draerospace

This is a brand new hotel opening on July 31st , I believe they postponed few time.

I tried to call this property many times , it went straight to voicemail . called the general line , they said hotel is not yet opened.

They had a promotion but in prepaid nonrefundable rate , I wanted to call the hotel to confirm if the room had fridge and crib available prior to booking . However no one could answer my question. I ve been attempting to call for over 2 weeks . now I basically gave up staying in this area.

Wingtipflyer1

Call SPG or send message to Lurker.

draerospace

I called SPG , they didn't have info of the hotel , basically reading to me whats on their website.

OneWorldTraveller

I also have a reservation on 31st.. No try to contact the hotel. Any chance to postpone the opening date?

draerospace

at one point , the csr on the phone told me to book another property if I have doubt on this new property . they also said don't need to contact the hotel , just book online . Hotel itself don't handle reservation ??? Strange enough they said that.

writerguyfl

Actually, that's pretty common for new hotels. Remember, if they aren't ready for guests, they also aren't ready to have employees working at the hotel.

Back in the days of yore (a.k.a. the 90s), new hotels would open an off-site Sales Office. With advances in technology, there is little need for a physical office. Sales Managers can do their thing from anywhere and reservations gets farmed out to the Central Reservations office for the chain.

Incidentally, many full-service hotels no longer run on-site Reservations Departments. Instead, all calls end up at the Central Reservations office. Many chains have created regional teams of agents. Those teams get extra training on all the hotels within their region/metropolitan area. If they get asked non-hotel-related questions, they will transfer you to a Concierge at the hotel after they make the sale.

OneWorldTraveller

I got a contact with hotel.

Hotel will open as scheduled. and the main restaurant will open after Aug 5th. Until then, a Bar will take care of dining.

OWT

draerospace

good to know , but I decided to stay at westin rivernorth . didn't want to run into any pre-construction /reno issues or half trained staff running the place.

beside with all the attempt calling SPG , they sound like they just don't really care about this le merdien .

christianj

I will likely be staying here some time in August so I am following this thread.

I do think the title of the thread needs to be changed by the mods! (have asked them to do so) The current title suggests that the grand opening of the hotel was disappointing when the reality is that the hotel has not had a grand opening and the OP rif is with not being able to contact the hotel.

Oxon Flyer

I've updated the thread title, and note that this property also has an e-mail address. Has anyone used this to contact the hotel ?

christianj

Thanks!

FSU

Stopped by here tonight to check it out. The restaurant is not yet opened, they are hoping for some time next week. The bar had cold food, nothing hot. We did have some very good drinks. The lobby itself was quite beautiful, a little on the small side. All the employees were very friendly and excited about the opening.

christianj

Had a quick one night stay at the LeMeridien last week and will be back tonight for a longer 5 night stay.

Overall a very nice property with some issues remaining after the opening. Don't have time for a full review and will post later but here are the main issues I saw:

- Platinum Upgrade issue - evidently the staff still needs to learn the program (posted about this in the Upgrade Failure Thread if your interested in the details)

- Slow Staff - Especially check-in agents

- Club Lounge - A very nice space but the breakfast assortment was a joke!

- Room - Room has absolutely NO storage! There are no drawers to store you underwear, socks, tshirts, etc. The only drawer in the entire room was the drawer on the nightstand unit. You need a barrista PHD to figure out the Illy machine. Poured water in the wrong spot!

- Bath - I had a room on the second floor and it had horrible water pressure. Shower was very narrow and I am not a big guy.

Here some basic room pics since this is typically what we all want to see considering the graphic room renderings on the website:

Alex_I

- please update when you would have time. I am considering staying on Sept. 12.

TL2000

I had a one night stay here a few weeks back and would have to echo the comments that the property seems new / still finding its way. Assuming you know this in advance, there isn't any reason to not stay here. The location is good, everything is clean and nice and I appreciated the easy to use espresso machine (.........).

My only comment is around the brand itself. Is LM a luxury brand or is it a snazzier Aloft? I've stayed in several that seemed luxury and then you have this one and the one in MSP that seem more like what Aloft should have tried to be. It's like a W without the club music and not quite trimmed out as well.

For the price, if you compare this to the other suburb offerings I would say it is the winner followed closely by the Westin in Lombard.