DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel
300 E. Ohio Street, Chicago
Pros—
• easy to book via their website
• AAA discount
• good location
• quick check-in (middle of the night)
• free cookie!
• upgraded rooms (style/beds)
• accommodating staff
• nice, free shampoo
• soft mattress sheet
Cons—
• preferred room gone within two days
• received smoking rooms, even though we booked non (then given an excuse as to the reason for ashtray presence)
• dirty/stained ceilings and comforters
• un-vacuumed carpet/bathroom floors
• screechy A/C fan (unfixed even after requested)
• soap instead of body wash gel
• dirty hair dryer filter, which died after one use
• missing 'do not disturb' sign
• over-bleached towels (typical...)
• non-working key
Details—
Reservations were easy to make, via the hotel's website, but in a matter of two days, I could no longer book a lake-view/ queen-bed room. I can't imagine they all booked-up that quickly. However, I got a small discount because I'm a AAA member, which reduced the price to match third-party sites (Priceline, Expedia, etc.). Rates were pretty decent, considering the location, too (north part of the city, two blocks from the pier).
Checking in was very quick, due to it being midnight on a Thursday evening. And you get a free, warm chocolate chip cookie, which was VERY good, even one day later.
The rooms were upgraded in style and beds since it became a DoubleTree on top of the Hilton brand, but unfortunately, that doesn't ameliorate the negatives I experienced all weekend.
Firstly, we had requested the highest level, non-smoking rooms... nothing fancy, but they stuck us on the 13th floor (about a third of the way up, street-view of some office building). Once I got in the room, I noticed a huge air filter, which seemed nice at first, but after seeing the ashtray with a book of matches on the nightstand AND bathroom counter, the air filter made sense. My travel buddy noticed the same thing in her room as well. We asked the front desk about it the next day and she said 'come back in two hours to talk to her supervisor; she's pretty sure that entire floor was converted to non-smoking' and asked us if it smelled like smoke. We said no, but what does that matter to someone who IS a smoker, lighting-up at any time of day or night, and it drafting through the hallways under our doors...
We never came back to ask about it, because that was inconvenient to our vacation plans. Anyway, I was beyond caring about the smoking issue, as I only got about 6 hours of restless sleep that first night, due to the A/C fan screeching every 10 minutes (so loudly that even my 1ft-away White Noise Maker couldn't drown it out). If I pushed on it, the noise stopped, so the three hours I was awake, I piled a pillow, my suitcase, and a chair on top of it to try and reduce the noise level. Also, the Nyquil I downed at 1am eventually took-over, so I slept from 4am to 8am. I finally turned off the A/C at 8am and got a couple more hours of warm, uncomfortable 'sleep'.
After we complained about the ashtrays that morning, I asked them to fix the fan as well. The desk chick nodded her head right away and said she'd put in a maintenance order— as if she had heard this problem multiple times. We came back to change/shower before dinner and got ready to leave at 7pm. I had the fan on for over an hour and heard no noise! I was so happy it was fixed. But... yup, right when I was leaving, it started squeaking again... no one had come to fix it, of course. I told the desk guy about it, and he said he'd check into it, and kindly offered me to switch rooms. I agreed, got a new key, and was told I had to switch my crap right away. So I run upstairs, prop open my old door, and go to open the new one (conveniently right across the hall)— the key didn't work. I had to run downstairs again and ask him to fix it. He did, and I ran back upstairs, and quickly threw all my shit (which was spread all over the room/bathroom) into my new room, which had a much better view!
I ended up forgetting my shitty/travel shower-cap, but that was it... at least I could sleep peacefully the second night. But like my old room, the carpet hadn't been vacuumed properly (I stepped on many hard things, bare-footed, ewws!) and there was hair all over the bathroom floor. I even found a pube attached to one of the towels, too... ya, gross!
I will say though, that the sheets were quite soft... though I don't like sheets so I tore them off the down comforter that was clearly not washed, but covered up by two sheets on both sides. The comforter in the first room was stained in many places, and the second one had a big cigarette burn on it. They clearly upgraded the hotel but not the beds... Anyway, I hate down-pillows cause they suction your ear to it and don't provide any neck support, but I didn't bring my pillow. Lesson learned that I can't survive 'just three nights' with crappy hotel stuff.
The second room also had a hair-dryer, as stated on the website, but it was so disgustingly caked with dust in the filters, that I wasn't surprised when it quit working after a few minutes of use. I had to borrow my travel buddy's instead. And this same room also didn't have a 'do not disturb' door sign, so I had to tear off a scrap of paper (of my own, because there was only a pen on the desk) and make my own sign.
So long-story-short, I will NEVER stay in a Hilton or DoubleTree hotel again.
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