My spouse and I recently stayed at the Conrad Chicago for 4 nights. We were in Chicago for a short vacation, and wanted to ensure that our accomodations would be top notch and were willing to pay for that. The hotel location is very good, but so is the Marriot next door, Hyatt down the street, and Intercontinental across the street. However, on arrival the entire lobby / street entrance was undergoing construction, and you have to walk through a less than appealing maze to get to the actual reception, of course there was no mention of this prior to arrival.
A very bright note of the stay was the concierge service throughout. Nothing less than excellent.
The room itself was unfinished, with receptacle wall plates missing where contractors must have assumed that the curtain was going to hide them. The rooms have large Flat Screen TVs and Bose sound systems as advertised, but to go to all of the trouble, to put the flat screen, etc., in the room, then leave all of the cables, plug in, wires for same in plain view, makes appearance cheap and look "thrown together."
Housekeeping could use improvements - the bathroom was not vacuumed or swept during stay, when the bed is turned down perhaps there is a better place for the bedspread and pillow besides next to the bed on the floor. Maybe closet shelf? No fresh soap in the bathroom - used same small little bar throughout, and bare essentials - shampoo, conditioner, nothing more - definitely not indicative of a high end hotel chain. At night there was one bottle of water placed by the bed when two of us were staying there - cheap?
Check out - receptionist was alone, with a long line up and wait, I asked him if he was understaffed due to the length of wait and check out line up, and no apology, just a flippant response that no he was not understaffed, one person was showing someone a room, and someone was at lunch. I would think staff lunches would be scheduled a little later than noon considering that is checkout time. Definitely did not feel welcome at check out, was not asked how stay was or safe journey or anything. I have been doing extensive travel all over the Middle East, Mediterranean the last year, and wanted a very special experience for my spouse and I now that we are reunited, and this was anything but. I have stayed in many 4 and 5 star hotels, and Conrad Chicago is mediocre at best, and considering the room rate poor value for money.

We decided to stay here because we were attending a wedding in the city. So, we made a little "weekend" of it by staying overnight downtown simple to avoid driving back to the burbs on a holiday weekend. The bed was comfy, bathroom clean and pretty with marble counters, crystal holders with cotton balls etc. It was also very quiet.

The next morning, we walked a few blocks to Dunkin Donuts and noticed plenty of breakfast places (Cosi etc) nearby. It was a great location and pleasant stay. We were in room 815 and had a nice view of the hancock building. The windows open up, if you wanted fresh air or something.

There is some minor construction going on the street level lobby, resulting in walking around some barricades to get to the elevator. It's no inconvenience, nor is there any noise involved. But, the desk on that level is empty (nice photo op for us!) so you check in at the main lobby one floor up.

Checkout was a breeze. They slip the bill under your door at night and you just dial zero the next morning, leaving your key cards in the room. Simple!

Stayed 9 days this year which was long enough to truly assess the hotel.We've stayed at the Burnham & the Drake but the Conrad wins hands-down.The one improvement we noted this year over our week-long stay in '07 was the restaurant; finally they deliver good food AND good service (prices still lofty,though). The one drawback was one of the front desk staff had very poor English skills to the point we had to speak with another desk staffer.We had a terrace suite which consists of the traditional bath,but a bedroom large enough to have a true seating area PLUS a large livingroom PLUS an outdoor terrace measuring about 14x16 feet PLUS a 2-piece powder room. This allowed us to entertain business associates comfortably.Wife appreciated having two sets of closets to stuff with shopping from Michigan Ave,State St & Armitage Ave! The Conrad is not inexpensive & is not all things to all travellers.For a business couple like us though, we'll happily re-book the Conrad.

Only stayed here the one night but what a fantastic hotel - rooms are large and with all the mod cons, staff were brilliant and looked after any need you had.

Concierge was knowledgable and happy to help with anything you needed.

Will definately head back!