House Of Blues Disappoints One Traveler

April 11, 2005 at 10:13 AM | by switchcoast | Comment (1)

[Hotel Maven, and current cross country traveler, switchcoast spent the weekend in the Windy City. Unfortunately, he was treated to a terrible hotel experience. Read on.]

The Loews House of Blues has the makings of a remarkable hotel. Unfortunately, my first day here has been hell. Here are the negatives:

· Valet parking $34, but you have in/out privileges

· Our two double bed request was denied because we booked the room on Hotels.com. However, if I wanted a roll away that I could call down at anytime.

· The clerk informed me that I over paid by $40 by booking on hotels.com. Apparently they are now undercutting rates to encourage direct bookings. This makes me not want to stay here.

· Internet access is $9.95 per day and it goes in and out. This I don't get... One star hotels can offer free internet, but HOB can't?

· That rollaway bed never made it up to the room. Millions of excuses, but sadly, never a rollaway bed.

More From The Night Of Blues Post Jump

· This is not the best place to do laundry. We couldn't find a laundromat so we were going to send some things out with the hotel service. That is until we realized that it was going to cost $10.50 for one pair of jeans to be washed. Cruise ships don't charge that much!

· One more note that pertains to other hotels as well. How come people that work at hotels don't know there way around town? I'm not talking about housekeeping... I'm talking about valet's, Bellmen, and clerks. How do these people get to work?

So the hotel isn't all bad. The restaurant, Bin 36 has a decent wine list with reasonable prices. Leave room for dessert because they have great selection of cheeses and the chocolate fondue is incredible.

We also saw a show at the HOB. The security at this place is tighter then the White House. They card everyone, even my Dad! And they frisk you almost to the point of violation. No harm was done and we saw a great show headlined by Katie Todd. If you haven't heard of her, you will soon. Her 3rd CD will be out soon.

Time for some deep dish pizza.

Related Stories:
· House Of Blues Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]

Comment (1)

Return to » House Of Blues Disappoints One Traveler

I used to work there. I'm sure they were sold out of doubles and unfortunately the third party bookings get the boot to a king because on those sites the fine print definitely says there is no guarantee on your room type. This happens at every hotel by the way, I've worked in 5 now. Too bad about the rollaway though, that was most likely some kind of cummunication error.
As for the venue, yeah they card, big deal. Don't you carry an ID?
As for front of house not knowing their way around, well there's a large percentage of people who live miles and miles away from their place of work so they may not know the immediate area like the back of their hand. Chicago's a huge city!
I liked working there. Most people got a kick out of the experience because of the funky decor and the music. Good memories.

HotelChatter

Select a Destination:

Hotel Hell / → All Tags