Hilton HHonors - Embassy Suites Hotel Chicago-Downtown/Lakefront Trip Reports and Reviews

Now that our stay is over - I can answer my own questions.

The e-check-in system would not work for us because the reservations were for a points stay. Hopefully in the future e-check in will be allowed no matter how you "pay" for your room. The Diamond desk added a note to our reservation asking for rooms on higher floors. Rooms were not ready for early check-in, but were ready when we returned at 5:00.

We were given rooms 1501 and 1506 - There are 17 floors so this was high enough to see over any other area buildings.

1501 was a King non-smoking room. Faced South on Illinois Street with a partial view of the lake and of the city. Typical ES decor.

1506 was two Doubles non-smoking and faced West on Columbus. Great view of the Wyland painting and the Tribune building. The Tribune building was especially impressive when lit up at night.

The hotel stay was average for ES. There were zero Diamond benefits. I even called to ask for a robe and some water to be sent up. A few minutes later a man appeared with 7 (seven) robes! And no water. Took one robe and let the idea of water go.

We went to the evening cocktail reception. Our breakfast coupons doubled as proof that we were entitled to free drinks. Only one drink could be given per person so we both had to stand in line - usually only one of us goes up and gets two drinks. No top shelf liquors with our passes. The snacks were two types of trail mix and tortilla chips and dip - except that they ran out quickly of chips and did not refill. It was not kept very clean the food became scattered all over the table.

Breakfast was crowded but not over run with children as I expected. Plenty of food and selection, but not enough bus people to keep the area clean. Good selection at breakfast. They had cooked to order eggs and waffles along with the usual pre-prepared scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cereals and pastries.

Not too impressive and somewhat disappointing as we were hoping to show our Marriott cousins the benefits at Hilton. They'll stick to Marriott.

This is the second Hilton hotel in Chicago (Drake was the other) that doesn't really tend to the HHonors checkin queue properly.

I was staying at the Lakefront ES (kind of a misnomer since the hotel isn't exactly on the lake :) ) for one night and headed to the HHonors line to check in.

The registration desk was quite busy at 4 pm with 1 clerk working the HHonors line and 2 clerks working the regular queue. Now, I've noticed that regardless of how many people are waiting in the HHonors line, the reg clerks will ignore the HH Vips and still serve the guests in the regular queue.

This occurs at the Drake and now I've noticed it at the ES. What this means is that an HHonors guest doesn't really get the benefit of a speedier checkin especially if the HH VIP at the front of the line has a serious issue that needs resolving.

I literally waited in the HHonors line and saw 8 guests in the reg queue get served before me.

IMHO, if there are guests is the HHonors queue, by policy, the front desk clerks should serve them next.

Does anyone agree with me...or is that just a little too elitist! I'd like to know.

You're right, of course.

But why not use the check-in kiosk?

You're right, of course.

But why not use the check-in kiosk?

Yah, thought about it...I had contemplated using the e-checkin system as well. E-checkin said that I was upgraded...but I didn't know what that meant in the ES world...so I wanted to speak with a desk clerk when I checked in.

In any other situation I would have done the kiosk checkin...

ES Lakefront Chicago stay Nov 23rd-25th
Embassy Suites Hotel Chicago-Downtown/Lakefront 511 North Columbus Dr.

As a Gold, I just returned from a Thanksgiving weekend award stay at the ES Lakefront property, and wanted to point out some differences from what others had reported. I received excellent Gold treatment, with water, candy and chips waiting in my room along with a welcome letter, and a card upgrading to "Top Shelf" liquor-it was just a business card from the hotel with a manager's signature and VIP upgrade listed on it that I was told to present at the bar with a room key. It was a "mid shelf" upgrade, anything on the bottom 2 shelves was mine for the asking, but top shelf was off limits.

It is a one glass of liquor per person per wait in line (which was nearly a 10 minute wait most times), but the drinks were poured strong and wine glasses full if you gave a tip. The free food was some of the best ES fare I have seen in recent years with buffalo wings, mini egg rolls and quiche, veggie trays with dip and fried shrimp all regularly restocked during the happy hour-not at all what I had heard described for this property.

For those asking about rooms to pick, my room was upgraded to King bed partial lake view on 15th floor away from elevators facing Illinois St-1504 (if you can get 1505 next door or any high floor xx05 you would have a corner suite with partial lake view). Pool and hot tub are small and on ground level-so no views like many Chicago hotel pools have-and crowded with children all weekend. Adjoining PJ Clarkes restaurant is not bad either and more affordable for carryout to your room than room service for the budget minded-concierge has discount coupons.

