I recently had to be in Chicago for a couple of nights (and before anyone asks, I got both tested and been traveling for a reason that was exempt from quarantine) and decided to book the Thompson Chicago.

Why? Well I really did Learn to love the Thompson brandto have had good stays at the Thompson Dallas and Thompson Nashville. I didn’t exactly have high hopes for this property, but the price was reasonable and I’m continuing to work on it lifelong globalist status at HyattThat’s why I try to spend money on competitors with Hyatt whenever possible.

Booking the Thompson Chicago

I booked the Thompson Chicago through Hyatt Private. The price was $ 169 a night and I’d get the following perks if I booked through Privé typical globalist perks::

  • Daily rich breakfast for two in the hotel’s own restaurant
  • A $ 75 credit per room per stay
  • A room upgrade for a category was confirmed at the time of booking
  • Early check-in (as early as 9 a.m.) and late check-out (until 4 p.m.), depending on availability
  • A welcome gift and a letter

Well, at least in theory, I should have received these perks, although in retrospect I basically didn’t get any of these perks.

Redeem points at Thompson Chicago

The Thompson Chicago is a World of Hyatt Category 4 property, which means a free night costs 15,000 World of Hyatt points per night (this also means it uses a Category 1-4 Free Night Certificate can).

I value World of Hyatt points are ~ 1.5 cents each, so cash was the better value here.

Thompson Chicago location

The 247-room Thompson is on the Chicago Gold Coast, and I loved the location. The weather was beautiful when I was in Chicago, so it was a great base from which to walk around as it was a short walk from Lake Michigan and not far from lots of great restaurants and shopping (although I didn’t attend either).

Thompson Chicago exterior

Thompson Chicago exterior

Thompson Chicago Check-in & Lobby

The Thompson’s lobby is cute and has a certain character, as I’ve noticed at all of Thompson’s locations. There was a variety of seating options and I was a fan of the design in general.

Thompson Chicago lobby

Thompson Chicago lobby

Thompson Chicago lobby

Thompson Chicago lobby

Thompson Chicago lobby

Also off the lobby was one of the hotel’s restaurants, which was closed and cordoned off. The following picture is the only one I could get of it (I’ve heard good things about the restaurants here).

Thompson Chicago Lobby Restaurant

When I got to the hotel, another person was checked in. It seemed like there was only one receptionist working at a time and it probably took about 10 minutes for the prior check-in to take place a bit of a wait.

The guy who checked me in was friendly and told me I was upgraded to a corner room. I asked about the possibility of upgrading to a Junior Suite as a Globalist member (at least two were still on sale online), even though he claimed Junior Suites were not available. Hmmm.

He explained the restaurants were closed but gave me a room service menu that would be available.

“Great so I can order my globalist breakfast?”
“No, this is being done by a third party, so this is not the case. We will, however, add some bonus points to your account as we cannot offer breakfast.”

In case anyone is wondering about the bonus point situation, it appears that Hyatt has a “breakfast recovery bonus” of 500 points per guest per night. It’s totally ridiculous if you ask me. 500 points are worth ~ $ 7.50 to me, which seems inappropriate compensation for not being offered a full breakfast.

He then raised the $ 75 Hyatt Privé balance on my plan.

“While our restaurants are closed, we have something to eat and drink in the back room that you can use your credit on.”
“Okay, is there a menu or what kind of things do you have?”
“There is no menu, but you can let us know what kind of things you want.”
“Well, what kind of things are we talking about?”
“Well, we have Prosecco and … soft drinks … and snacks.”

I didn’t want to drink unnecessarily, so I basically had to spend $ 75 on soda and junk food. Nice.

Thompson Chicago snack basket

I ended up spending less than $ 15 in total, but literally nobody was at the front desk the morning I checked out so I just left. And then when I received the folio for my stay a few hours later, the charges weren’t removed correctly.

Anyway, here is the letter I received upon check-in.

