In town for a business event. The public spaces are great - well laid out, well decorated, well set up. Restaurants (Shula's, Chi-bar) had good food and very good service; ditto the banqueting services. Simultaneous large (200+ people) meetings seemed to run smoothly. An oddity was the absence of a lobby kiosk for printing boarding passes - one had to go downstairs to a cyber cafe, log into a computer as a guest (an option not apparent unless you were told in advance) and go from there.
So why not 4 stars for this aging Sheraton? The room experience was a different story, almost like something out of a bad comedy film. I was on the 34th (top) floor with a killer view but getting and being there was fraught with challenges. Checking in at 7:00 p.m. on a weekday, there were 6 people in line and only a single staffer at Reception. Eventually, two other people appeared wearing "Trainee" badges but they had to double-team their work and their inexperience showed - is it unusual for a Chicago hotel to get people checking in at 7 o'clock in the evening? Got upstairs and the room key would not work initially; that cleared but it still wouldn't open the lounge door. The front desk couldn't get the lounge attendant to answer the phone and open the door from inside, so they sent up a bellman with new keys that worked. Once in the room, the closet door required being held open (weighted and angled so it closed immediately unless held open) and the closet was unlit - other colleagues confirmed this was not unique to my room. Ever try to get dressed/undressed while holding the door open with one elbow or your head or your butt? Annoying! The desk drawer stayed open about 2 inches, because the desk was tilted forward and the drawer would not stay shut. Funny to see but not so funny when it came to using the desk. No electrical outlets visible anywhere in the room except the one on the desk that didn't work, and the one down behind the nightstand (accessible after moving the furniture) was full. Ordered room service which arrived promptly, but the rolling table was tilted in two directions - the soup had trouble staying in the bowl (but it was tasty!) and there was no way to fix the wobble when pressing down to cut with the knife vs. lifting the fork from the plate. The bathroom was designed back when no one in America was taller than 5'10" (I am 6'4"), so the shower came to my chest and the top of the mirror to my eyebrows. Using the hair dryer meant going out into the other room. Like I said, this could all have seemed like a bad comic film but I was there for long business days and just wanted a room that "worked" to sleep, bathe, and dress - maybe management should try spending a night in their hotel in order to notice these "little" things? I've had better experiences in other Chicago hotels that are similarly well located near Michigan Ave. and the River, so will probably not be back to the Sheraton Towers soon.
