My 5th trip to Chicago to meet gals from internet penpal and cruisecritic group. We stayed at the Homewood Suites. After glowing reviews, I decided that luck wasn't on our side. There are 2 elevators servicing the entire hotel. You must go to floor 6 (lobby) before proceeding, then use your room key to get to upper floors. WHY? A person could take the steps to get to you! LOL. Anyway, I spent 15 min in lobby one day at 4pm waiting to get on elevator. They won't allow you to take the steps from the lobby to your room. Absolutely terrible! Half the time, the elevator wasn't working or was malfunctioning.Service was rude at times, Ok at others. One day, the maid did not clean the kitchen or bathroom.Best thing is arrangement with gym next door, Crunches, which is a great gym with many machines and facilities. It's free for guests- don't bother with the "fitness room' at the hotel. Breakfast was free, but we had a huge group of "The Klumps" who saw, ate and conquered the buffet which caused it to close 45 min early. They did the same in the afternoon. Next day, their revival meeting left us with a decent breakfast of eggs, fruit, hash browns, yogurt. Pretty good.Coffee was sometimes not available in lobby. REALLY spotty service! Will NOT stay there again.Dining, first night at Fado's Pub ..Irish with a twist, A "C" rating from Irish pal on fish and chips, but my order...a potato cake w/creole style seafood was great. Too much smoke here, though. Dinner and Smith and Wollensky's was good- terrible potatoes, tho! Great service, the Ahi tuna was great. Pretty expensive. Best meal at Bistro 110 for Sunday brunch- absolutely delicious and superb service. Thai Taste for lunch was good and bountiful. Good deal for the buck. We hit Maggiano's for comfort Italian- pretty mundane, but huge portions and excellent service. I missed the Chinese exhibit at the Field- we were stuck in lines at the aquarium. Bad choice. Service was slow at Midway after the terror threat. However, it was better than O'Hare! This was my first glimpse at millenium Park since it's been finished- it's AWEsome. heard the orchestra do a movie tribute...what great acoustics! Why can't people keep a bit quiet during the mucic? I know it's outdoors, but people walked, screamed, threw things etc the whole time.i guess that's just the way people are nowadays...they can't appreciate good music. Thank you Chicago for a great concert and venue, fireworks at Navy Pier were fun as well.

Were you in the general seating for the concert? I'm thinking of going to the Pritzker Pavilion next week for the Bravo Broadway concert and can't decide if I should pay for the reserved seating or not. I'm thinking it might be quieter in that area. I don't mind paying the money but I don't really want to commit to going in case the weather is bad. On the other hand, I get very irritated with inconsiderate people and it would ruin the experience for me if people are screaming and running around during the concert.

I would suggest you get the tickets! The music was excellent....it literally gave me chills. but if you are in "open seating", forget having those great quiet moments listening to a soloist, etc. Some of the best "Pops" moments I've heard, literally. I am a professional musician and am completely opiniated. They did this splendid rendition of "Victory At Sea" which I used to play in the 60's with my parents' stereo, LOL. All the boppers and slackers were drinking beer, socializing, etc, etc...they hadn't heard the music or could care less. We were in good spots close to the front of the "break". I would have paid lots of dollars to have heard this spectacular concert w/out drunken kids and non-music types falling all over me. Worth the gamble. BTW....what a SPLENDID orchestra and director and facility!!!

Thanks for the advice. We're not musicians but we love good music. I hope this concert is as good as the one you attended. I just came across this by accident when I checked on a website someone recommended here. I'm so glad it's happening one of the days we're going to be there. I'll try for the tickets.

So you stayed at Homewood Suites expecting great service, excellent housekeeping, good food and super amenities?
Homewood Suites is a an economy suite chain.
That's like going to Outback Steakhouse and expecting linen tablecloths and top notch personal waitservice.
And while agree that any business which is interested in creating repeat business needs to do the best it can to make every client happy, the budget constraints at places like Homewood Suites and Comfort Inns and the like will not allow them to be on top of everything all the time, or to hire high quality staff willing to go the extra mile. In the end, at least to some extent, you get what you pay for.

Homewood Suites is not an economy chain, its not luxury, but not targeted at all in the economy segment.

Ted Turner, I don't appreciate your snotty and sarcastic remarks. I post here often and try to be helpful. We were quoted 2 different prices on our room for a 3rd person. We had no food at the buffet in the morning one day. They ran out of almost everything but yogurt. Since the hotel was packed, wouldn't you think they'd expect that? I don't expect luxury, but consistent and polite service isn't too much to expect. They have signs ALL OVER the place saying "We want to rank a 10 on a scale 1-10. If you don't get that here , we want to know" These signs are in the elevator that kept skipping our floor and breaking down. We had 3 per room, yet we had to call housekeeping daily to get extra towels even when we asked politely. We were promised a double room- but it was changed. Wonder why? They were accomodating a family revival meeting. They told us they would charge extra for a rollaway. The service was very inconsistent, and that's being nice. The desk clerk shoved a gym pass at me and said "HERE, don't lose it" when I asked for one. That sort of stuff- an attitude of "who cares?" There were a few who were nice.The best stay I've had in Chicago was at the Omni Suites. Wish we would have chosen that.

Linda,Sorry for your bad stay at Homewood Suites.Wether you pay $300 a night or $60 a night there is no excuse for bad (or rude)service.If you read the post a few places down the people who stayed at the Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica (and they payed booka bucks)also had bad customer service.So it doesn't seem to matter about how much you pay,bad service happens...
To me good service with a not so good room or location is better than bad service with a great room and location!!
Sorry to rattle on but the bottom line is I am more likely go back to a not so great hotel with good service than a
great hotel with bad service.
Hopefully your next trip will be better.
Debbie

Chicgal, the French Onion soup is to DIE for! One prob with the menu....when you go to prix fixe, it lists crab cakes as an entree, when really it is the cakes with poached eggs on top. A major menu snafu since 3 in our group didn't eat eggs! they were very nice and fixed the problem, admitted it was their fault. What great service we had there! I cannot wait to return. The music was excellent, however we sat in the front room where they had Muzak (aaacckkk) piped in and we couldn't really hear the group. I think someone actually forgot to turn it off! So, if you go, ask them to can the canned music. I stood there for 15 min listening to the band and it was fun! Maybe when you make a reservation, ask to beseated by the band. And they don't serve alcohol till 11, even though the buffet opens at 10. Again, it was great food and superb service!!

Yikes, i mistakenly said that Bistro 110 had a buffet....it is a brunch menu, not buffet. Also, forgot to mention that we did the 90 min Architectural Foundation Cruise on the river. I really enjoyed it; some ladies in my group were a little bored at the end and thought it lasted a bit too long. Different strokes, you know. The docent on our trip was a 60ish women who really knew her stuff and was terrific.