More about Best Western Grant Park Hotel
Horrible experience in Best Western Grant Park Hotel
by A TripAdvisor Member
Who can help out-of-towners?
Nightmare at Best Western Grant Park Hotel in Chicago-"You don’t have the right to know the bill."
Is hotel a service industry and business?
The City of Chicago is charm and vitality. Lake Michigan is beautiful .Most people are very friendly I like Chicago city very much. Chicago is known for being a ”City of Neighborhoods.” I would like to enjoy my visit, but unfortunately I didn’t have it. Yet ,I am sincerely disappointed in this trip.
I am a mother of three and on duty to join my son on his first trip to Chicago for his education. I booked Best Western Grant Park Hotel because it was recommended to me by IIT and it is near the school. It was convenient for me to visit my son and join the orientation this way.
I made a reservation from Hotel.com on July 23. On August 14, the American Express already charged me $796.90 before I flew to Chicago.
But I had a terrible experience in the hotel during the 7 days (August 18 to August 25) when I was in Chicago. Hotel is a service industry but my daughter and I had been treated unfairly in The Best Western Grant Park Hotel in Chicago. Even though I had confirmed my reservation and made sure they still kept my reservation on August 18, they still couldn't provide service from my reservation.
The manager, LEO, knew the rooms were sold out since the first day I arrived, but he didn't tell me. He said my on line reservation was no guarantee and no use. Even he promised after two days he would move me to another room, he didn’t do it. He let me stayed in a room which was cheaper than my reservation. It was almost midnight on August 24, when I asked for my total bill, the manager LEO said "you don't have a right to have a bill." He and other two employees also blamed me many times for making reservation online. It was 2:00am in the morning on August 25. My daughter and I were exhausted. We couldn’t sleep because we need to wait and continue to talk to the manager LEO down-stairs. It tortured us emotionally. The manager LEO said, "If you want to complain, go ahead, I don’t care.” The insult I received in Best Western Grant Park Hotel such as discrimination against foreign visitor, whom speak English as Second Language. The horrible experience, feeling, and terrible attitude has been done to us is unbelievable.
Best Western Grant Park Hotel took advantage of us. If the hotel has no guarantee policy for online reservation, why do they have online service? They treated me unfairly and not honestly. After this situation, both my daughter and I got sick when we came back to LA from the aftereffect of Chicago.
Loop Hotels
by Dabs about Various
The Loop, Chicago's business district, also has quite a few hotels and is closer to the museum campus (Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium and Field Museum), the Art Institute, the theater district, Grant Park where many of the summer food/music festivals are held and Millennium Park. There aren't as many restaurants in the Loop as there are in the Magnificent Mile/River North area but both areas are a short cab ride (or bus or el) away from each other.
Grand Dame hotel: Palmer House Hilton
Boutique hotels: Hotel Burnham, Hotel Monaco, Hotel Allegro, Crowne Plaza Silversmith, Hampton Majestic
More contemporary hotels: W City Center, Hard Rock Hotel, Hotel 71
Large hotels: Hilton on S. Michigan, Hyatt Regency, Renaissance on Wacker, Swissotel
Budget hotels: Travelodge, Best Western Grant Park, Essex, Congress (see my other tip)
Never again
by A TripAdvisor Member
I've had some good experiences at best westerns in the past so I figured that this wouldn't be much different. I ignored the warning... my mistake. The friendliest staff member there was a trainie... the manager and other staff were rude and paid little attention to their customers. Of the three elevators, 1 wasn't working, 1 had a bookshelf pushed casually infront of it, and the other took 15 minutes to come from the 3rd floor to the lobby. The room at first appearance was clean, but around midnight I heard a thud next to me and rolled over to notice a large beetle looking back at me. While the shower looked alright at first glance.... add a little water, and toilet paper that was stuck to the tub floor, floated right up. The view was impecible... 3ft down was the pool, eye level with us. I wouldn't have minded this much if our blinds closed all the way. So if you don't value your privacy, personally cleanliness, or a friendly staff... then the best western in grant park is the way to go. However, if you want a nice, romantic, clean room for a good price... I'd recommend the allegro just a few blocks away. For $130 with the military discount, we got a king size bedroom... Very clean, romantic with very helpful staff.
No frills, but great Location!
by A TripAdvisor Member
A friend and I stayed here for 3 nights in August 2005. It was perfect for our purposes - walk to Museum Campus, L stop 2 blocks away, bus stops that take you right down Michigan Avenue across the street.
