Four Seasons Chicago

1   Not Recommended
Superior suite
November 12, 2009 by EXPERT

 Map | 3 Reviews | 67% Recommended
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Four Seasons Hotel Chicago
 Map | 3 Reviews | 67% Recommended

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Superior suite

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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Room
Superior suite

Synopsis

My apologies for the delay in the writing this report -- I wanted to give the hotel my feedback first before I wrote anything here. The FS was the last of the 4 hotels I tried out on our trip and was where we stayed for the final 3 nights. I hope you enjoy reading these reports as much I enjoy trying out the hotels and writing them!! While there were a few highlights, unfortunately, I left the hotel quite disappointed, mainly with a lot of service issues. The newly renovated rooms are gorgeous -- so sophisticated and elegant -- but the service, on the whole, fell quite a ways short.

We booked a 3 night stay through my TA on a Preferred Partner 3rd night free rate. The inclusions were lunch credit for $85 once per stay, daily full American breakfast which was good either in the restaurant or through In-Room Dining, a one category upgrade subject to availability and a welcome amenity. We booked a Deluxe Executive Suite and requested for the upgrade to be confirmed in advance. While the hotel could not confirm the upgrade at the time of booking, the hotel was able to confirm our upgrade in late September with the thanks of my TA. We were upgraded to a Superior suite.

The room we booked:  http://www.fourseasons.com/chicagofs...ive_suite.html

The room we were upgraded to:  http://www.fourseasons.com/chicagofs...oom_suite.html

Check In

We initially arrived early in the morning (on the Park Hyatt house car), dropped off our luggage and then ran off to our Conference. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon (by foot) and proceeded upstairs to the Lobby for check-in. Upstairs we were checked in by a Trainee who did a fairly good job. There were a few items he missed, most notably, the fact that we had already been pre-registered so there was no need for us to sign any papers and to give us our letter with our Preferred Partner amenities. We were assured that the luggage which the Ritz-Carlton Chicago had sent over for us, plus the luggage we dropped off in the morning, were in our room waiting for us. We were then shown to the elevator where we made our own way to our room.

Room

Our room was a Superior suite which is a corner suite on the 36th floor with views towards the lake from the bedroom and one bank of windows in the living room and of the city towards Rush Street from the other bank of windows.

The room is about 800-850 sq ft (75-80 sq m)(I think the square footage listed on the FS website is incorrect -- the suite is much larger than 650 sq ft) and features a full marble bathroom off the bedroom and a 3/4 bath (toilet, vanity, and shower stall) off the main foyer. The living room features a dining table for 4 and a large l-shaped sectional sofa. As per my request, a fax machine was placed in the room with a dedicated number on a complimentary basis. A bottle of Voss still water and a fruit plate were waiting for us in the room with a handwritten note from Denise Flanders, the GM of the property.

The décor is very glamorous, very chic, and elegant -- it felt as if you were in a million dollar apartment. Pierre Yves Rochon did a great job as the room did not feel too formal either -- the room was still very comfortable. The room is configured so that the bedroom also has a separate entrance and the outer doors could be closed off to make a 2 BR suite when you include the adjacent room. The bedroom is connected to the living room with dual doors (one on the LR side, one on the BR side) which are opened up when the rooms are sold as a suite.

The bathrooms used very classical marble but the way the marble was used led to a contemporary application. The marble was cut into longer and thinner version of subway tiles which made it look more contemporary. The powder room off the foyer had the shower and toilet separated from the vanity by a sliding frosted glass door. The masterbath was tub only but had glass doors installed to make for a quasi-shower stall. The showerheads were either not the usual FS ones, or, there were some water pressure issues as it did not leave us feeling we had an invigorating shower. We received the small bottles of Bulgari White Tea toiletries in both bathrooms.

I was disappointed with the TVs in the suites -- there were either 26" or at most 32" units. Comparing with the screen we have at home, I think they are 26" units. I was also disappointed with the bed -- while most rooms at the FS have Stearns & Foster beds, not all of them do. Ours did not -- we had a single coil-when-the-one-person-on-one-side-of-the-bed-moves-so-does-the-other-person type Omaha mattress.

I really liked the HVAC controls and the AC unit, while running, was quite quiet. However, whenever it turned on or off, it made a very large clicking noise which can be enough to wake a light sleeper up. There were separate controls for the bedroom and living room.

The photos on the FS website capture very accurately the feel of these rooms. Our room featured a crystal chandelier over the dining table which was the key piece in making our room, IMHO, so elegant and chic.  

