As many before me have mentioned, this is a great hotel for the convention center - you don't even have to go outside. If the reason for your trip is a convention, then I think it's the best possible choice. I attended a conference in Chicago and stayed at this hotel as well as the Hyatt Regency on Wacker (the Hyatt Regency Chicago). I think of the two the McCormick Place Hyatt is more modern and has probably been more recently updated. The room was very clean, the room design was more current, and the bathroom fixtures were newer. On the other hand, I think the service at this hotel was perhaps not as serene as at the Hyatt on Wacker - I had longer waits to speak with the concierge/front desk at the McCormick Place Hyatt, and I got some "I don't knows" from the front desk in response to questions they should have been able to accommodate. One example was when we inquired regarding the Metra, which is the closest public transportation option to our hotel - they didn't have any schedules on hand and could not tell us anything about using it. Another example - I left an item in my room when I checked out, and one of my colleagues who was still in the room brought it down to be mailed to me and filled out a FedEx slip with my name and address. Due to a lack of communication between the front desk and the packing departments, however, calls to the front desk about my item the next day got a response that they didn't know anything about it. After calling back again, and speaking to shipping, where it turns out my item would have languished until I managed to get connected to someone who knew something about it, they finally took my credit card information and sent my item, which I have since received. I am inclined to attribute some of this confusion to the fact that many people were checking out the day I did, and I had confidence that this issue would eventually be resolved satisfactorily, but I think the front desk could strive to emulate the focus on service that the Hyatt on Wacker demonstrated to me during my stay there.That said, for attending a conference in Chicago I wouldn't stay anywhere else.

I showed up kind of tired at the desk last Friday night and the woman who checked me in somehow intuited that I needed a break. She was a lifesaver... gave me a gorgeous room (2533) which was a corner suite with breathtaking views on three sides. I spent the first night just glued to the windows, enjoying room service with a friend in an equally gorgeous room, and and watched the world go by. I called the desk to thank the womderful agent who gave me this blissful room but she was gone by the time I did it... and now I forget her name. I fell badly about that. She was a fantastic employee, Hyatt. People like this keep me coming back to your properties.

The hotel is like McCormick Place... big, busy and self-contained. I can't say enough about my room, which was truly so lovely that I hated to leave it. I never even went into Chicago! The hotel restaurant was okay... my meal was fair enough although perhaps not quite as good as it could have been. The waiter messed up the order, for example, noticed that he had brought the wrong things, and then walked away without correcting it. That was odd. But this is to quibble when I could go back to the beautiful room and watch the fireworks over the Navy Pier. And the meeting rooms were good, the food at the meetings very high quality, and it was comfortable in every way.

The good: Housekeeping was superb. The clothes I accidently left on the bed were folded and placed on the desk. The hotel connects to the convention center. If you're attending a conference, it's nice to get to the conference in under 5 minutes. The lobby is pretty modern/nice and full of extensive groups of comfortable couches--perfect for doing work or meeting with others.

The bad: the walls are SUPER THIN--my neighbor's 2am shower sounded as if it were from my room. You can hear everything from the hallway--from people closing doors to full conversations. Good thing I'm a sound sleeper! The cable wasn't working for half of my trip (likely due to rain-satellite TV I assume). The fitness center (which isn't as extensive as Hyatt boasts) was completely packed each morning between 7-9am. I couldn't get on any of the bikes, elipticals or treadmills. Finally, the rooms were just okay. Nothing spectacular (great views from the top floors facing north).

The ugly: NOTHING IS INCLUDED and the ammenities are massively expensive. Internet (which has cut out on me 3x since starting this review) is 10 dollars per day; if you want high speed cable internet, it will cost you 15 dollars per day. Drinks at the bar were 11-14 dollars for well drinks, water/soda is 2.50+ tax, and use of a computer or printer at the business center is about 10 dollars. Because nothing is around the hotel (and the surroundings are a bit sketchy), you're really stuck on paying for highly overpriced room service or ordering delivery. When you factor in a high price per night, you can easily expect to pay 300 dollars per night to stay here.

In all, I would recommend this hotel for those who don't care about price and want to stay literally in the convention center. Keep in mind that a taxi here from downtown is 12-15 dollars each way and there is also METRA service and tons of bus service to the convention center. So, if you don't mind 10-20 min travel time, staying at a nicer and cheaper hotel downtown may be your best bet for the money.

Hope this helps!

the hotel and room are clean and new and moden. no question about that.
BUT it's so far!

you end up paying all the money you save on taxis, buses, and trains anyway.

the free shuttle they provide only drops you off in 3 locations. you have to find your own way back. and they dont start running until 11am! who starts their day at 11am!? i ended up paying for taxi rides to downtown and back which ended up being about $20 per trip each way