As a Chicago resident the past few years, I have had the chance to visit several Chicago hotels. However I never had the opportunity to try to the Park Hyatt Chicago until now.  I landed a good advance rate and used an expiring Confirmed Suite Upgrade to confirm into a Park Suite. The Park Hyatt only has a handful of suites (<10) so landing a suite can be quite difficult at this property.

Hotel location

I took the El down to the Chicago Red Line stop and walked two blocks to the property just off the shopping mecca of Michigan Avenue.  Off to the left of the lobby is a sitting area that I’ve seen before on several Park Hyatt advertising brochures. For whatever reason, the area sat vacant every time I passed through.  Maybe everyone thought it looked too nice to use.

The compact lobby is dominated by darker colors but is absolutely gorgeous. The Park Hyatt brand tends to incorporate thoughtful artwork into their designs and this lobby was an excellent example.

Check-In

I approached the front desk and was greeted by an extremely friendly front desk agent.  The check-in was notably excellent on several accounts.  She was friendly and helpful but most importantly she explained the Diamond benefits clearly and exhaustively including the option of ordering room service breakfast but needing to pay the delivery charge.  I chose the Food and Beverage Diamond Amenity which was a pick-your-own.  She tossed out a few ideas for food and drinks such as Red Wine, White Wine, Champagne, Fruit, Boxed Chocolates, Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate and a few others.  I settled on a bottle of Champagne and the Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate and asked for them to be delivered ASAP. She handed me the keys to Room 601, a Park Suite, and I was on my way.

The room

Immediately upon entering the room there is a second bath to the right and a wetbar with a high quality espresso machine.

A small hallway with illuminated art leads into the living space.

I was immediately impressed with the design on the room.  I loved the colors and choice of furniture.  The space is not especially large but I liked the layout.  I hit my head on that light about 4 times but I still think it looks great.

The artwork is very ‘Chicago’ including prints of the streets and beaches of the city.

The living space was extremely comfortable for sitting and socializing.  The windows actually opened which was fun to listen to the sounds of the busy street below.  It’s worth noting that a major Hospital is very close and it seemed like sirens were going off about every 10 minutes.

The living space lead into the bedroom.  The furniture, artwork and electronics were high quality and the bed was very comfortable.  I find most every Park Hyatt delivers on this respect.

Off the bedroom is a large, long bathroom.  The in-mirror television was a fun novelty.  There was a large soaking tub with salts and candles.

I was expecting to find Le Labo Bergamote 22 bath products but instead the room was supplied with Le Labo Santal 33.  This is actually my third Le Labo ‘number’ as I ran into another one at the Fairmont in Bermuda.  The 22 remains my favorite.

The bathroom had a separate shower and enclosed bathroom.  The enclosed bathroom was uncomfortably tight.

On the whole I enjoyed the design and layout of the room but it was not without its quirks.  All of the doors in the rooms actually connect at the top with magnetic latches but only connect when closed firmly.  Unfortunately the guest bathroom latch must have been broken because the door could not be closed!  You needed to put a towel on the floor to hold the door closed or else it would swing open into the rest of the room.

The Food and Beverage Amenity at the Park Hyatt Chicago is the best I have received from any hotel given that they offered so many great choices.  The bottle of Brut (listed for 70 USD on the menu) was presented beautifully and the strawberries and chocolates were fantastic.

Diamond Breakfast

Complimentary Room Service Breakfast is one of my favorite indulgences in the silly points and miles game.  However, the opportunities remain rare.  I have only been offered the option at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and now the Park Hyatt Chicago.

Interestingly enough, this experience knocked the hotel down a few points in my mind. Before I mention this story I just want to call out that me and my family are not offended by bad service.  In fact in a sick way we actually enjoy it because we get to laugh at it together.

For the Diamond breakfast, we placed an order for two Park Breakfasts which is their standard breakfast offering.  Over the phone, I was methodically walked through all the options for both orders of the extensive Park Breakfast sampler and the agent repeated all of my selections back verbatim.

The doorbell rang and in came the tray of food.  The person delivering the food gave me extremely detailed information about navigating the tray to find the specifics of the order such as where the wheat toast was as opposed to the white.  The fact that he pointed out extremely detailed information gave me the (false) confidence that he examined the rest of the order. He said enjoy, we thanked him and he headed out.

After a few puzzled looks while examining the tray in more detail, we started to wonder if they gave us the wrong order.  The table appears to be set for two but the second entrée was MIA.  In addition, several of the other components of the Park Breakfast as listed were missing including the pastries.

I put in a call letting them know the breakfast was only half delivered but this time the person on the other end of the phone wasn’t apologetic and just wanted me to hurry up and tell her exactly what I still needed. She wasn’t interested in what happened or helping me determine what I still needed.

25 minutes later the rest of the order arrived.  We had requested Decaf coffee the first time around but had lost confidence in whoever checked the previous order so we asked the next person delivering the food for clarification since it was not labeled.  He said, “Yes, I am pretty sure….Ugh,  I think so…. Why, do you feel dizzy?”

Really?! With no idea how to answer that question I thanked him and walked him out while trying to hold back laughter. I can think of several ways to handle a question like that at a luxury hotel, none of which include asking the requestor if they feel dizzy from the caffeination.  That was just silly.

When it was all said and done, the food was quite good with the pastries being a real standout.

Mistakes happen, even at luxury hotels, but the sloppy resolution was a bit of a letdown.

The bottom line

I really enjoyed my stay at the Park Hyatt Chicago and would place this hotel in the upper echelon of Chicago hotels where one can redeem for a room using points.  The design of the property is gorgeous throughout.  I love the Chicago-themed art coupled with the modern yet simple Park Hyatt design.  The service was definitely hit or miss with the front desk agent delivering a perfect check-in experience as opposed to the breakfast situation which became silly and unprofessional at its conclusion.