Far Below Par - from Longstanding Guest
We booked a Gold Floor One Bedroom Suite for two adults and one child. This was to attend the Chicago Bears game. When we checked in, we were told that the Gold Floor was closed. We specifically stay at the Fairmont Chicago for the Gold Floor as it allows us to have extra space for three people and we can wander there frequently. It also allows us to casually take advantage of all of the other benefits (breakfast, appetizers, sodas, a glass of wine, appetizers, desserts) on a moments notice. Frankly, we would have stayed somewhere else had we known. We were told by the clerk at Check-in that we had been told. We had not, and I later reviewed my emails and there was no such notification. And clearly no one called me. The front desk person was not rude about it but was non-apologetic and slightly confrontational. He offered a $100 credit per stay. I advised him that between cost of breakfast and service charges and tips that there was no way that would even pay for our three person breakfast, let alone the other things missed plus the inconvenience. I asked to speak to a Manager and eventually we were called by Tim. I will say that he was very apologetic, offered to be of assistance, acknowledged that they must have failed to notify me and increased the compensation. He did a v ray good job of doing what he could to make things right.
Things did not get better. Room service, which had to replace our Gold Floor lounge experience, was generally a disaster from an ordering perspective. We ordered a bottle of Hampton Water Rose, which was in the menu under White Wine. The person taking the order couldn’t find it and insisted it wasn’t on the menu. We then asked for any bottle of Rose wine. We were told there weren’t any. We then asked for a bottle of white (I can’t recall but believe it was a Sauvignon Blanc). It took awhile for the person to figure out which one but finally did. Then what arrived was a bottle of “J” Schramsberg Sparkling Wine Rose. Nothing close to either of the things we ordered. At that point we gave up. This repeated itself throughout our stay. Almost every order was mixed up or something missing. For dinner, our son ordered a hot dog, which was in the menu. What came was corn dogs. Again, we just ignored it and didn’t complain. But the worst was a side of fruit. My wife ordered a side of fruit and made it clear that our son has an allergy to Blueberries. She stated it multiple times. What came? You guess it a bowl of fruit - melon, blackberries and you guessed it BLUEBERRIES. We just dumped it out. There were also long waits to get anything, which is exactly why we booked the Gold Floor. The one thing I should note though is that the actual food delivery person(s) were excellent. We had the same person for most deliveries. He was very polite, engaged about our stay, appeared to be working hard and diligent, and always can back a short while later to collect things (which does not always happen at most hotels).
There were also minor problem with the rooms. There was no water for the coffee maker. We had to pay for Evian Water to make coffee. This was again a heightened annoyance when we would normally just go to the Gold Floor lounge.
Lastly, when we came back from the Bears game, we stopped to buy a drink from the restaurant/bar downstairs since we couldn’t go to the Gold Floor lounge and had had so much problem with room service. We just wanted to grab something to go like in the Gold Floor. The bartender was rude and unhappy that we were just standing and ordering, despite having done this on multiple other trips. We gave up and just went to our room.
As you can tell from our patience with room service, we are not actually complainers. Other than at check-in, we didn’t complain about anything. We are only doing so because of this survey. What I can tell you is this experience ha seriously damaged my view of Fairmont Chicago and Fairmont overall. I have multiple night stays at two other Fairmonts over the next two weeks. We will see how they compare. But, after having used the Fairmont Chicago as our primary hotel in Chicago for the past sixteen years, it is seriously doubtful that we are coming back.