V-Flyer

Will be spending 2 nights in Chicago in August. Am torn between Palmer house Hilton and Chicago hilton - start of a road trip and favouring Hilton to try to get some upgrades/free nights towards the end of the holiday. Will have our 10 year old son with us and will book exec floor whichever we choose. Grateful for any views if anyone has recently stayed at either/both.

The only thing I'd look at is location and cost for standard rooms. In my experience of a decade of Diamond status Exec lounge access in the US is an invitation to share the lounge with 75% of the hotel guests, with the added bonus of having to pay for your drinks of an evening.

Hardly surprising given how freely they give away Diamond status.

stay 1 night in each :oD

Could always try the Virgin Hotel there, it's a little on the pricey side (by my standards) but they offer complimentary upgrades/breakfasts based on your level of FC status (if you have any).

gumshoe wrote:Hardly surprising given how freely they give away Diamond status.

Indeed. I see there's yet another status match offer on at the moment. I stopped using my HHonors points / Hilton for trips to the US after a poor experience at the Washington Hilton a few years back.

No Hilton status here, however, I've stayed at the Palmer House Hilton several years ago via VHols (shortly after VS started flying to ORD again). Reasonable location. The hotel itself is a very 'oldie worldie' type hotel that's obviously been there for quite some time and has a lot of history.

From what I can remember the standard room I had was nice. Sorry cannot give you much more detail unfortunately but there was nothing negative about it.

pjh wrote:I see there's yet another status match offer on at the moment.

For months now reception at the Metropole in Brighton has been plastered with notices almost imploring you to status match. IMHO it looks cheap and desperate.

My guess is Hilton are losing out big time to the likes of Expedia & eBookers who are filling their hotels but paying them rock bottom rates, so they're throwing out elite status like confetti in the hope more people will book direct to get the benefits, thus increasing their yield per room.

mitchja wrote:No Hilton status here, however, I've stayed at the Palmer House Hilton several years ago via VHols (shortly after VS started flying to ORD again). Reasonable location. The hotel itself is a very 'oldie worldie' type hotel that's obviously been there for quite some time and has a lot of history.

From what I can remember the standard room I had was nice. Sorry cannot give you much more detail unfortunately but there was nothing negative about it.

James -thanks, we are quite keen on the location - and it does look as if it has a lot of history

Karen w wrote:

mitchja wrote:No Hilton status here, however, I've stayed at the Palmer House Hilton several years ago via VHols (shortly after VS started flying to ORD again). Reasonable location. The hotel itself is a very 'oldie worldie' type hotel that's obviously been there for quite some time and has a lot of history.

From what I can remember the standard room I had was nice. Sorry cannot give you much more detail unfortunately but there was nothing negative about it.

James -thanks, we are quite keen on the location - and it does look as if it has a lot of history

Well for some obscure reason, which was not explained by the tour guide, it's one of the stops on the hop-on/hop off buses!

SlimpyJones wrote:Could always try the Virgin Hotel there, it's a little on the pricey side (by my standards) but they offer complimentary upgrades/breakfasts based on your level of FC status (if you have any).

Don't have any status but have had a look at the website and and very tempted now, especially by the tesla, my son is a bit of a car freak and that would possibly make his holiday. Having said that he is also very excited about flying UC also. He's a tall for his age nearly 10 year old, will the sleep suit drown him? Sorry for going off topic!

Highly recommend the Virgin hotel - can't wait for the one to open in NYC!

We were Gold so booked a Grand Chamber King and got the free upgrade to Grand Chamber Suite; this also meant free breakfast throughout our stay. The breakfast is relatively cheap and good anyway, and certainly not your usual highly priced and tasteless hotel offering.

Any drinks are free in the bar between 7pm & 8pm. I thought it would be house spirits only but they were serving Hendricks and the like. It really is all drinks free.

Nice touch when we arrived as we had filled out their 'The Know' details. This meant food and drinks to our taste awaiting us on arrival.

Some pics below. I should really take pictures before our stuff is strewn everywhere. Bonus points for naming the airline toiletries bag.

Thanks Mike, pics looks great. The reviews seems to be so positive I think I'm sold! Did you get a go in the tesla at all? That's would be the icing on the cake I think for my son as he is car mad and we have promised him a visit to a tesla dealer on the west coast, but a ride in one would be "epic" methinks