Transcript!
Welcome to room 1230, a Deluxe 1-Bedroom suite at The Westin O’Hare hotel. As the name would suggest, it’s located about a mile from Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Rosemont, IL.
The spacious living room features a sitting area with a couch, two armchairs, and a small dining table with two more seats.
On the other side of the room next to the front door is a full wet bar, with coffee and a mini-fridge.
The living room is quite sizable with high ceilings, a 55-inch class TV, and plenty of space to spread out.
The bedroom has a large king-size bed, flanked by generously proportioned nightstands and pleasant lighting. Another large TV shares the same wall as the one in the living room.
The bathroom is large, bright, and well-appointed with a sizable shower and separate water closet (having some bog-standard thin hotel toilet paper).
The vanity is also quite large, with a good variety of amenities. Even bigger still is the tub.
The guest rooms were renovated in 2020, so everything has a clean and contemporary look.
Also in the bathroom is a wardrobe.
Back in the bedroom, the view is nothing special unless you’re into plane spotting, which I am. Depending upon the runway utilization, you might get an up-close view of some A350s and 747s.
I flew into O’Hare directly over the hotel, landing at about 2 PM and getting to the hotel about half an hour later. (It’s only a 5 – 10 minute drive depending on your terminal and traffic, but that includes taxiing and walking to the cab.)
The building was constructed in 1984, with the façade making that seem about right. However, it’s looking clean and well maintained, including the landscaping.
Aside from the room renovations in 2020, according to Chicago’s Daily Herald there was a previous one in 2014 to the tune of $22 million which overhauled the lobby and function spaces as well as adding the Starbucks and redesigning the restaurant. According to a press release from its previous owner (Ashford Hospitality) $14 million was put into refurbishing the rooms, lobby, and most meeting and function space back in 2003. So most of what you see in the common areas of the hotel date back anywhere from 10 to 20 years, though it’s all well-maintained.
The hotel has had a number of owners over its lifetime, now being owned by Westin O’Hare Hotel Company, a subsidiary of Marriott International, and managed directly by Marriott International as well. The Westin brand was acquired by Marriott in 2016 along with the rest of the Starwood portfolio.
The hotel has about 50,000 square feet of event space, and there were two conferences going on during my stay.
(Not that I was there for the Battlestar Galactica convention or anything, because only a huge nerd would bother to go to that thing.)
There’s also a Starbucks and a surprisingly good restaurant off the lobby.
Back upstairs, the corridors are well lit, and done up nice enough, probably from the 2014 reno. (Though the drop ceiling does make it feel a bit like an office.)
The twelfth floor is also home to some hospitality-slash-meeting rooms, so could get a little noisy during the day… and oh wait, my key doesn’t work.
Look, overall I liked this hotel. They have a good hard product, and it’s in a super convenient location if you have an overnight layover or cancelled flight at O’Hare, or whatever you need to do in Rosemont (note that it’s not necessarily convenient to downtown, as that could be 20 minutes to over an hour by car depending on traffic, or around an hour via the Blue Line).
However, the technology and service were a real letdown.
Not sure if this is a Marriott thing or specific to this hotel, but it seems that once you use the Bonvoy app to unlock the door, the system invalidates your keycards. That’s fine in theory, but the NFC interaction with the phone is always slower than the keycard, and sometimes hit-or-miss. So I preferred the cards.
Now that we’re back in the room, let’s look at something good from a technology perspective: The TV was mounted on this attractive wall feature, which had a shelf holding basic hotel info, the remote, phone, and — very conveniently – mains and USB receptacles. The set top box mounted behind the TV also offered easily accessible HDMI ports. Perfect for bringing along your own streaming device, as I’m apt to do.
Despite being very new, the system was slow. Check out the lag when trying to navigate the guide for live TV. However, the system does support Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Pandora. You’ll have to login to your own accounts of course, with the credentials being cleared upon checkout (or if you click that option in the menu).
It also has Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to use the TV as a speaker on the one hand, or you can use your own headphones for the TV’s audio. That’s a great feature if your staying with a partner that goes to bed before you.
No surprise, but there’s also information about the hotel, amenities and etcetera.
One other minor thing: The TV shuts off after a bit over an hour as a power saving measure if you don’t use the hotel-provided remote in that time. Which you wouldn’t if you brought your own Roku, Chromecast, or whatever.
That’s probably not a big deal for most people, though. What will likely be a big deal is that the internet access was some of the worst I’ve seen since the late 2000s.
First, they have a captive portal that forces you to “sign in” to the network. That’s not unusual, but is something I’ve fortunately been seeing less and less of in hotels. Not only does this Westin have one, but it’s an appalling 15 dollars for the standard plan and 18 for premium, per day.
