I thought I would talk about the strengths of each hotel I stayed at in a comparative manner in this post.

Peninsula
They had, by far, the best arrival experience of all four Chicago hotels I stayed at. I would also put it amongst the top of all the hotels I stayed at worldwide. The room was comfortable but the overall décor was truly generic-international-luxury-hotel-boring. The service was good with Front Desk staff friendly and caring.

Ritz Carlton
I liked this hotel the most and I actually liked the 70s Grand Hotel décor in the Lobby. Perhaps I grew up in that kind of environment (Chartwell, the now closed restaurant at the FS Vancouver was, at times, like my own dining room -- I practically grew up in there) so perhaps it is a bit of nostalgia but more likely the grand open space with the water feature -- I LOVE water features. However, I also loved the new spiffier rooms upstairs and it was the most comfortable (as in "home away from home").

The service all around was the warmest and we were very well taken care of throughout the stay. The F&B was, for me, the strongest of the four hotels and probably the tops of all luxury hotels I have stayed at (and I haven't stayed at them all) in North America.

One small highlight was the AgroMontana honey and preserves the hotel uses -- it appears to be an italian company out of Monaco and the quality of their preserves, and especially the honey, was incredible. We had a case of the honey shipped home directly from the hotel and it appears one cannot purchase that exact honey on-line either.

The shower was the most powerful of all the hotels and left you feeling invigorated afterwards. It may not be the most environmentally sensitive showerhead but I felt great afterwards.

The RC had the best mattress -- the bespoke FS Stearns and Foster unit.

Park Hyatt
Ummmm....... hmmmm...... let me think about this one.... actually, I really liked the complimentary house car service the hotel offers. It is the only saving grace for this hotel and I wished the other hotels would offer this service as well.

Four Seasons
The FS had the most polished staff in the Restaurant and their Meinl coffee is just fantastic. The room decor is really great as well.

Each hotel is commended for providing me with a humidifier in the room as per my pre-arrival requests. The FS provided me with one in the living room and another in the bedroom which was a very nice touch. Complimentary in-room internet access at each hotel is ^ and the speed at the RC and FS were very good to excellent. Both the RC and Pen had the friendliest Concierges.