Service

In a nutshell, it was death by a thousand paper cuts. Where to start..... I think the most glaring thing I noticed is that the Front Desk and Concierge staff completely lacked the friendliness and warmth one would expect at typical FS property. The Front Desk staff were pretty brusque, almost bordering on rude, and often times the interactions I had with them made me wonder if I was in a "W" Hotel as opposed to the Four Seasons. Very rarely was my name used -- even when they had my room file up on their screen. The staff were young -- they most certainly need a lot more polish. The Concierge staff had the air of being so busy it was a terribly imposition to ask them any questions. The small things -- like when the Concierge is on the phone on hold to greet the guest and ask them for to wait for a minute or call upon another member of staff to assist would have gone a long way. Many a time, while the Concierge was on hold on the phone, we would not be even acknowledged. This was evident throughout most of the hotel -- we would pass by Managers and Housekeepers upstairs but none would greet you or even acknowledge you with even a nod.

The Housekeeping was a mixed bag also. On the first night I hung the form for the free newspaper on my door requesting a different specific newspaper on each night of the stay. On the first morning I requested the Wall Street Journal; the second morning the Chicago Tribune; and the final morning the Sunday NYT. I received all 3 papers the first morning but then received the WSJ the 2nd morning and the Tribune on the 3rd morning. Is this enough to break a stay, no. Is this what one expects of FS? No.

For the evening turndown, one night we received L'Occitane amenities in both bathrooms. The next evening, we received nothing. The final evening one bathroom was stocked with Bulgari and other with a single L'Occitane soap. The complimentary shoe shine returned my shoes virtually the same way I sent them out. Although it is in my profile, I did not receive the complimentary bottles of water at turndown. However, to be fair, on the 2nd night we asked Housekeeping to set up the sofabed and on the third night when we returned from a disastrous meal at Charlie Trotters (I will post a separate review in the Chicago Forum in the next while) the sofabed was prepared.

Housekeeping was at times too efficient in cleaning up the room discarding items of ours we still needed. Glasses were removed efficiently but never re-stocked. One pet peeve of luxury hotels overall is that when one receives a complimentary amenity like a fruit plate, the often clear away the plates, napkin and cutlery after one use but never replace them. Thus, if I eat one orange during the day, by the time I return after turndown, the plate(s) and cutlery are gone leaving you with nothing to eat the other fruit with.

I thought the doorstaff were severely understaffed relying heavily on the contract employees of the Residences at 900 North Michigan. These contract employees, mainly the valets, were quite rude and obnoxious. 

There were highlights to the stay, most notably in the F&B department. Christian, the F&B Director, did his utmost make us feel welcome, and ensured we were very well looked after. I sincerely feel he went WAY above and beyond to accomplish that task. I have ensured to pass along this feedback also to the Management of the hotel.

I ordered the Japanese breakfast again while at the FS it was evident the feedback I gave at the RC had already been implemented at the FS. Theonsen egg now came in a dashi broth (though on the first morning the broth was a little thin), the rice came nicely presented, and the fish was still cooked to perfection. Our sprouted wheat toast appeared every morning and the quality of breakfast was very strong.

We were able to meet with Executive Chef Kevin Hickey and got to try his newest creation: a house-made hot dog (he makes and cooks it in house). He explained how he makes it and was very curious to know what we thought of it as we were going to Portillo's for lunch that day. He gave us a lot of restaurant advice and encouraged us to contact him for anything regarding food. That afternoon, upon return to the hotel from Portillo's, we tried the hot dog, in a poppyseed bun with celery salt, mustard, tomatos and sport peppers. It was accompanied by home style fries. It was a very sophisticated gourmet experience -- while Portillo's is more like a ballpark dog, the FS version teases different aspects of the palate and offers a much more refined experience. One is great at Wrigley Field; the other great with wine and friends.

The hotel also serve Julius Meinl coffee which is one of my absolute favourites. Every time I am in Vienna I go to the Meinl store to stock up. Conveniently, there are 2 Meinl stores in the Chicago area but appeared quite far from the Mag Mile area. The cappuccino's are awesome and Michiel, one of the Managers, ensured we got the perfect cup each time.

Overall

Thus, in the end, I felt we had a good but disappointing stay overall. There certainly were highlights but I left feeling a little underwhelmed. I have tried my best to evaluate the FS on its own merits and to compare it with other Four Seasons and luxury hotel stays and NOT to compare it directly with the Ritz Carlton stay. However, being human, this is impossible to do. I think if I were to compare it to the RC, the FS in Chicago would fare FAR worse.

I have communicated my thoughts to hotel management and they are looking forward to my return to prove me wrong. I hope they do as it is a gorgeous hotel with gorgeous rooms -- the service needs to be kicked up a lot more.

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