It’s also very vague in that it’s not clear what “1 day” means. It seems obvious at first glance, but if they mean a day of the week, then you’d have to buy internet access twice if you just had a one-night stay. If they mean a 24-hour period, well that might indeed be how they charge, but I got kicked off the network and had to sign back in as frequently as every 6 hours, but always around midnight so that doesn’t really make sense. Or maybe they mean 1 day as in 24 hours from the 3 PM check-in time? Like a “hotel day”?
My point is, they should be clear about exactly how long your 15 or 18 bucks will last, since you’re the one paying.
You can see the standard plan says “11 Up / 11 Down” and the Premium plan says 32. I’d assume that’s in megabits-per-second, but since they don’t specify, I can’t be sure. It could be measured in potato chips or bags of cement.
What I am sure of is that I was told at check-in that as a Bonvoy Gold member I’d receive the Premium plan complimentary, so that’s what I used. But the highest speed I ever achieved in multiple speed tests was just under 11 mbps up and down. So it seems the “32” either doesn’t mean 32 megabits, or it’s a grievous error at best.
To put it in perspective, eleven megabits per second is more than ten times slower than a solid 4G connection on your phone, let along 5G. In fact, back in 1998 my parents got one of the earliest cable modems and it had 10 megabit download speeds. So this hotel is about 27 years behind in internet speeds, is what I’m saying.
Oh, and the kicker is that the connection would drop out for a few seconds to a minute, at least once an hour. I don’t mean the wifi signal would drop, I mean the connectivity at some point between the wifi access point and the internet. That was particularly painful when I was trying to do work over a corporate VPN connection, but it would interrupt video streams as well.
I should note that I tested and experienced these issues across 4 different devices, so it wasn’t just that I had one bad device that freaked out, and it also occurred in the lobby and convention space, so it appears to be systemic and not specific to my room.
Which, to the property’s credit, had its own access point, so the wifi signal was great. It’d be fantastic if it was faster, more reliable, and gratis as with most other modern hotels. Oh and that ripping noise was Velcro, I didn’t break anything.
Sorry to go off on such a tangent with the internet service and pricing, but it was a major impediment to getting work done while I was on the road, and something business travelers should look out for.
Back on the positive side of things is in-room coffee. Some people prefer quality, but in the morning I prefer convenience. The coffee maker is a thoroughly generic hotel-style pod/packet machine, and it was very clean. Regular and decaf basic Lipton tea, and likewise regular and decaf coffee, sweeteners, and powered as well as liquid non-dairy creamers.
There’s also a mini-fridge down below. Slight tangent, but like a lot of hotels they stuck the fridge in an unventilated cabinet. The cabinet gets hot, the fridge can’t get as cold as it otherwise could, and the compressor runs almost constantly. I’ll never understand why this is, and it goes against the ethos of all their energy-saving measures.
It’s also a wet bar, with good water pressure and drainage.
Also on the positive side was the bed; Very comfortable, at a medium level of firmness. The pillows were soft, but not the super floppy kind. Overall, I had a good sleep all four nights I was there.
The bed and linens were very clean under visible light. One oddity was this dark splotch on a pillow. Completely invisible under regular light, and looks like it was done by an iron, so probably nothing of concern. Also normally invisible was this .. collection of spots on the top sheet. No idea.
OK, I know some people do bring blacklights to hotels. I do it just to be thorough in the videos, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. Because it just raises more questions than it answers, like this. It’s next to the nightstand, so someone probably just spilled a drink. But the mind does wander.
Those spots all over the alarm clock is dust, by the way, and I didn’t know until this moment that Formica had authenticity marks on their veneers. This is dust, too, by the way. All along the top of the headboard and up the entire wall.
I’ll take the blacklight to the bathroom shortly, if you really want a good reason not to buy one.
In the meantime, a brief compilation of dust.
[[ DUST COMPILATION ]]
I’ve usually found the remotes and phones to be surprisingly clean under blacklight, and this Westin is no exception. Though I feel compelled to point out that UV light won’t visually expose the existence bacteria or viruses. ((That’s not 100% true, but in this context it’s fair enough.)) So just because something looks clean doesn’t mean that it is. That’s not aimed at this hotel, it’s just a general disclaimer about these kinds of flashlights.
The furniture and door handles were also unremarkable. The spots you see on the handles is just dust, probably left behind by the rag used to clean it. They looked pretty spotless under normal light.
Though, this did not.
[[ TOILET ]]
By the way, I didn’t add that droning noise as a sound effect. It’s apropos, but generated by the bathroom itself.
