Review of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers in Chicago, Illinois

When planning our recent trip to Chicago, I researched hotels a lot. Hotels in Chicago are all pretty pricey, so I wanted to get the best I could for the price I was willing to pay. Counting parking, I calculated out this hotel to be $1,100 for the 4-night stay which was slightly less than some other hotels on the same area and only a bit higher than some others. Ultimately I choose the Sheraton Chicago because of the location AND the price seemed to be the best. Was it worth it? Well, it was decent, but I would like to try some other hotels on my next visit.

The Price
As stated, the price came out to be around $1100 for the 4 nights, but what did this include? It actually didn't include much more than the room and the free shampoo/body washes. Before I booked I saw that the price for the health club/pool was $12 a person for anyone who wasn't in a club level room. I saw the pool online and it looked really nice, but not nice enough to pay $24 for the two of us to go for a swim. I thought this fee was ridiculous, so we didn't even go see the indoor pool because it just wasn't worth it.

After one day of being there, I wished that our room had a fridge. They had a mini-bar, which we didn't need nor use, so I wish that was a fridge instead. Next time I will definitely book a hotel that has fridges in the room because I could have saved some leftovers and taken them home. There were really no other "extras" included in the hotel, so all we did is sleep there.

The Room
I thought the room was an ok size for 2 people, but it could have been bigger. Most the time when my husband and I have traveled, the king size bed we get is pretty large. I thought the bed in this room was kind of small, and not much larger than our queen size bed at home. The bed wasn't that comfy either. It wasn't that I couldn't sleep, but I did wake up throughout the night, even when I was exhausted. I found it hard to get comfy when my legs were achy from walking. In comparison, we walked around Las Vegas a lot when we visited there, yet I could sleep like a rock every night with my legs feeling great each morning. On this trip, however, my legs would still hurt in the morning even though we did not walk as much as we had walked in Vegas. I blame that on the bed.

There was a couch and table which did allow us a place to sit while we got ready, or watched tv, but nothing special about that. Next to the bed was a desk and chair which was kind of jammed in there. It seemed like that should have been in a different area. The final piece of furniture was the dresser with the flat screen tv. We didn't use the dresser (which contained the mini-bar) at all, but we used the tv during our rest times and it was a nice tv with lots of good channels to keep us busy. Overall, the room was ok, could have been bigger, and could have had a bigger bed.

The Bathroom
I didn't have any real problem with the bathroom. The shower was good enough to get us clean and wash away some aches each day without having anything special about it. I liked the shampoo and shower gels that were left for us. One thing that was nice was that each of these things were replaced as soon as I took them off the little tray, even if they weren't empty. We used the shampoo and left it in the shower, and the next day we had new shampoo AND still had the original in the shower. Of course, I made sure to get as many freebies as I could out of this. Other than that, the bathroom was just fine, no complaints.

The View
We specially requested to face the Lake and be able to see Navy Pier. The view was decent, and we had a clear view of Navy Pier. However, I was not aware of all the buildings that would be in the way. The main reason I wanted to face Navy Pier is so that we could see the fireworks on Wednesday night. Turns out the fireworks were shot off just behind this big building and all I could see was the smoke coming off of them. I had expected to see the whole lake with a clear view - so be aware of that. You'll see the lake and the pier in pieces, but you won't have a clear view of the entire lake all together.

There was one large window for the view, as well as a smaller window by the desk. The smaller window offered a pretty good view as well, but getting into that little space to look out the window was tough due to the desk. I squeezed by, but some people would not be able to. Once again, the desk could have been better placed.

The Cleanliness
I didn't feel like the hotel was dirty, but I also didn't feel like it was spectacularly clean either. I've been in hotels where everything shines and everything looks sparkly clean, but this wasn't one of them. My first complaint is that the cleaning crew seemed to start pretty early, and we could hear them. At 7 or 8 in the morning each day, I awoke hearing doors slammed and cleaning supplies. At first I thought that a lot of people had gotten up early and were just making noise, but then I realized that we must have had a cleaning stop nearby us because we heard them every morning, all morning. On two different days they knocked on our door once to see if we were in there, and then just unlocked the door without like 30 seconds which didn't give us much time to respond. My advice to you would be to leave the Do Not Disturb on your door anytime you are in the room even if you think you'll be out of the room before they get there.

The second day I noticed a stain on the comforter, my husband thinks it was just burned, but either way, I threw that off the bed each day and it turned me off. The sheets and blanket appeared clean so I didn't worry about it too much.

The Location
The main reason I picked this hotel is because I really wanted to be on the Chicago River. There were many hotels on the river, but this one seemed the best based on my research. We were able to walk to the beaches, the parks (Millennium and Grant), the Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier. The most difficult to walk to was the parks just because we had to figure out how to get across the river and ended up walking through a hot underpass for awhile. Everything else was easy to get to. I choose the Chicago River location because it was centralized between all of these things, however if you know you aren't going to go south to the parks, for example, I would choose a more northern hotel.

The Restaurants
This hotel did have a great Java Bar which we visited for breakfast bagels and coffee twice. Apparently that turns into more of a bar during the evenings but we only hit it in the mornings. The prices were a little high - $3 for a bagel is a little much when I can buy a whole pack of them for $5 at home. You are really just paying for the convenience.

We ate at Shula's Steakhouse the first night which was nice but more expensive then I would have thought. My husband and I love J. Alexander's in Michigan and we thought THAT was expensive. However, after going to Shula's, we can say J. Alexander's is not that bad! At Shula's the cheapest steak was $36 for a 16 oz steak with no side. Salmon was $25. We added on a side of asparagus for $8 and my husband got a caeser salad which was also $8. The food was good, but I wouldn't make it a habit to eat at this overpriced place.

Finally, we ate at the Chicago Burger Company on another night which was just ok. It took them forever to wait on us and we were starving. The Veggie Burger I got was pretty good, and huge. My husband enjoyed his burger as well, but we did feel like it was high priced for burgers and fries. I would recommend getting your food to go so you don't have to wait for a server to come to your table.

Conclusion
Would I stay here again? I guess I would if the price is right. However, as long as the price is the same as other hotels in the area, I would like to try some other hotels and hope for something better. The location was key, but I would have liked a more comfortable room and bed. I'm not so much concerned with the view anymore and on my next trip I probably won't worry too much about that. With all the high buildings around, I don't believe any reasonably priced hotel can offer a perfect view, so I won't sweat it. If you find a good deal for the Sheraton Chicago, then give it a try, but don't expect to be blown away. Enjoy!!