Conrad Chicago

10 of us ended up making a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate my thirtieth and a buddy's thirty fifth. My wife and I came a day earlier and stayed a day later than everyone else so we got a chance to use some of the hotel amenities before we were drug into the streets for twelve hours at a time.

The room itself was very nice with a 35" plasma TV and a bed you could sink into. The staff of the hotel and the restaurants were all very quick and always a great help.

Unique Quality: The coolest thing about the Conrad was the rooftop bar (The Terrace???). Its definitely a good place to start the night as you can look out over the city while sipping on your choice of beverages.

*****Don't plan on ending the night there- they close at midnight*****

As a travel agent, I am fortunate to get some great deals on travel and hotels. Normally, I am more of a budget traveler, but found a great deal on this luxury property that I couldn't pass up. The Conrad Hotel is a luxury Hilton property and occupies the hotel formerly known as Le Meridien. The hotel is located on Rush Street and has an attached walkway to Nordstroms.

I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience at the Conrad Chicago (well, except for my traveling companion but I digress... =) From the moment we pulled up to the front of the hotel, the staff bent over backwards to do anything they could for us, and always had a smile on their faces. The main entrance is located on North Rush Street. Once in the entrance you must take an elevator up to the fifth floor where the lobby is located. While I thought that this seemed odd at the time, it was not inconvenient and actually added security to the guest rooms. The lobby was spacious and spotless. It included a concierge desk, front desk, gift shop, comfortable seating, and a piano. Check in was a breeze, although we did arrive in Chicago fairly late and the staff was very professional and extremely accomodating. From there we were escorted to our room on the 14th floor. This entailed walking to a second set of elevators on the other side of the lobby and going up to the guest rooms from there.

The hotel is still undergoing renovations, trying to make the old hotel into the Conrad. We were told in the next 6 months every room would have a wide screen flat tv and other amenities. I will definitely be going back to see what it looks like after it totally becomes the Conrad. If you can get a good deal on this hotel you would be a fool to pass it up!

Unique Quality: Our room was a standard room, but was lovely just the same. It had a king size bed, television armoir, mini bar, desk with chair, another comfy chair, and a radio/cd player. The bathroom was gorgeous. There was a seperate shower stall, bathtub and room with the toilet. The counter tops and tub were all marble. The Conrad gives its clients more than cheap shampoo and soap... the bathroom had a sewing kit, manicure set, lighted make up mirror, lotions and bath products, slippers, fluffy robes, etc. The bed was made up with down pillows and a down comforter and felt pretty much like heaven. The Conrad boasts that all its rooms have views, but I beg to differ on this point. The view that we had was of an office building (which was extremely close to our windows) and the only pretty view of downtown Michigan that we had was on the right hand side, between the buildings, we could see some of downtown Chicago.

The service and hotel staff were prompt with our requests (our room only had one bathrobe and the mini bar wouldn't open) but both problems were fixed within 5 minutes. We ordered late night room service and breakfast on our last night. It was of course expensive, but the breakfast was to die for. The cart with the food on it was a lovely display with real linens, a wide assortment of extras, and flowers. The bar downstairs had a relaxed atmosphere with very nice bartenders. There is also a French restaurant on the lobby level, but we didn't have the opportunity to eat there.

Directions: Within walking distance to Michigan Ave, the loop and Lake Michigan

Well "The Conrad" was essentially the old Le Meridien, minus the two large paintings of aristocrats with dogs' heads that once graced the lobby. The service in the bar and restaurant was somewhat better, but still needs to smooth out a bit. The front desk and the staff were very attentive and helpful.
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What had been added to the room, other than different towels and amenities was TECHNOLOGY. There was a 45" plasma screen TV and this object into which you could dock your ipod to play through the speakers. The TV also had Bose surround sound and a CD/DVD player. We had brought CDs, if we stay there again we'll remember to bring a DVD.
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As it was a slow weekend and my DH is Hilton Honors, we were upgraded to a spacious king on the 17th or top floor. No real view, but the room itself was very comfortable indeed! The bathroom was large with the requisite amount of marble and chrome and Molton/Brown toiletries. The hair dryer was in a drawer, which seems classier to me.
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On a second stay we got an even nicer upgrade to an Executive Room. I was very nice at check-in and my husband's Hilton card and the fact we had stayed there fairly recently must have helped. We even had a scrap of a view of Lake Michigan at the top of Michigan Ave.
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MEREDIEN: We got a great rate here when they were first open -- they asked me to fill out a questionnaire and that must have placed me on a "nice" list as we were upgraded to a deluxe room the next time. [I was very detailed -- the concierge appreciated my comments concerning how to get closer to 5 star status:)] Which was good as the regular rooms are very cramped and I found the air conditioning was blowing on me all night.

Unique Quality: The Conrad is an elegant hotel perched on top of the North Bridge shopping mall which includes NORDSTROMS. So if you can't get a good deal [as we have been able to] and have the $$$, this is a nice choice. [It is also close to one of our favorite semi-casual restaurants - Ben Pao -- see my restaurant listings.]
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Breakfast is in The Restaurant, except on our latest stay over Easter when it was in the bar.

Directions: Parking is right across the street in the Nordstrom garage.