I don’t understand it myself, but this is the third hotel I stayed in this year that had textured wallpaper around the toilet. Of all the materials you could put there, why textured wallpaper? It’s just an odd choice for hotel designers to make. Ceramic, solid surface composites, or even sealed marble would be so much easier to keep clean and wouldn’t trap bodily fluids and splashback. I’m probably thinking about it too much, so like I said: Don’t buy a blacklight.
On the other hand, the vanity, glasses, and other touchpoints in the bathroom seemed very clean.
Well, except this hair in the sink that I didn’t notice until after I’d used it.
And the bathtub…
[[ BATHTUB INSERT ]]
I mentioned in that other clip that the toilet would run for a couple of seconds from time to time. Well there was also a water pipe running past the room, and something (maybe a malfunctioning ice machine?) was using water on and off like this for the entire 4 nights and days of my stay. The noise cancelling on my phone didn’t pick it up super well, but it was coming from this corner and was really noticeable when the room was quiet.
Surprisingly what was not that noticeable were the planes. Soundproofing was very good, and unless it was a four-engine aircraft like a 747 or A340, they were barely audible. I brought my decibel-o-meter, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
A couple of more things about the bathroom: The shower was a good size, with wall-mounted White Tea washing fluids. The shower valve was well placed outside the reach of the water flow, so you could get it going without getting wet. The linear drain was a modern touch, and there was both a hand shower and rainfall head. Pressure was good, and hot water got there quickly. Top marks.
But did you see those bathrobes? They’re hanging in the perfect spot if you just got out of the shower… except not really because they’re covering the light switch. That doesn’t seem overly silly, except that the lights are on a motion sensor, and they turn off after about an hour. So basically you’ll need to move the bathrobes as soon as you get to the room if you want to use the bathroom lights. Just a weird choice to not hang them by default in the wardrobe just across from the shower.
Oh, and I love that the bathroom has a discreet, indirect nightlight. Great design choice for those of us that may wake up in the middle of the night for a quick pee. The baffling choice is that the nightlight is also on that same motion sensor, so it shuts off while you sleep. I get that it’s an energy-saving thing, but that was contravened by my leaving the much brighter light in the WC on the entire time instead.
On that subject, another weird aspect of the design is the semi-transparent door between the living room and bedroom. Not a big deal for me as a solo traveler, but this is what it’s like with the curtains open in the other room if, for example, your partner gets up before you. (Or you don’t think about it and leave the curtains open on the first night of your stay..)
The thermostat is also on the other side of that door. I found that, with the door closed, the bedroom got much warmer than the living room. If you like a cool sleep, you’d have to turn the thermostat way lower than you’d ordinarily want it to be. Kinda defeats the purpose of their other energy saving measures, as there seemed to be separate air handlers for each room.
Lemme get back to a positive: There were plenty of mains and USB outlets dotted around the rooms. Next to the TVs, and next to each nightstand. In fact, the alarm clock had yet more outlets!
The USB ports were all in good physical condition, and supplied a steady voltage and up to about 2 amps of current. So roughly 10 Watts max. No fast charging capabilities, but fine for topping up your devices overnight.
I’m kinda all over the place here, but let’s go back and take a look at the closet. It’s got a fairly chunky safe, but that shelf means even a small laptop won’t fit. Good quality hangers, and here’s the laundry price list if you’re curious. I didn’t use their laundry service, but it’s great that they offer it. Only a tiny bit of dust on the shelf.
On the subject of closets, here’s the bathroom wardrobe in more detail. There’s a hair dryer in the top drawer. The bottom one contains a book by Holly Bibble, and I guess a transcript of the South Park guys’ play.
Behind the door are more hangers, as well as another laundry bag and order sheet. There’s also an iron and board, the iron being very clean with a dry water tank.
As usual, I measured the room. Marriott sells this room as being 850 square feet, but as best I can figure it’s 775. Not sure where those extra 75 square feet went, but you could probably fit an entire Japanese hotel room in the missing space!
(OK, OK, of course I’m kidding. They’re not all that small. I’ve got a few videos from Fukuoka and Tokyo in the pipeline, which will be out sometime in 2037 given my current release schedule. So please subscribe and all that other YouTube stuff if you’re interested.)
I know my floorplan here may look haphazard (those measurements are in inches, by the way), but I also record the measurements on video in case I think I’ve made a mistake. I double-checked and the size of the room still comes up short.
I believe the hotel only has a couple of rooms of this type. And this possibly-outdated floorplan that I found shows that the suite is basically two standard rooms conjoined. The standard rooms are sold as 400 square feet, which would mean two combined should be 800, not 850. Probably just a mistake on their website, but it always irks me when rooms are sold as larger than they are in reality. That’s the reason I started traveling with a tape measure. (Don’t ask why I travel with a blacklight.)
