Every year my husband's company has a weekend getaway around the holidays. This is our one chance every year to spend a weekend in a luxury hotel and go to the big city or other fun location with most expenses paid.

This year we went to Chicago and stayed at the Palmer House Hilton. Compared to what we have come to expect over the last few years in luxury hotels, I was rather disappointed in the Palmer House.

The Palmer House is an old hotel that has been modernized, but it didn't quite live up to its own brochure. The staff was wonderful, no doubt, but the hotel seemed rather dingy and to me.

We arrived on Friday afternoon at about 3. The front desk was slammed with a long and quite slow cordoned-off queue. Luckily, we were able to check in as a group, which sped things up somewhat. However, our accommodations were given were not what had been arranged. We brought our kids along, as did several of my husband's co-workers. Most had been assigned tiny rooms with king beds... and to make matters worse, we'd been put on the smoking floor, and we don't smoke. We made do with a rollaway for our daughter, age 9, and bunked our son, age 5, with us. It would have been at least an hour to wait for a different room, and we were already tired from a 7-hour bus ride. However, some families had teenagers and had no choice but to change rooms. As it was, we didn't get the rollaway bed until sometime after 6:30 pm.

The elevators were a nightmare, 12 of them constantly full. You couldn't go up or down without waiting at least 15 minutes. I have been to science fiction conventions in bigger hotels with fewer problems.

Our room was adequate, but not great. It had peeling wallpaper in several locations, and a pull string for the closet light. The trim covering the lamp cord on my side of the bed came loose in my hand. The beds, both permanent and rollaway, were comfortable. The decor was bland with a lovely view of the fire escape.

The wiring must have been done by an idiot. One of the switches by the door powered the outlet by the window. The outlets were inadequate in number and didn't seem to hold plugs very tightly. The bed lamps and clock/radio were plugged in loosely behind the bed and actually came unplugged. Two of the items were plugged into a splitter with bent prongs that didn't want to stay in. I plugged everything back up and carefully put the bed back. The bathroom had a marble floor that was slicker than snot, even to dry bare feet.

I have two positive comments about the room, the closet and bathroom were nice-sized.

We didn't have time to use the pool or fitness facilities, so I can't comment on those.

We had the buffet breakfast in French Quarter restaurant. The food was good, but not above average. The variety of food was just average. I can do better on both counts at my local Golden Corral for less money. The staff was excellent, if not just a bit too helpful.

The hotel staff as a whole was quite good, especially at the concierge desk. They were able to answer our questions quickly and clearly, as well as sell us the Chicago Transit Authority day passes we needed.

Overall, it wasn't a bad stay, but I have come to expect more from luxury hotels.



Recommended: No