Rooms were clean and decent size. Showers had excellent water pressure - great after a long day of walking the museums. Staff was nice. Small hotel and staff, so they learned our faces and spoke to us when they saw us if we saw then walking to/from hotel @ lunch or shift end/start. Had bathroom issue at 6 am and maintenance responded very quickly.
Cons - No restaurant on site, but a couple of small places within walking distance, or get delivery. Also buses take you right down Michigan Ave to any restaurant you could want. Only 2 small elevators, and they were so slow!!
Overall, great for budget traveler who is really just looking for a clean, comfy place to crash inbetween taking in the sights.
Not bad
by A TripAdvisor Member
After reading other reviews I was leary about staying at Grant Park Best Western. I was on a work trip and budget was low so I needed to stay somewhere that didn't cost a lot. Immediately upon arrival I was pleased. I was very early for check-in but the very friendly girl at desk checked and said my room was actually ready. Myco-worker's room wasn't ready so she put her luggage in my room. When we arrived back at the hotel in the evening, the new person at the front desk was equally as friendly and accommodating as the girl who took care of us earlier. The rooms were very clean and the furnishings were pleasant enough. The only down side was the location, however, we never had trouble getting a taxi right in front of the hotel. For a place to lay my head at night, this hotel was fine. Not bad at all.
outdated but decent
by TripAdvisor Member tempra23
When we arrived at the hotel it was overbooked so our room was not available, instead we were upgraded to a suite. This meant a small fold out couch, table and mini fridge. The fridge almost froze our water bottles after a few hrs. The front desk was a little slow. There were 4 people wandering around behind the desk but yet the guy helping us said he was the only one on duty. The parking lot was full so they recommended on 1/2 block away on Mich. Ave. for $15. The people there looked a little questionable so we went to the parking lot on 8th street for $12 for a day ($10 cheaper then the hotel itself)
The room was decent. The carpet was a little worn out in places. The view was of some apt. buildings and the Field Muesuem. The bathroom had a nicer shower curtain and a shelf in the tub for shampoo/towels. However they did not have very many towels in the room. Only 2 large and 2 hand towels. We called for more and they brought them within 10 minutes. Along with an extra pillow.
The hotel is only a few blocks away from the El so you could hear it from the room. However it was not too loud and sounded like rain. The elevators are pretty slow and smaller. There is no reastraunt at the hotel but a decent one a block north, good for breakfast, better then the $7 one the hotel has. This would be a good hotel to stay at if going to the muesuem campus or if you just need a decently priced place to sleep.
Everything that could go wrong. Went wrong!!!
by TripAdvisor Member sydwye
We had three parties staying at this hotel and each of our parties had problems. We made these reservations three months in advance. We were all quoted the wrong price on check-in and had to haggle for 1.5 hours with the management and eventually talk to Best Western's customer service twice to resolve the issue. The first time we talked to customer service. The representative said we were charged the wrong price and we should be getting our special rate. I handed the phone to the manager and thirty minutes later he handed the phone back to me with an entirely new person on the phone who had no idea about our problem. It was supposedly resolved with us receiving our original price but on the day of check out we ended up having to pay more than the price haggled over. During the entire time that we tried to resolve this with the manager of the hotel, he was rude.
Other problems: The first party was sent to another hotel on their first night even though they listed on their reservations that they would be arriving very late at night. On their second night of their reservation they were given two full beds rather than the king bed requested. The second party was given a smoking room with a full size bed. All reservations were for a non-smoking room with a king size bed. The second party's iron broke, heater did not work and key card's needed to be re-processed every single time they tried to get into their room. Any time the keys were re-processed it took 15 to 30 minutes as their check-in and check-out lines were extremely long. The second party finally moved into a non-smoking room only to discover that the "non-smoking" room smelled just as smoky as the "smoking" room. It took the third party 30 minutes to check out and at no fault of that party. Their computer system or employees were entirely too slow.
I have never stayed at any hotel this bad.
Forum Posts
Using Priceline for hotels with kids
by wistemp
Has anyone with kids used Priceline for Chicago? We booked rooms already and have 2 kids, one adult in one of the rooms. I am wondering if we will have a space problem. It was mentioned in a previous posting. Our hotel is the Best Western-Grant Park. Thanks!
Re: Using Priceline for hotels with kids
by ThamaraSD
Yes I have and had no trouble with it. The best thing to do is call the hotel and inqire about the type of room you reserved. Depending on the age of the child they will be able to provide you with cots etc for a minimal fee.
Hope this helps.
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