, in fact). We found plenty of room for dumping travel and shopping bags, a necessity since we were combining visits with family and epiFriends with a shopping trip to the Miracle Mile and Lincoln Park. The room had all of the usual amenities one expects to find in business hotels, except that here they are much nicer. Coffee service, for instance, isn’t your garden-variety four-cup Mr. Coffee; it’s a single-serve espresso machine and six pods of coffee. The clock radio’s not a seven-dollar Chinese-made off-brand; it’s a Sony with three-inch tall numbers that can actually receive both AM and FM instead of two varieties of static. The bed – a big pillowtop – doesn’t have a bedspread, it has a down-filled duvet and six down pillows (they'll supply fibre-filled pillows on request); in the bathroom are two huge bathsheets and a pair of big terry bathrobes.

That marble-floored (and -walled) bathroom also has a walk-in tiled shower and separate tub, private WC with a pocket door, heat lamp, hair dryer, and towel hamper. Besides the lighted magnifying mirror by the sink, there’s also a large vanity mirror with natural lighting where milady may apply her face. Oh, and for those who are watching their weight, the bathroom even has a scale!

There’s a walk-in closet with iron and board, as well as a safe for storing that diamond necklace you picked up in the gift shop (or your laptop while you’re out shopping for diamonds). Out in the room, there’s plenty of drawer storage plus a nice workspace that sits in the bay window. Every room has a minibar (with typical minibar prices - $3.50 for a Snickers bar). Our “lakeview” room, an upgrade, gave us the barest glimpse of Grant Park and the Marina beyond it through gaps between the adjacent buildings; though something higher than the 15th floor might have been more scenic. Rooms have individual climate control – a very quiet system, I might add. All rooms have wireless internet connections (fee); and cable TV with in-room movies (fee), games (fee), and WebTV (fee).

I found the room’s décor to be somewhat muddled, it being a mixture of differing furniture styles – a Craftsman mirror; a colonial desk with stone top; a French Provincial dresser. The walls are papered in a rather dated broad stripe pattern, and the deep-pile carpeting had seen better days. The room itself was dead quiet – no street sounds, no noise from the hall – not even when the people next door took their showers (probably because the shower stall is on an interior wall).


I made our reservation on-line through the Fairmont website, and everything went off without a hitch – we also got a substantial discount off the rack rate ($133 per night). We were greeted cordially and allowed to check in to our room early (I’m a member of the Fairmont President’s Club), even receiving a room upgrade from city view to lake view. The hotel staff members were unfailingly polite and professional throughout our stay. Check-out was slightly delayed by a balky video checkout system, but was completed quite satisfactorily.

Cleanliness being next to godliness, I'd have to say that the Farimont Chicago is almost holy, though not quite. A luxury hotel probably shouldn't have a gum wrapper on the floor under the desk. Otherwise the place was spotless, with crisp, clean linens and sparkling surfaces everywhere. The public areas were in excellent shape, even with sloppy, slushy streets outside and A plethora of wedding receptions and holiday parties going on in the hotel's many meeting rooms.


In keeping with the BusinessLuxe model, the Fairmont is quite… expensive. Hotel parking is almost fifty dollars per night, guest privileges at the health club are twenty dollars/day, internet access is fifteen dollars for twenty-four hours. Prices in the minibar are (as always, at least in this country) nearly ruinous; and all the surcharges added to a room-service bill (three dollars/person; 19% gratuity; gratuity for delivery staff) would be enough to double your bill if a serving of oatmeal didn’t already cost nine dollars… and then there are the visits by the “bath sommelier,” which run about sixty smackers (not including gratuity). In fairness, parking in surface lots and garages this close to downtown seems to run close to thirty dollars per day to begin with.

Still, one can actually spend a couple of days in the Fairmont for a reasonable amount of money; not counting the mucho dinero you’ll probably drop on the Miracle Mile and eating out in Greektown, Oldtown, Chinatown, or Little Italy. You can skip room service and grab your meals in the tunnels under the downtown area; some restaurants near Millennium Station are even open on Sunday morning. You don't need to take a taxi everywhere you go; the Loop El stops are just a few blocks away on Randolph and State (Red Line) and the Metra Station is almost next door. It is next door, but the entrance is one of those "You can't get there from here" kind of places. If you're really lucky, you can score a ride in the Fairmont's Bentley…


While you're there… don't miss the shopping on Michigan's Miracle Mile; or on State and Wabash inside the Loop. Spend some time watching those fascinating video sculptures at or trrying to figure out the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. Take the El to Comiskey (or whatever the new Sox field is called) or slum up to Wrigley. Catch Metra down to Hyde Park, the University of Chicago, and all the museums – Field, Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium. Check out the Art Institute of Chicago and the McCormick-Tribune Freedom Museum, or simply marvel at the architecture of buildings like the Chicago Water Tower and the Chicago Tribune Museum. Heck, you can even visit the monumentally ugly Sears Tower, or the Hancock building. And the Playboy club used to be around there somewhere, though I'm not certain where…


Recommended for a weekend getaway or for someone on an expense account that has no limitations. Stay away from the hotel services and parking, and you may get out with your retirement fund intact!


Other Chicago Hotels:

Best Western River North (for budget travelers)
Palmer House Hilton (more BusinessLuxe)


Recommended: Yes