The lobby of this hotel is historical and beautiful. It's not really a high-class hotel though. The rooms are far from high class. The carpet is dingy and old-looking. The room did not have a coffee maker. I don't think I have ever stayed in a hotel that had a coffee maker. This hotel does have a Starbucks as many hotels do of this type. The rooms are also small. There is little room between the beds and the tv and the bathrooms are small. You wouldn't be able to close the bathroom door if you were sitting on the toilet. You would have to get up so your knees would not hit the door. There was no room to put anything in the bathroom. The bathroom door had peeling paint. The lobby had a lot of people and the ceiling was beautiful. I booked this through hotwire at $79/night ($189.30 with taxes and fees for 2 nights). I asked for a room with two double beds and they said no such rooms were available. They asked if I wanted a rollaway bed for $35/night, and I declined. As with most hotels in Chicago, parking is very expensive, so if you drive in, call some places around and you can get overnight parking at less than half the price of the hotel. The Millenium Park garage is nearby and is much cheaper. The room had virtually no view other than being able to see part of the Jersey Boys sign from a theater.

Both my spouse and I are Hilton Golds, and have stayed at many Hiltons, but we were disappointed with our experience here. We stayed in May for a friend's wedding, but the service was abysmal, and they took the phrase "nickel and dimed" to the extreme. We wanted to check in before 1 pm - a $25 charge. We asked for a room upgrade - another $25 charge, EVEN IF you are a Hilton Platinum or Gold VIP. No coffee maker in the room. Would you like one? $12. Forgot your toothbrush? $5. When I pointed out that every Hilton we have stayed at in the past 2 years has offered these things with no charge, they informed me that "our policy changed."
The ambience: It is an old hotel, and while the historic aspect is nice, what this means is that the rooms are quite small, and there is a potentially a LONG, maze like walk from the elevators to your room. The executive lounge, which you CAN access with your room key if you are a Hilton VIP (even if you are not on the concierge level) was okay. Free coffee, tea, soft drinks. Continental breakfast (pastries, cereal, yogurt, fruit) is served in the morning. They do have happy hour finger foods from 6 pm. Not the most elaborate spread, but not the worst either.

As I mentioned, the service was the worst part of the hotel. I was told when they had checked out that the hotel has 1600+ rooms. Yes, that is 1600+ rooms. No wonder NO ONE EVER ANSWERS the phone. Each time I called to the front desk, I was on the line for literally 2 minutes, with no answer. Once, when someone finally answered, I had been transferred to the Hilton by O'hare Airport!!!!?! WTF??!?! Not only that, but when we checked out, they had charged us $7 for making an outside phone call. The only problem was, we both had cell phones and never used the phone to make an outside phone call! It appears that they actually had the nerve to charge me for the call to the front desk that was somehow misdirected to the O'hare Hilton! And, you shouldn't be surprised that I had to argue with the front desk staff to have the charge removed!

By the way, my friend had booked a large suite, complete with dining room table, etc. and got no service either, so it obviously makes no difference whether you pay a lot of money - they still seem as if they couldn't care less!

We love Hilton, and remain loyal Gold VIPS, but the Palmer House is definitely one to avoid.

I was on a getaway with my 12yr old daughter...Palmer House was a wonderful spot. We were walking distance to the theater and we enjoyed roller blading on Lakeshore...great restuarants around and close to the train,,,would stay again in a heartbeat

We checked in at 8pm, waited in line for a half hour - obviously due to the shorted staff. By 9pm we were in our room (handicapped, but smoking). The wall paper was peeling off the walls and the showerhead was coated with lime. We ordered a pizza from the room, costing $1.50 to use the hotel phone, waited an hour and it never came. By 10 pm, we were exhausted from traveling and starving so we ordered room service and paid $50, twice, for our meal -- 2 cheeseburgers at $12 a piece including a rediculously high gratuity -- AFTER we had spoken with a hotel associate, making it very clear to him that we were going to pay for our room service with cash at check out and not to charge our credit card; he assured me our meal would not be charged to our credit card. Our burgers were ordered a medium well -- they arrived cold and cooked rare, my fiance woke in the morning, spending an hour in the bathroom with a stomach ache. Four days later, our checking account is overdrawn because the hotel withdrew $50 for our disgusting cheeseburgers -- after I had specifically discussed with the hotel associate not to charge our account. At 2am the smoking alarms went off in our room, ripping my fiance and I from our sleep; two and a half hours later, we were awoken again to the sounds of loud screaming and banging on walls and banging through the floor beneath us -- this went on until 6am. When we called the front desk, nobody answered the first two times and then I was placed on hold for 10 minutes. We were not impressed by our stay and were so happy to leave; we finally got a good night's rest at the Marriott in Burr Ridge, Ill. I will never return to the Palmer House again -- I have traveled all over this country and many times to Europe and the Palmer House was the most wretched and stressful stay in a hotel I have ever experienced.