IL Chicago Conrad Hilton NMA Options

[Suburbanite05]

We booked this hotel for 1 night for our anniversary, a Friday night. Stay was May 9, 2008. Hotel was booked through Priceline with a winning bid of $119, with taxes/fees = $145.21. We stayed in room 1131.

Rated 4 star hotel. Very Nice hotel. Located near beginning of Magnificent mile/Michigan Ave. Just a couple minutes from the river. The entrance on Rush street is the main entrance. There is also an entrance off Michigan Avenue but it is shared with North Bridge Mall. The elevator to the hotel is to the left of Nordstrom on the main level off the Michigan Ave entrance. The hotel is on the 5th floor of this building along with the main lobby. Levels 1-4 are for shopping.

Checkin was uneventful with our priceline reservation. I was asked if we wanted to upgrade our room. I declined – more on this later. Standard room with king size bed was clean, everything was in good repair, nice paintings/framed photos, neutral painted walls, no worn furniture, bed was comfortable, clean sheets, quiet at night. Tub and shower worked well. Nothing to complain about. Awesome large-screen tv on the wall. There are 2 remotes for the tv – one to turn it on and the other to turn on the Bose surround sound system to hear it.

Refridgerator has refreshements/snacks for sale. Really no room for anything you want to put in there. Warning label states if you remove anything you will be instantly charged.

The room has wine glasses, which was a nice surprise, since I brought a bottle of wine with me, and I used the corkscrew in the room to open the bottle.

Hotel has a nice looking bar and attached restaurant both of which we didn’t use. Besides, there are many great places to eat nearby which would be cheaper than the hotel. Nice separate seating area next to the bar with a piano. The outdoor deck was not yet ready and the weather is still a little cool/cold for May.

We took a taxi to Geha’s Café for dinner which is a fondue restaurant. For Saturday morning, I walked to Tempo Café ( 6 East Chestnut / Corner of Chestnut and State street ) which was about a 10-15 min walk. It’s a nice place for breakfast. Ordered takeout to bring back to hotel - spent $26 for waffles/strawberries; 3 eggs which came with hashbrowns, bacon and toast; 2 freshly squeezed orange juices. The hotel restaurant’s breakfast menu is outrageously expensive.

We shopped for about 1.5 hours Saturday morning on Michigan Ave. before we checked out at 11:30am. I should have asked about the upgrade at checkin since it was for our anniversary but I didn’t and this troubled me. So I asked about it at checkout. The receptionist told me they do upgrade your room if you want but you have to pay for the difference in price. However, if it is “slow” they might upgrade for a special occasion or if you want to try a different category of room for free – but it’s their discretion. Live and learn. The hotel did seem a little slow.? I’ll definitely ask next time.

Great hotel. No complaints. I would stay here again but only if we won it through priceline for a weekend getaway for us parents married with children. Use the difference in money for shopping and eating/drinking.

As for parking – we drove in from the suburbs. I parked at the Millenium park garages, specifically the East Monroe Garage – for $20 per 24 hours (best deal around for overnight parking. some hotels charge $40+). Park near the Randolf street exits. I only noticed escalators going up. I had to take the stairs going down. I did not see and down escalators. Walk to the hotel from here is about 15-20 mins in decent weather with light luggage which we did with 1 roll-along. I would say it’s about a 1 mile walk.

Will try to post some photos and possibly a link to some video I recorded.

[Suburbanite05]

Photos and video. Seem to have trouble registering for Hotel Photos section/tab.
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cum-grano-sal...57605004761580/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-jEbkxXr4

[cztravellover]

We stayed at the Conrad Hilton Chicago August 12-16, 2008. The hotel was fabulous. One entrance is on Rush Street and the other entrance is on Michigan Ave. in the heart of the retail district of the Magnificent Mile. We were on the 12th floor (the hotel sits atop a high end shopping center and the lobby is on the 5th floor) and our room was pure luxury and the service excellent. We did not eat at the hotel due to prices but went to Carmine's on Rush Street (a short taxi ride in the evening) and to the West Egg a few blocks from the hotel for breakfast. The West Egg is good food at reasonable prices and Carnine's provides a fun Rush Street experience at reasonable prices.

The hotel has a large plasma TV in every room and the shower could fit 4 people. I asked about a room with a view of the city but they said it would be $40 extra per night. I decided to put that towards dinners instead. When I got home I realized I left a few small items of clothing in the dresser drawer. I called the hotel and they sent them to me right away by Fedex at no charge. I paid $145.00 on Hotwire which I booked through the link on this site. Hotwire did not disappoint. The Conrad Hilton in Chicago was a five star hotel at a three star price.

One more note - you can try to get tickets to the shows for $25.00 the day of the show but we learned that you need to start lining up at the theatre at 7am the day of the show. We found this out when we inquired about Jersey Boys at the Bank of America theatre (formally the LaSalle theatre).