Chicago - W City Center or W Lakeshore
 

Lakeshore or Michigan?

All comments welcome.

1D

My first couple stays were at City center and I was impressed. Thought it would be my regular.

because they were sold out on a night I needed three rooms I went to the Lakeshore. I was even more immpressed - awesome hotel, great management who keeps themselves visible and helpful. I now make this my regular stay.

One gripe: The club upstairs is exceptionally rude.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/005583.html

My review is at this link.

Enjoy

I stayed at the City center location for six weeks last year and was treated like a king... upgraded to a beautiful suite and staff was simply marvelous... great parties on week-ends as well... beautiful crowd and great downtown location for business...

Any recent experiences at the W City Center?

I am inclined to enjoy staying at W's in general... Was looking forward to booking the Lakeshore, but it is sold out this weekend.

I read a handful of awful and positive posts re: experiences at this hotel in the past, just wondering what the current state of affairs at this hotel is (and whether I should check out a different hotel). The W Lakeshore and the Westin are sold out... but I could also do the Park Hyatt or Hyatt Regency...

Thanks in advance!

I'm interested in recent City Center reviews as well. I have stayed at the Lakeshore location once this summer and had a good experience, but I might consider City Center if rates are significantly lower as they sometimes appear to be.

I stay at the City Center just about every week. I would highly recommend this property. I can't say anything regarding Lakeshore as I've only eaten at the restaurant (Wave) which was very good.

The staff and management of the City Center will see to your every need. As with just about everything in life, mistakes happen. But when it does if you let them know about it they will do whatever they can to accommodate you.

The only time I wasn't impressed with one of the rooms was when I was put into a handicapped room. There was a mix up which is how I ended up in there. But the nightly gifts from the managers more than made up for the change.

PlatinumFlyer -- thanks for the feedback. I assumed there are many good points about the City Center W...but I do recall the negatives posted here (tiny rooms, etc.). It looks like a good alternative for a downtown hotel. My usual place has been the Westin River North, which usually has about the same rates.

Any suggestions for an upgrade or other tips for this W?

I have stayed at W lakeshore, W City Center, and Westin River North. My experiences have been positive in each one of them.

I find that W Lakeshore has nicer and larger suites than W City Center, and also a nicer view. I agree with PlatinumFlyer that W City Center has great staff and treats Platinum members very well. Westin River North also has larger suites than W City Center.

In any case, these 3 Starwood properties, have treated me well so far. Out of the three, my preference however, is still the W Lakeshore.

Thanks for the feedback... Sounds like the days of doom and gloom are over.

In contrast to my experiences with other chains, I've never found that Starwood problems remain problems for long...

Bump.

Any additional feedback? I'm looking to go for a Friday and Saturday, have lowest level status w/ Starwood. I don't get to Chicago often...which of these two is situated the best for walking around downtown?

City Center is marginally more convenient if you want to explore to the Loop/Miracle Mile, but really, Lakeshore isn't all that far away. I'm not sure that "distance from downtown" should be your primary criteria. In either case, these are great hotels... Have a great time and check out the Art Institute for me (living in Atlanta I can only have museum experiences vicariously) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I stayed at the W city center on a Saturday. Nice rooms and good staff (considering that that weekend all the hotel staffs in Chicago were preparing for a strike).

I also stayed at the Westin Michigan Ave. Got a suite upgrade there. Also a good hotel staff.

With regards to location the W city center struck me a great hotel to stay at during the week if you had business in town. But during the weekend the surrounding area is pretty dead. But it is closer to the museum than the Westin Michigan Ave.

The Westin Michigan Ave is right in the middle of the shopping, restaurants, clubs etc. The surrounding area was very lively on the weekend I stayed there.

I also stayed at the Chicago Fairmont. It was OK but nothing special.

Good points on the city center location. The Lakeshore W is only 2-3 blocks from Michigan Ave. anyway, so if that's where you're going it's a fine location. The Streeterville area is a nice neighborhood in itself, though, so the Lakeshore is good all around IMO.

By the way, I stayed once at that Fairmount you mentioned (on business with a group - not my choice) and was completely underwhelmed given the rates and poor service. The hotel itself was nothing memorable, and the attitude and lack of assistance from several employees during that stay several years ago has stuck with me since. It was the first time I've had a hotel screw up a room reservation for two people (co-workers) who needed two beds...proceeding not only to fail to provide us with the correct room but also to try and charge us for the cot we needed!

Updated to add that I had a superb stay late in 2003 -- my wife and I were fortunate to be here on a quiet weekend so we enjoyed a lot of the platinum perks:

* Despite a very low SPG.com "internet-only" rate, we received an upgrade to a huge suite with two full bathrooms (including a "master" bath with a large tub) and a small but nice parlor room. The front desk staffer offered this without prompting and told me it was one of the property's 2 best rooms. I'll trust him on that one -- it was terrific.
* Staffers were exceptionally helpful and hospitable. Check-in was smooth, quick and very pleasant. The front desk folks were true pros -- the guy I mentioned above called me 20-30 minutes after check-in to see if everything was OK or if we needed anything else for our stay. Even the guy who helped us with bags was friendly and low-key.
* Lobby bar was fine for a nightcap after our dinner out. The area was blissfully smoke-free too. Our chatty bartender told us the "whiskey bar" elsewhere in the hotel is smoky and basically a pretentious hangout for downtowners and guests.
* Gym ("Sweat") is tiny but OK for cardio.

The overall expperience was good, and and the noise was minimal, even considering the proximity to the "'L" (train). This location in/near the city's financial diistriict was a small concern initially, but it was quiet in our room. A lack of noise from hallways and adjoining rooms was another positive, but that could have been the quiet weekend. Not surprisiing, consiidering this is an old building transfoormed intoo a modern hotel, unlike the W Lakeshore, which was OK on two stays last year but clearly shows the type of building it was in previous lives (a 19700s/1980s-era Holiday Inn and Days Inn, according to the staff).

BTW, the City Center's location for "L" travelers can't be beat. It's 2 blocks from a blue-line train plus a quick tunnel walk to a red-line.

Based on this first visit, W City Center will be our choice for the next trip to Chi. I hope it wasn't just an overly good first impression. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif