Hyatt's In Trouble
Written: Jul 19 '05 (Updated Jul 27 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Near the Magnificent Mile
Cons: Too big, too impersonal, dated.
The Bottom Line: If you can get if for a cheaper price than $100/night, it may not be a horrible place to stay.
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| xraydude888's Full Review: Hyatt Regency Chicago |
My family and I decided to take a little one-day, one night jaunt to Chicago.
I went on Priceline and ended up paying $100/night/room. For a "luxury" four-star hotel, the suggested price in the Magnificent Mile area was listed as $259. So I thought approximately 40% ($100) wasn't a bad bid considering that this was the height of the tourist season (July) in Chicago. When the bid was accepted immediately, I began to have worries. Further research on other sites demonstrated that I probably could have gotten a room for somwhere around $65/night on Priceline.
After a fairly exhausting day of sight-seeing in Chicago, we decided to check into our room at 3PM. We pulled up in our rental car into the driveway and met, a traffic jam. We were stuck in a part of the driveway that was not in front of the entrance for about 10 minutes, sandwiched between cars and taxis ahead of us and cars and taxis behind us , which were trying to avoid causing backups into the feeder street (which is not Wacker Drive).
We finally pulled into the valet parking area ($39/night--please consider not taking a car) since although we were spending only one night, we had a lot of children's gear. We waited and waited, and finally gave up on a bellhop assisting us. We commandeered a luggage cart ourselves and wheeled it into the lobby which.....
Was only a lounge that was converted to a nightclub in the evenings. The check-in desk was on the second floor. We found a little service elevator (I hope that is what it was) which had that acrid stink of old perspiration that would allow us to get to the second floor with our luggage cart.
Check in wasn't too horrible when we got to the desk, but there were ropes and poles delineating a long and weary path that a traveler would have to go through to check-in if more clients had showed up.
According to Hyatt's Website(http://chicagoregency.hyatt.com/property/hotelinfo/about/index.jhtml;jsessionid=TPQB42T53CTD5TQSNWGFAFOOCJWYYUP4), this is their "flagship property" with "2019 guestrooms, including 119 suites." Obviously, with the price I paid, I did not get a suite, but this is what I got.
Two rooms on the 5th floor which had 2 double beds each. The bathrooms are strictly utilitarian. Nice enough to use but need updating. Cracked marble countertops, brown wall covering, and the weirdest thing of all, a commercial-grade flusher for the toilet. I used the toilet and it took me a minute or two to figure out the flushing mechanism for the toilet is the one used in most business, commerical, governmental and school buildings. That is, a metal peg sticking out sideways, connected to a main pipe. You see this set-up in quite a few men's bathrooms, especially for the urinals.
I was looking for a tank or some sort of fancy mechanism to trigger the flushing but after some serious searching behind the toilet lid was the flusher. Someone had put it there.
Showers were OK. The showerhead was one of those adjustable types that you dial up the type of stream that you want to hit you.
Beds were reasonably firm. Two full-sized beds in each room.
Reasonably comfortable work desk with requisite broadband connection to the internet (see below).
Nickle and Dime Items:
a) $25 dollar fee for using the minibar as a refrigerator. I guess if they catch you the next morning and you have your stuff in it, they will nail you for the privilege of using their minibar.
b) $9.95/day for high speed internet
c) Valet parking. $39/day
The interesting philosophical question is: Why do expensive hotels charge you more and more for things that let's say a Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn gives you for free?
Did not employ the room service. Nor the gym. Nor any of the bars or restaurants in the hotel.
Checkout: Used the electronic checkout menu on the TV. Was fairly painless. I did not experience the messed-up/erroneous charges that some reviewers had experienced.
I met some friends in the Sofitel and the atmosphere was completely different. It was a much more intimate environment than this convention-hall-sized impersonal place. If this is truly Hyatt's flagship hotel, then Hyatt has a problem especially with regards to customer service (ie., check in experience) and the atmosphere of the place (feels like an airport terminal in the public areas).
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
xraydude888
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Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 3 members
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