ENIAC

This hotel has been open for more than a year now, but there seems to have been little on FT so I am opening a new threat for its discussion.

With a new baby at the start of the year we’ve been doing a lot of weekend trips down to the Chicago area to give some relaxing time away from routine as a family. I’ve now done six one night stays at the Westin Chicago North Shore, mostly on Friday or Saturday night. The hotel is Cat 4 but can be good value on weekends – I snapped up a number of prepaid promo $89 rates early in the year but the regular weekend rate is often not much higher.

The hotel is new and clean, reminding me of the Westin Minneapolis and Westin Arlington Gateway in being pleasant but a little bland. In terms of service it seems to be cutting costs by doing the absolute minimum required to meet brand standards. In SPG elite treatment I suspect it’s failing to meet them. For the low weekend rate it meets expectations, but I would hesitate to pay a significant premium to stay there.

Exterior and Lobby: It is a nice, new built Westin about 17 stories tall. On the ground floor is a large area of ball rooms and meeting capabilities. These always seem to be in use on the weekends for bat mitzvahs, dance competitions, business events, weddings, etc. It’s much nicer and newer than the other hotels in the area and I suspect has is pulling in a huge amount of event business from the locals. The lobby is quite stylish and has free wi fi but no bar. Unfortunately the front desk is understaffed and you almost always have to wait for a few minutes. The concierge desk is generally unmanned.

Location: A few minutes off I94 close to where 94 and 294 meet. It’s a good location. Upscale suburban pub/eateries Ram and Claim Jumper are immediately adjacent, and several others are nearby. Ram does takeout until the early hours and I've seen people walking into the hotel with its food as a good alterantive to room service. It’s a short drive east on Lake Cook to the Chicago Botanical Garden, and not far to the wealthy North Shore lake side downtowns of Highland Park and Highwood which have lots of nice little shops and interesting restaurants. Also on Lake Cook is a nice mall with Neiman Marcus, Teevana, an Apple Store, Crate and Barrel, etc. This is much less crowded than the shopping further south in Woodfield
Mall. A wood preserve area full of hiking trails is immediately adjacent to the hotel and can be accessed from the corner of the parking lot. Self parking is free, which it isn’t at some of the O’Hare area hotels a little further south. The hotel has a shuttle – I’m not sure if this runs as far as the airport or not.

Restaurants: It has an Italian restaurant, a steakhouse and an upstairs sushi lounge. I’ve only eaten in the Italian restaurant. The food is quite good and the prices low for a Westin. But the service can be awful. The one time I had lunch the waitress was hopelessly out of her depth – refused to take our food orders when she brought the drinks because she was too busy, brought us the wrong check, charged us for the free glass of wine we’d been given a coupon for, etc. So since then we’ve stuck to breakfast.

Room: A typical modern Westin room. The air is fresh and the air conditioning silent, which is the biggest practical advantage this has over the aging Hyatts and Sheratons in Chicagoland. The hotel seems to do as little as possible to satisfy franchise guidelines. There’s no shower gel or mouthwash or shower cap and only one bathrobe. The rooms are not cramped but not particularly large either. I’ve never had water with the “SPG complimentary” tag but just drink it anyway and have not been charged. The king bed does not seem to be an actual king bed but is still large enough. Never had turndown. There is a minibar. The flat screen TV has several HD stations and gets HBO. Some pay per view films are also HD.

SPG Recognition: Very bad. As SPG plat on six stays I've been given a regular room on the SPG floor, three slightly larger corner rooms on low floors, a regular room on a regular floor, and a junior “suite” (nice large room with big bathroom) on a regular floor. No club level upgrades. On most visits the hotel has clearly been empty. The one junior suite upgrade we did get took place at check in when the clerk took it on himself to check – so blocking of elite upgrades is not taking place. The check in amenity points do post OK. I’m going to start checking on availability of club floor rooms online before arriving, which is not something I usually bother doing but after missing out six times running I am starting to get suspicious. On the plus side they freely grant the 4pm late checkout.

Lounge: The hotel lounge has been shifting opening hours and no longer seems to be running at the weekend. It’s weird – club rooms are in the booking system for weekends at a big premium even when the lounge is not open. I can’t tell you what they’re like as we’ve never been upgraded. When the lounge is closed I’ve been given $15 per person breakfast coupons but only after asking for them – they’ve not been volunteered. When it is open it has an OK continental breakfast with salmon and berries. The service there is bad – the attendant tended to come in occasionally but not to do anything about accumulated dishes. There seemed to be only one packet of bagels, so even though few people were eating breakfast it ran out and was not replaced. No weekend newspapers in the lounge. On the plus side the restaurant breakfast is nice – no buffet but a good range of menu items.

Pool: Nice – reasonably large, stylish. Has a hot tub but no sauna or steam room. May be busy or empty depending on what event is taking place. Exercise room is also OK.