My girlfriend and I arrived at the Sutton Place Hotel on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 for her 30th birthday celebration night on the town. The hotel is conveniently located near Rush street downtown and was easy to find. Upon arrival, I opted for the onsite parking ($42/day) with valet service. Check-in went smooth and the room was nice although 10 floors lower than the one promised on the phone. The backside view was mainly of two buildings under construction but we could see the spires from the Sears Tower in the background which was nice.

The room itself was luxurious and spacious and the bathroom was very nice... until you try to take a shower. The water pressure on our floor was trickling at best but I am glad I was able to take a good shower upon arriving before hitting the town.

The next morning, we used the included continental breakfast voucher for room service which arrived in a timely manner. After breakfast, we were going to finish watching our movie, take showers, check out of the hotel and hit the art museum. Just as we were finishing the movie, the cable went out.. every channel. We waited a while and my girlfriend just got in the shower. She mentioned that there was not enough water pressure to make the shower work so after fiddling with it, we got it to work by starting on cold, activating the shower head and then gradually working it back to warm until it hit that sweet spot of luke-warm/showerhead turn-off. Little did I know she was lucky to get a shower to start with. When it came to my turn, there was no hot water at all (no water running through hot spigots in the shower or sink) and yellow water from the cold making us gag just looking at it. The toilet then started running continuously and filling with yellow water. A call down to the front desk at least a half hour into all of this indicated that a transformer was out down the street. I asked if there was anything they could do and they stated that it was out of their control and that there was absolutely nothing that could be done. I would have at least appreciated a call with an update or a late checkout or something - nothing was offered except a quick hang-up. I am not a rude traveler and I usually let the little things slide but not having water for a shower is a pretty big deal for me in a hotel. I am pretty sure I have never had that problem in other, less luxurious hotels - I HAVE had better service at almost ANY other hotel.

So, if you are staying in Chicago for anything important and do not want to be at the mercy of excuses and poor customer service for problems "outside of the hotel's control", try out the Four Points by Sheraton downtown. I stayed there 2 years ago for a week and the service was impeccable. I was kicking myself mid-morning about not revisiting the Sheraton again this time.

We stayed here for a long weekend over Labour Day and had a great time. The location is great, with Morton's Steakhouse about 2 minutes away and The Original Pancake House across the street for breakfast which was delicious - definitely worth the queueing! It was also walking distance to The Hancock Center and Oak Street beach and just a little bit further to the Sears Tower area.

The hotel itself was very nice and modern, staff were friendly and the rooms spacious with large beds and a good shower. I would definitely recommend this a good place to stay in central Chicago.

I recently stayed at the Sutton for 4 nights.

Positives:

-Great location, end of Magnificent Mile, plenty of food options, bars, shops and I felt safe (solo female traveller)
- Clean room with desk, tv, dresser, large clean bathroom
- Heavy curtains made the room dark so it was easy to sleep, the room was also very quiet
- Really friendly door men
- Expedia offered good price

Negatives:
- Staff were a little offhand (query if being a young traveller made a difference??)
- Haphazard housekeeping, 1st morning toiletries were replaced with half empty (ie presumably used by someone else!) bottles and the next day not at all
- Room service and bar staff tended to "hover" over you
- No safe in the room
- Little information about the hotels facilities in the room

all of which tended to just take the glow of any otherwise great stay. I'd still recommend though as these could all be "one offs" vs indicative of the hotel and its staff generally

Staying at the Sutton Place Hotel one of the first weekends right after new years was a perfect start into the new year.

Although it was very very cold in the windy city when we arrived (now I know where this nickname comes from), we were hearty welcomed by Shelby, the doorman. Right after he took care of our luggage, we were able to check in with one of the receptionists at the Sutton. After a quick check-in, we were able to head up to the room to unpack.

After spending some time in the room and enjoying the beautiful view of the city and it didn't matter that we were on the 8th floor, we headed out to enjoy the Gold Coast. Exploring the nice neighbourhood at the beginning, we finally ended up having a very nice (and huge) steak across the street. We called it a
night after a few hours at a club around the corner.

Since the Sutton is just 2 short blocks away from Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, we almost spent the whole day with shopping. After getting back to the hotel and recovering, it was very cold outside, we came to the lobby to see the concierge. Unfortunately, the concierge was not present at that time, but Tristian,one of the receptionists, was able to get us reservations for dinner though. We chose to have italian at the IlMulino's which was outstanding.

On Sunday, we asked for a late departure and there was no problem to get a later check-out. After getting all of our stuff together and doing the express check-out, we were able to head back to the sun, back to California.

In general, this hotel is very nice, the room very clean and accomodating and the staff outstanding and very friendly. The location is just great.
A very recommending hotel for a great price.