My wife and I were excited to visit and shop at Chicago's Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave. We chose the Intercontinental Hotel for it's reputation and location. Man oh man, were we disappointed. The check in was smooth enough even though the hotel was busy and all seemed well. We got ready to go out shopping and went to visit the concierge in the lobby to ask about suggestions and bargains. There were six people in line for her and we had to wait. That was no problem since we weren't on a timetable. When we finally got to her and asked about shopping on the Miracle Mile, she just pointed to the door and said, "It's right out the door." I asked her for suggestions of the best stores for bargains and she rolled her eyes at me saying, "there's no such thing." I couldn't believe her abruptness. We left the concierge stand not wanting to return. Shopping went well and was fun. We returned to our room and wanted to look up a restaurant for the night ourselves rather than ask the concierge. We couldn't find a hotel directory in the room. I called the Housekeeping Department and was told, "we're all out of directories here in the office." I asked if they could check a vacant room for one. She said the hotel was full and there were no vacant rooms. I hung up and thought I would just look for a restaurant in the yellow pages. Guess what? You guessed it, no phone book in the room. I figured we could go get a drink at The Bar, the hotel's 20's themed lounge, and ask the bartender for suggestions. We went to The Bar and there were only three other customers. We sat at the bar and got our drinks. As I was about to ask the bartender for restaurant suggestions, his cell phone rang. He answered it and went to the other end of the bar to talk. Twenty minutes later, he was still on the phone. Tired and hungry, my wife and I went back to our room and ordered a pizza to be delivered from Pizza Hut. Although the hotel is nice enough and the furnishings comfortable, the indifference of the staff will keep me from ever coming back. A big thumbs down to the Intercontinental Chicago. They need to look up the word hospitality in the dictionary.