For Midway "L" train riders-take the Orange L train to Roosevelt then the 29 bus to Illinois and Columbus 4.50 paid at the L station gets you to the hotel and back roundtrip.

Is this the property you are referring to?

Embassy Suites Hotel Chicago-Downtown/Lakefront
511 North Columbus Drive, Chicago, Illinois, United States 60611
Tel: +1-312-836-5900 Fax: +1-312-836-5901

Yes. The Lakefront/Lakeshore location.

I assume you are talking about transportation from Midway Airport?

For "L" train riders-take the Orange L train to Roosevelt then the 29 bus to Illinois and Columbus 4.50 paid at the L station gets you to the hotel and back roundtrip.

We stayed at this property last month (Fri-Mon), started writing a review/report but still have not completed it.

Just going from memory, I think we were in 1634, maybe it was 35, but it was a corner suite partial lake view (would have been full lake view except other buildings were in the way). Either way it was a very nice view, of both the city and the lake... we could also see a small section of the River, room was facing south and east. Very pretty at night.

Breakfast was very good and very plentiful, imo. We ate enough at breakfast so we could skip lunch, eating just a snack to keep us till supper.
Of course breakfast was crowded although I never waited more than 15 seconds in line for anything.

Waiting in line for drinks in the evening was longer, we only did that one night. If I recall it was about 5-7 minutes. We would have gotten drinks another night but upon going to the bar (literally) 2 minutes after whatever time they cut off the free drinks (7 or 8pm I think) and asking if they were still able to serve the free stuff I was told no they definately will not serve free after the cut off time. No loss, just went to the gift shop and paid $9 for 3 drinks :eek: :D (yes, charged to the room).

Lots of kids / teens at an ES on the weekend is a given. In my opinion this is not even worth mentioning anymore, maybe we should come up with an acronym for that... ESlok (ES lots of kids) or something. Sunday and Monday though the hotel had almost no kids in it that I saw. Infact me and the infinityplusone jr 01 and 02 had the pool and hot tub all to ourselves for about 3 hours Sunday afternoon and again for about 2 hour Monday morning.

I did think that the pool was on the small size, for being such a large ES. The pool is a long rectangle shape, steps at the shallow end. Hot tub is separate, near the shallow end.
Also the location of the pool, off the atrium / lobby in view of the breakfast area is rather odd, imo. Walking to and from the pool you have to walk through the atrium / lobby. It is not like you are walking past the front desk but you do walk through the "corner" of a public area and use the elevators along with the non-swimmers.

The glass elevators are great fun for all of the kids... we went out to dinner one night, on the way out we ran into some kids riding the elevators. When we came back two hours later, the group of kids had grown larger and they were still riding. You shouldn't have to wait more then 10-15 seconds for an elevator, even with the joy riders... these elevators are fast and give a good view.

Checking in, we did receive 1 drink coupon per person, even though two of our persons were under five years old. We were also told that our room had been upgraded... which I did check online and a standard room had been reserved but we were given a deluxe(?) room.
We also recv'd chips/popcorn, Kitkat and 4 waters the first night and then just 2 waters the next night and then nothing the last night.
We recv'd turndown the 1st night, none the 2nd night and turndown again on the last night. We did not request it at all but was pleased that they did do it when they did.

Great place to stay in CHI if you have the kids along.

Edited to add: There is a Dominick's (grocery store) right across N. Columbus from the ES, in case you need anything to fill the fridge or heat up in the microwave. Also there is a Starbucks in Dominick's, at the North end (or the right hand side if your back is towards the ES and you are facing Dominick's).

Also, this picture (http://embassysuites.hilton.com/en/hotels/content/CHIREES/media/images/CHIREES_Embassy_Suites_Hotel_Chicago-Downtown_Lakefront_home_right.jpg) from the HH website, I am pretty sure was taken from the Sheraton (http://www.sheratonchicago.com/)... just a trivial bit of information.

FWIW, got the same kind of treatment from this property 3 years ago as a silver on an award stay... upgraded to a larger corner room (not lakeview, darn), top shelf liquor, snacks waiting in the room, etc.

I've always wondered if a gold or diamond didn't show up that night though since the letter in the room was addressed to someone else. :D Doesn't matter... they impressed me and we had an excellent 4 night stay. Glad to see things haven't changed.