. . .
This was primarily going to be just a room review, so I didn’t get much footage in the way of common spaces or the food offerings.
I did eat at The Benchmark twice, and the food was shockingly good — beyond my expectations. Excellent, to the point that if you’re staying at a neighboring hotel and the food is just OK, walk over to the Westin for dinner.
There’s not too much else in walking distance anyhow, but I do want to give a quick shoutout to Maharaj The Indian Grill. Well, their website is Maharaj-OHare.com, on Yelp they’re called Maharaj Restaurant and Banquets, and on Google they’re called Maharaj Indian Grill Restaurant & Banquets. So while I’m not 100% sure what it’s called, what is for certain is that the food was great and service was incredibly friendly and welcoming. I also found it to be quite reasonably priced. Regardless of what it’s called, you can find them at 3400 River Road in Franklin Park. Took us 10 minutes to get there in an Uber.
Before I conclude, I want to get back to the Bonvoy app, and something that set off my experience with the hotel on the wrong foot. Though I swear this did not effect my overall attitude towards the property. It’s the embarrassing internet connectivity that did that.
I checked in from the airport using the app. Conveniently, the hotel offers a free airport shuttle and there’s even a “Track Shuttle” option. Which results in a 404.
No big deal, I just got a cab rather than waiting an indeterminate amount of time for the shuttle. My sister flew in around the same time I did, and we met at the hotel. It was about 30 minutes before check-in, and the person at the front desk said they’d call when her room was ready. I mentioned that I’d checked in online (we were under separate reservations), but wanted to find out if I my room was by any chance ready and/or if they needed a card on file or anything. They told me no, and that the app would notify me when I could go up to my room and use the digital key.
Around 3:30 my sister got the call, so we went up to her room to watch some BSG. I was keeping an eye on the app, and by 4:30 I was getting antsy and was refreshing it in case the notification didn’t work. By 5 o’clock, 2 hours after check-in time, I decided to try the front desk again. Turns out my room was ready, and the status in the app hadn’t updated for whatever reason.
They ended up checking me in the normal way, taking my credit card info and giving me a couple of keycards, so the app was utterly pointless from the start. In fact, I’d probably have had my room sooner if I’d just uninstalled it before the trip.
Maybe it was an issue with my phone specifically, but it seems like this hotel was a technology vortex sucking competence into another dimension.
CONCLUSION
This isn’t a bad hotel in totality. It hit most of the three main criteria for any hotel: Safety, comfort, and cleanliness. Well, on that last one it fell a bit short what with the black curly hairs and no shortage of complimentary dust. The complimentary tea, coffee, and bottled water was a plus, though.
The guestroom and its furnishings were practically brand new, being from the 2020 renovation and therefore probably not getting much use for the first year. Everything in the room worked, though with quirks here and there. The bed was comfortable, and the soundproofing was more than adequate for being right next to one of the busiest airports in the world. (Number 9 by passenger volume, according to Wikipedia anyway.)
However, internet access was abysmal. If you have an unlimited data plan, don’t bother with it. Looking on Marriott’s site, it seems like at least the standard plan would be free for all Bonvoy members, so you’re not even forced to pay. But even for free, it was comically slow and frustrating to use. For work, I ended up tethering to my cell phone, and just used the hotel’s internet for streaming and video backup.
The staff members that I spoke to at the hotel were professional and friendly, including the servers at the restaurant and the people liaising with the convention. I also gotta point out that my complaints related to the cleanliness of the room are implicitly aimed at the housekeeping department. But I need to make it clear that I don’t blame that on the specific person that cleaned my room. Yes, they could just be bad at their job, but more than likely it’s a systemic problem. I’d wager it’s more down to management not giving the housekeepers enough time, training, and/or supervision to clean the rooms properly. Though that could also fall on upper management for not allocating sufficient budget.
In any case, I always leave a tip for housekeeping (at least in countries where that’s customary), even if I felt the room wasn’t up to snuff. I suppose it can be up for debate in the comments, but end of the day I don’t know who’s ultimately responsible for a dusty and pube-laden room. I hate to screw over a hard-working housekeeper who’s under bad management, because then they’re twice screwed.
At about $551 per night, the cost seemed reasonable for the size of the suite and it’s convenience to O’Hare. I’d definitely stay in that room again if they upgrade the internet access and up their cleaning game.
As usual, thanks for watching. I hope this look at the Westin O’Hare was helpful if you’re considering a stay. If you just enjoy taking a look at hotels, trains, planes and more, please consider subscribing to the channel.