First off, the Intercontinental Chicago couldn't be in a better location and the hotel itself is an absolute gem; especially the pool. We stayed in the tower and the room was beautifully appointed and relatively large for a city hotel room. After reading about the history of the hotel, I would highly recommend exploring the hotel if you have any interest in early 20th century architecture and design. That said, we had two experiences that were stunningly awful and totally unacceptable for a 4-5 star hotel.
The first incident occurred at check in. It took over 1.5 hours to get our bags to the room. Worse still, we called down to the front desk 30 minutes after we were told our bags would be right up. After being placed on hold, presumably to find our what the delay was, we were told by the front desk that our bags were, "on their way up." After an hour of waiting we called again and were told the exact same thing (i.e. "on their way"). Finally, after an hour and a half of waiting I went down to the lobby to demand my bags. The front desk person that checked me in literally went, "I remember you. You checked in a while ago." I understand that sometimes the bellmen get backed up but don't lie to me about it and leave me sitting in a room for an hour and a half twiddling my fingers.
The second incident occurred on the final night of our stay. A friend dropped us off after dinner and we wanted to invite them up to give them a gift we had brought for them. There were no valets out front and the front desk insisted that our friend would need to pay a $53 parking fee to leave their car out front for 15 minutes. Finally someone offered to watch our friends car for a few minutes but I found the entire situation totally embarrassing and absolutely absurd!
