We always appreciate it when Hotel Mavens send us reviews of their recent hotel stays but when a Hotel Maven writes in a review and drops in pictures to the HotelChatter Flickr Pool, well that's a near-perfect storm for us. (Perfect=Plus Video.)
$159 got me a night in a double room at The James, thanks to a promotion via Travel Zoo. It would have been $129, but there were three of us scheduled to have a girls' night in when I booked. A friend ended up getting sick, so it was just me and another gal pal for a chill night of watching our 42" plasma screen tv, marvelling over the threadcount, and fighting over who got the Kiehl's products (I won).
The review continues, with pictures, after the jump.
The Palmer House Hilton'snew restaurant is finally ready, and will open with lunch and dinner service Monday, November 19. While the menu makes it sound like an expense-account paradise, we're considering it now that we've drooled over some food porn shots of Chef Phillip Foss' grub.
The presentation is a lot more artful than we originally suspected, with foams and sauces dabbed and dolloped on entrees like the Surf, Turf and Turf, a plate full of lobster, spare ribs and steak. Also looking good is the Faux Gras. We'll take two, please.
The Palmer House in Chicago gives a discount to its return customers. But there's a catch -- you're only shot at nabbing the deal is if you visited back when the hotel housed WWII vets returning home to their sweeties. One-time guests who visited more than 50 years ago can stay for the price of their original visit as long as they can provide the original receipt.
Last week, 81-year-olds Larry and Mariam Orenstein stayed in the hotel's $1,600-a-night suite for $10 -- the price they paid when they honeymooned in the room in 1947. And actually, they didn't even have to pay the $10 as their grandson Ze graciously paid the bill.
The hotel, which first opened in the 1800s, started offering the deal in 1925. But customers have taken advantage of the offer fewer than 10 times over the last 25 years, said hotel spokesman Ken Price.
Chicago's got a lot of swanky hotels, so when we saw that reviews on TripAdvisor were singing the praises of the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, we had to wonder why. There's so many places to choose from in the Windy City, that this place had to be a reason for being number one.
Turns out? A lot of it's got to do with location--the Water Tower has views of Lake Michigan and sits in the heart of downtown. The decor is standard Sofitel with a hint of European flair. And with 415 rooms, there's enough space for everyone. Plus customer service ranks supreme here too:
My husband and I spent Labor Day weekend at the hotel and from the minute we pulled up to valet (word of caution, it's $40 per day) until we checked out, we were delighted by the experience. We were upgraded to an upper level room that directly faced the Hancock Building...fabulous view!
Wow, it must be that good if you can overlook the $40 parking fee and still love the place.
We know preservationists, hard as they try, can't prevent every teardown that makes way for a new hotel. And we don't believe every single old building should be spared. Yet we feel especially wistful when a teardown involves an old hotel. In this instance, preservationists lost the battle to save the Dana Hotel, built in 1891 as the Erie Hotel.
Before the five-and-a-half story Queen Anne-style building closed in 2005, it had been the longest continually operating hotel building in all Chicago. The River North neighborhood, once in decline, is now prime for development. After some last-ditch efforts to spare the building from the wrecking ball, the hotel was demolished this summer.
Replacing the old Dana Hotel will be the new Dana Hotel. Same name, new look: the 26-story, 216-room property that, judging from the architect's rendering, was no candidate for a "facadomy," which spares the distinctive front wall of a building and incorporates the wall, and the old look, into the new design.
The race amongst luxury hotels to offer the best in-room amenities has just been kicked up a notch.
The Fairmont Chicago hotel has begun offering guests the use of Nespresso coffee machines in all of its 687 guestrooms. If you don't know what Nespresso is, it is one of the greatest coffee and espresso makers ever. We can say that because we own one, although it's an older model and not the cool new ones.
The machine operates off of tiny little capsules of premium coffee or espresso. The capsules come in all different flavors and blends along with a helpful "strong" rating, meaning an 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10) will certainly get you cranking for the day.
Once you have decided which flavor suits you, then you simply plop the capsule into the machine, press a button and out comes a piping hot cup of coffee or espresso. It's that easy.
More about Nespresso from the hotel:
Dubbed, the ultimate coffee experience, Nespresso was recently featured in the Financial Times and their impressive growth model. The Fairmont Chicago is one of the first US hotels to feature the sleek, avant-garde espresso machines as a complimentary in-room premium-quality coffee service.
One more thing--Regular and decaf coffee capsules are complimentary but the espresso choices are part of the mini-bar offerings.
Tweens, Chicago and Radio Disney. Did someone say Pajamarama?
Probably not. But still, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers have come up with an interesting draw to lure families in for the end of the summer: a 90-minute "back to school blowout" bash with Radio Disney.
Similar to the High School Musical package they ran in January, the hotel is running a promo for $179 per night for a family of four ($159 if you stay two nights) for August 24th and 25th and they're calling it a weekend "sleepover party" (hehe.)
Fourth of July is just a week away so in case you are headed to a big city for some fireworks fun, we'll be taking a look at hotels with prime fireworks views. Have a favorite hotel for gawking at bombs bursting in air? Send it our way.
The fireworks in Chi-town are set to go off at the city's Navy Pier at 9pm and a good place to watch the show would be from the Omni Chicago on nearby Michigan Avenue. The all-suite hotel is offering a Definite Stay promotion--which means what it says and requires full prepayment--for $199 a night on July 3 and July 4. Not a bad deal and you know those Omni Hotels, they are soo good for you.
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by juliana
