Bookexp

I have seen a few baseball teams staying at this hotel. If I remember correctly, there was a baseball player passed away at this hotel. If you stay here when there is a team staying, your chance of getting upgrade is slim.

It's a great location. If you get upgraded, the two room suite is huge. If not, the room is small, but typcial in Michaigan Ave. I stayed at Drake next door (more expnesive hotel) and didn't get much bigger room (as a Hilton Diamond) than Westin.

Life_Platinum

Thanks for the help. I'm again at this property next week for 3 nights, and I'll be armed with the printout of this thread!

PDX1K

My wife and I stayed at this Westin last weekend and enjoyed the property quite a bit. It had been several years since I had been there and was glad to see that there had been a fairly extensive renovation to the rooms, hallways, and lobby. I received a extra large "office" room on the SPG floor.

Used a free weekend night awards. All in all we were pleased and will go back again.

PDX1K

fly co to see the yanks

what is an "office" room?

suzy1K

Forgot to mention this earlier ...
there is free wireless access in the lobby

there is a charge if you log on in the rooms via ethernet - maybe $9.95? After I heard "free wireless in the lobby" I stopped paying attention to what the room login cost.

Though I loathe schlepping my laptop & powercord downstairs when I have lots to look up. Sometimes the lobby is just teeming with people (avoid the 2-4 pm check in madness).

wth

If I'm not mistaken it was a Cardinal player (forget his name) and the team was staying at the Executive House on Wacker Drive.

fly co to see the yanks

daryl kile?

deeman

I think the property itself is ok - rooms are not bad and probably better than the sheraton there.

I think the front desk staff and the staff in general is phenomenal - very helpful and always good humored.

TonySCV

I had a good stay there a few months ago. I was * GOld at the time. Room was nice, clean, bed was heavenly, location is great and the help was pleasant. I'd recommend it.

PDX1K

The "office" room had a large desk with a fax machine on it. I think it would also double as a copier. There was also some misc office supplies with the desk. A nice adjustable, long neck work lamp was also on the desk.

PDX1K

blort

Just came across this blurb in an article regarding the sale of the InterContinental Chicago:

"The Westin Michigan Avenue, 909 N. Michigan Ave, was sold last month to JER Partners of McLean, Va., for $137 million, or roughly $180,000 per room."

For comparison, the IC went for $210,000 per room.

Life_Platinum

Friends, I just returned from the Westin after 3 nights at this hotel. I prepared for my stay by printing out the comments that you all have made and went well equippped with knowing what I should expect and what I would be offered.

When I checked in, I was told that I would be given a fantastic king room overlooking the lake. I told them that according you the comments I had heard, especially from "fly co to see the yanks", I would be dissapointed with the room they were offering and that I expected a suite. The desk clerk said he would look, and within a few seconds came up with a suite. I then pointed out that Suzy1K said that she had trouble sleeping because of the "whoosh" from being next to the elevator-he looked a few seconds longer and told me that I would not hear the "whoosh". He then handed me the key to junior suite 2636, and before heading to my suite, I validate that I had my voucher for bottled water that "fly co to see the yanks" did not receive.

Junior suite 2636 was just across from the elevator, and I did not hear the "whoosing" that Suzy1K heard. At first I heard the "whoosing" from the AC, but after I determined it only heated my room, I turned it off. At that time the temperature was 76.4 degrees, so I opened 2 windows and went out to dinner. On return the temp was 76.2 degrees, so I had a restless night. Next morning I complained about the temperature and was told that the heat was turned on, and all I could accomplish by using the A/C was pumping warm air through my room. The staff offered me a couple of choices (a) change my room to a non-suite on the lower floor where it might be cooler, (b) or to use a fan that they would provide for customers who felt too warm. I opted to try again,with the windows open all day, and although the temperature did not significantly change, I again had a restless night with my 2 windows open. Upon arising at 6 AM, I asked for a fan to be delivered which solved the problem for my 3rd night, and I slept relatively well, despite the wind howling through my room and the curtains flying out in the breeze 26 floors above the street. (On a trip down to the lobby, the lady in the next room commented to me that her room was very very warm,and she was quite unhappy. I recommended she open the windows).

I also noted the exercise facility was still under construction. I asked the desk clerk about the sale of the property as noted by others in this thread, and he said the hotel would continue to be operated as a Westin. Although much of the hotel has been revitalized since my last stay, the single outlet- shower in the bathtub did not deliver water with much intensity, but rather like I was standing in the rain.

On the positive side, as others have noted, the front desk staff did their best to please.

Next week and the following week, I will be at the Westin River North, and will let you know what my most recent impressions are with this property.

Although I was dissatisfied because of the heat in the room, I did not ask the hotel for compensation. I did pass out my print-out of this thread on Flyer Talk to the desk clerk, after he had assigned me to my room!

Scott218

Any new updates at the Westin?

MDtR-Chicago

I work next door at the Doubletree. Around the end of February/beginning of March this Westin went through a major IT system upgrade that wasn't a perfect roll-out. I think many of the problems people experienced could have been related to that. I hear they're more up to the form you expect from a *wood these days.

(But that's just what I hear.)

LonLH

After being woken up at 2 am London time by my irate wife and listening to her ranting about Westin Michigan Avenue , I decided to post this since I can not sleep
She is on a biz trip- all her colleagues are staying at the Fairmont, but they were fully booked up by the time she decided to go. The choice was between Ritz and a starwood property, and I told her to stay in a Starwood property since both of us are SPG plats. She usually stays in W Lakeshore, but they had availability problems, so I booked her in Westin Michigan Avenue as it is close to Fairmont (big mistake).
We had pretty ordinary stays with Westins in the US (no upgrades in the last four stays)- she complains that Westin never upgrades her, so I book her an executive suite so that she doesn't crib. And hey, she is SPG Plat after all, so they should look after her well And she might get an upgrade to a better suite too
She lands up yesterday evening at 2000 hrs jet lagged and is told at the time of check-in that she is being given an upgrade- of all things- to a junior suite. She tells them that she booked and is paying for an executive suite, not a junior suite. But no, she is getting a junior suite and that is an upgrade since she booked an executive room!!! She luckily had a printout of the reservation which clearly said 700 sq ft and executive suite and the usual blurb. They run around, came back and say they are upgrading her to a junior suite. She does not want this "upgrade" and just wants her business suite- then she is told that all other suites are gone and this is the only one left.
OK, she checks in, is too jet lagged to figure out how the alarm works and asks for a wake up call for 0700 hours next day which is duly registered. And guess what- no wake up call. She luckily wakes up at 0830 hours, rushes to her meeting which starts at 0830- and when she asks them why she was not woken up at 0700, she is told she never requested a wake up call .
She had landed up in Chicago straight from a business trip in Germany, so has stuff to dry clean. Since she is in a hurry to get to her meeting on time (thanks to the wake up call that never happened), she calls up the house keeping who tells her to keep it outside her door and that they will send somebody immediately to collect it. And when she lands up in the evening just now, she finds the laundry bag happily sitting on her bed. And it won't be ready until tomorrow 0800 hours now even with express laundry and she has nothing clean to wear. And no one knows why it was kept inside the room rather than collected and sent for laundry in the first place
This is gist of what has happened in the past 24 hours of her stay in the hotel- there are two more days to go And I got half an hour of complaint about the customer service from my better half at 0100 hours long distance International. Will keep you posted on customer service, Westin Mich Ave style as I am sure this is only the beginning