I read this review before choosing The Westin River North for our Memorial Day stay downtown Chicago.

There were plenty of negative reviews about this property, but I was hoping for the best. I'm sorry to report that this property is not one I will return to in Chicago

Checked in Saturday a little after noon. Before leaving home an hour before, I checked www.spg.com and there were plenty of rooms available, including standard suites. I also observed that we had been "upgraded" from a standard room to a deluxe room.

Called the hotel on the way, valet parking was USD 39 a night. I knew that the area had plenty of cheap parking, so we ended up in the parking garage
across the street, saved us 20 bucks a night..

The Bell hops were all standing in the lobby talking to the Concierge. I put our luggage on one of the carts outside and rolled it over to the Concierge desk. An embarrassed bell hop took it from there

At the reception, the young woman chuckled when I asked if she had any suites for Plat upgrade. She said I had to pay for suites, their policy was to upgrade to their "spacious" corner rooms. I was offered Plat amenities, but no mention of Club lounge access. I asked and the receptionist made the keys again and told me that the Club lounge was on the 20th floor, breakfast was served till 11AM

Of course our room was not facing the river, it was facing the construction site north of the hotel... It was also not on a Preferred Guest level or Club level, so water was USD5.50 pr. bottle.

I called and got the water comped. We wanted an extra robe so I called to have them send it up. We went to lunch and when we came back the robe had not arrived yet.. It arrived 10 minutes later, so it took them around an hour 15 minutes to deliver the robe..

We went to a rehearsal dinner around 6PM and the bell hops were still nowhere to be found. We walked to the street and caught a cab ourselves.

We came back around 11PM, no turn down service. Thank God it was Memorial day weekend, so there was no work going on at the construction site next door. The next morning we headed up to the Club Lounge for breakfast. They had ran out of Bagels and bread and we had to wait 10 minutes for them to bring it up. The breakfast was Continental at best.. Jelly, cream cheese, yogurt, cereal and fruit, that's it..

Beautiful view of the river from the lounge.

After returning from the wedding late Sunday night, we ordered roomservice. It took 35 minutes. We ordered Mac and Cheese from the kiddie menu, it was so spicy it was uneatable.. (for those who know me, I love spicy food, this was beyond spicy).. The sandwich from the regular menu was ok. We were too tired to complained and just went to bed.

Of course, we skipped the Club Lounge breakfast the next day.

At 11AM we called our bell hops to take our luggage downstairs. (just two bags, but 2 dresses and suits hanging, so hard to carry). We waited 20 minutes, nobody showed up. We just left our room to arrive at an empty lobby with 2 bell hops just hanging around..

At the reception, I made sure the water was not on our check. It wasn't, but it of course showed up on my credit card today...

Just little things that made a huge difference compared to BlissWorld's stay.

So it's back to The Westin on Michigan Avenue for us the next time...