Gale Chicago

It’s in a great location, and parking nearby in the Hancock tower cost $50 for 24 hours. We could enter and leave the garage as many times as we wanted during that period. Check-in was easy, and the service was very polite. The room was clean and the furniture comfortable, though it ran a bit warm and the AC barely helped. There seems to be only one ice maker in the building, on the second floor.

The room redesign was enjoyable, and reception staff were friendly. We got lucky with an upgrade to a suite because there weren’t enough single rooms ready when we checked in. The stay was very positive, on par with or better than what we’d experienced on past visits. We like this hotel’s location for exploring the neighborhood and Michigan Avenue, and we’ll certainly be back. I do hope we get to enjoy a drink at Drumbar next time. I was excited to see the renovations and booked a short Chicago trip using the grand opening special rate. My partner and I had stayed here several times when it was called the Raffaello. On our last visit, in Summer 2019, the air quality in the room disappointed me. I’d seen a couple of recent reviews describing a rocky reopening, so my expectations were low going in. One issue did come up: as another review elsewhere mentioned, the glass shower partition didn’t keep water from spilling onto the bathroom floor, and that happened in our room too.

The room itself was clean and nice, but the temperature controls didn't seem to do anything. It sat at a sweltering 81 degrees. The mattress was the bigger problem: it was rock hard, and after two nights my back hurt so much I could barely stand. I checked and found it had been put on upside down, even though it can't be flipped and has a large “this side up” tag. I'm in a lot of pain because of this, and I wonder how many other rooms have the same issue. Someone should check the beds.

I felt cheated out of my money and won't be coming back. I could have found a much better hotel or Airbnb nearby if I'd known what the stay would be like. The air conditioning was broken, leaving the room close to 80 degrees the whole time and making it hard to sleep. No refrigerator was provided, and the room design was awkward, especially the bedside lamps that were just exposed bulbs sticking out of the wall. The bed frame board started bending when I sat down. I'm a big guy, but a “quality hotel bed” should hold more than 280 pounds. Our room wasn't cleaned once during the four days. We never saw a housekeeper, and nobody replaced our dirty towels. We had to bag the garbage and leave it by the door, where it sat for most of the stay. When we asked for fresh towels, it took 20-30 minutes for them to arrive. The place looks fancy outside, but it still has labels from the previous hotel. Staff seemed nonexistent, apart from the delayed towel delivery.