Thompson Chicago corner room

The Thompson Chicago has 21 floors and I was assigned room 1708 on the 17th floor. By the way, this almost 250 room hotel usually only has two elevators, which doesn’t seem like much. And during my stay one of the elevators was broken so sometimes several parties got on the elevator even though the capacity was limited.

Thompson Chicago hallway

The Thompson felt really naked. For example, downstairs is the table in the hallway when I got off the elevator. Is there usually something there or …?

Thompson Chicago hall table

The corner room I was assigned was 450 square feet so was a decent size and had plenty of natural light. The bathroom was down the hall and then to the right, while the rest of the room was straight ahead.

Thompson Chicago corner room entrance

The room itself was reasonably nice, but definitely the least beautiful of the Thompson hotels I’ve stayed in. The king bed was comfortable and there was a lot of art around the bed.

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room

The rest of the room design felt a little more random to me. I don’t know if the carpet didn’t match the rest of the room, the bland walls or what.

Thompson Chicago corner King Room seating

The room had a couch and chair, a desk with another chair, and an empty mini-fridge.

Thompson Chicago corner King Room seating

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room TV

Thompson Chicago Eckkönig desk

The room had a nice panoramic view as it was a corner room.

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room View

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room View

The bathroom was also a good size with a sink, bathtub, walk-in shower and toilet. It’s pretty rare to see both a walk-in shower and bathtub in a non-suite. So that was cool.

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room Bathroom

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room Shower & Bath

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room Bathtub

Thompson Chicago corner King Room walk-in shower

Thompson Chicago Corner King Room Toilet

The toiletries are from the DS & Durga Bowmakers collection which I really like, minus the bottles (which are very difficult to use).

Thompson Chicago toiletries

There should have been a welcome amenity to booking through the Hyatt Privé, but there wasn’t any. This is a fine example of the hotel’s laziness. Obviously, this is a tough time for the hotel industry and if you want to close all restaurants, that’s fine. But I knew they had drinks and snacks in the back room so it wasn’t like they had nothing to put in my room and pretend it was a convenience. Instead, they chose not to offer what was promised.

Thompson Chicago Gym

The Thompson Chicago’s fitness center is on the fourth floor and I had the opportunity to use it. It was nothing like the gym at Thompson Dallas, but it was perfectly fine and most importantly, there wasn’t anyone using it.

Thompson Chicago Gym

Thompson Chicago Gym

Thompson Chicago Gym

Thompson Chicago Coffee, Room Service, and More

Due to the lack of other services, the Thompson Chicago had free coffee and tea in the lobby from 7:00 am to 11:00 am daily, which was at least a nice touch.

Thompson Chicago free coffee

One morning I decided to order room service from the menu presented to me upon check-in. Room service is provided by butler whom I had never heard of. It’s an interesting concept – think of it as a cross between postmates and room service.

If I understand correctly, Butler essentially works with a lot of hotels in some cities. Then you can easily order food through the website and it will be delivered straight to your room.

This has the advantage over some other grocery delivery services in that they deliver groceries straight to the door of your room with no confusion, so the integration is a bit more seamless.

For what it’s worth the breakfast menu was as follows:

The lunch and dinner menu is as follows:

Below is what the avocado toast and omelette looked like – they were perfectly fine but nothing special.

Thompson Chicago Room Service Breakfast

Bottom line

While I recognize this is a difficult time for the hotel industry, I can’t say I was very impressed with the Thompson Chicago. Physically the hotel is fine – the lobby is cute and the rooms are decent, if not as nice as other Thompsons.

However, together with the Hyatt Carmel HighlandsThis was the most disappointing Hyatt I have stayed at in a while in terms of hotel amenities. Both restaurants in the hotel were closed which is fine. But then there was no breakfast option so I got 500 points per person per night which is really not a fair substitute.

And then I could just spend my $ 75 credit on candy and it didn’t even get off the bill properly because the hotel had so few staff that no one was in the lobby to check out.

Hopefully the situation at this hotel will improve in the coming months, although to be honest I haven’t heard anything amazing about this hotel even before the coronavirus. Hyatt has been disappointing me lately.

If you stayed at the Thompson Chicago how was your experience?

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