After spending several nights at a Fairfield Inn in a small city in northwest Illinois surrounded by vast cornfields, we were ready for a more comfortable and luxurious stay at St. Regis Chicago during the Memorial Day weekend. We stayed there for one night using a Bonvoy Brilliant credit card FNA. The paid rate for our room was $1,029 including taxes and fees for the night that we stayed.

The St. Regis Hotel occupies the first 11 floors of the building while the St. Regis Residences occupy the remaining floors of this 101-story building, an attractive undulating structure. According to a staff member I spoke to, only the first six floors, or half of its 191 rooms, were open for occupancy, which I was told was 70% during our stay.



St. Regis Chicago



St. Regis Chicago entrance


Check-In
At the front desk, we were each offered a glass of champagne while staff checked us in. A computer glitch delayed our check-in, so we were offered another glass of champagne to keep us occupied while we waited. Check-in staff were very friendly but appeared a little tense, probably due to its just opening. We were upgraded from a Superior Guest room to a Superior Guest room with Park View and escorted to our room by staff.

Front desk and lobby

Room
The staffer explained the room’s features and told us that this particular room had not yet been occupied by any guests, so it was spanking brand new. It was spacious, probably at least 600 sqft with a park view, which is opposite the Chicago River view side. The bathroom was spacious and luxurious, but I was not especially impressed with the room’s interior decor, especially the colors and design, which felt bland. That said, we enjoyed our spacious new and comfortable room all the same. After explaining the room’s features, the staff member told us that a butler would come to our room soon after he left. We waited and waited but no butler, so we decided to take a tour of the hotel.

Superior, Park View room

Park view from our room



Service
All staff that we met were unfailingly friendly, helpful, and outgoing, trying to make a good impression. One week before arriving at the hotel, I received an email from the Butler Coordinator wanting to assist us with designing our travel experience in Chicago. I answered her questions and asked some of my own about the hotel’s services, but I didn’t receive a reply until May 27 (according to the date stamp in my email), the day we checked out. At the hotel, the butler service, a major feature of St. Regis, was a no-show, never to be heard from. On the evening we checked in, I called the butler's desk to order in-room dining but also told them that the butler never showed up and was told they would remind the butler, but despite this, the butler never appeared or called. It was as though I had been ghosted by this service. This was a huge failure, especially after giving them a second chance to make good on it. With the hotel only half open (basically about 98 rooms open), and at only 70% occupancy, it’s difficult to imagine that the butlers were overworked and couldn’t appear. This led me to wonder whether the butler service was also available to the 393 condominium residences and that the butlers could have been overextended servicing the residences, with hotel guests playing second fiddle. Certainly, we could enjoy our stay without the butler but don’t advertise this service if you can’t deliver it.

Hallway

Dining
There are two restaurants planned for this hotel, but only one of them, Miru, a Japanese restaurant on the 11th floor, was open. The other, an Italian restaurant, is scheduled to open in September, IIRC. We were given a tour of Miru by its friendly Maitre d' and really liked its design and ambiance, especially the bar, and its incredible views along the Chicago River and of Lake Michigan. In the evening, we headed to Miru for dinner but were told no seats were available, which was our mistake for not booking earlier. Disappointed, we decided to dine in-room since it was getting late. The in-room dining menu was somewhat limited, so we ordered a cheeseburger and club sandwich with fries and drank the Chandon sparkling wine we had brought with us. Portions were large and the burger and fries were very good.

The in-room dining service was fast, as the food was delivered about 20 minutes after our order was placed. However, about an hour after finishing our meal, the doorbell rang and the very same meal we had just eaten was being delivered for us to consume a second time. My wife pointed out their mistake, though I suspect we might have been billed only once for their mistake had we decided to eat the second meal, but I’m not a glutton.

We had breakfast at Miru and used our two $30 credits there. I ordered Avocado Toast and vegetable juice while my wife ordered their Japanese Breakfast teishoku of miso soup, rice, grilled salmon, salad, and pickles. In Japan, a breakfast like this is not expensive, but here it cost $34.00 (a little over 4,700 yen at current exchange rates). Aside from the salmon, she found the breakfast lacking, with the miso soup too salty and the rice not as good as in Japan. The avocado toast was tasty, and the vegetable juice was fresh and juiced in-house, so I was happy. I really liked Miru, they played wonderful jazz music throughout the day, and the ambiance was sophisticated, upbeat, and friendly, and the views, especially from the window tables, should be among the best in Chicago. Just around the corner from the bar is a lounge area with seats and nice views where you can take your drink and relax in a quieter space.

View from Miru restaurant

Pool
A couple hours after checking in, we decided to go for a swim in the pool on the 10th floor. The pool is 25 meters in length and is about 4 feet deep, so it is not for diving. Numerous reclining chairs surround two sides of the pool, but only two chairs were occupied when we arrived. The water is heated but is not that warm. The view from the pool is of the Chicago River, Navy Pier, and part of Lake Michigan but when seated, all you see are buildings. Eventually, several more adults with their kids arrived and it got noisier thanks to a strong echo in the room. Still, it’s a comfortable and relaxing space. In the locker room is a sauna, but you’ll have to push a button to start it heating and so it takes a bit of time before you start to sweat.

10th-floor pool


Gym
The gym, also on the 10th floor, is spacious and bright with fantastic views of the Chicago River, Navy Pier, and part of Lake Michigan. It’s a fun view to take in while walking or running on a treadmill or lifting weights.

Gym equipment


View from gym

View from gym

View from gym

Elevators
The elevators deserve a special mention as they were a new and modern type. There are no buttons in the elevator, instead, you press a floor number on a digital screen outside the elevator and are instantaneously shown on the screen which of several elevators will transport you. I found them more efficient and fun to ride than conventional elevators.

Digital screen outside of elevators

Location
The hotel’s location is excellent, right where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan, and the views are wonderful but since the hotel is on the lower floors, the lake views are mostly obstructed. Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile are close by for shopping, and museums and Millennium Park are also nearby. The Riverwalk can be accessed just across the street and there are several outdoor eating and drinking establishments along the walk right near the hotel. You can pretty much walk to anywhere in downtown Chicago from the hotel.

Chicago Riverwalk

Overall
I was excited to stay at St. Regis Chicago but was somewhat wary about staying there after only being opened for one week, as service is often poor at a hotel’s opening and usually improves after a time. Although all staff was clearly trying to do their best, there were major glitches, the worst being the butler's no-show and the late response from the butler coordinator. I liked the hotel’s modern design but felt the interior, not only of rooms, but the lobby as well, could have had a better and more fitting décor that was less bland. The hotel holds tremendous promise, and it's possible that one could have stayed there and not experienced any service glitches, but that was not our experience. Therefore, I think I’d wait at least a few months before returning to give staff and management time to improve the service.