I live in Chicago and have frequent occasion to recommend hotels to friends and business acquaintances. We recently put up a candidate (and his family) we were recruiting for our company at the Conrad. We had had good luck with this hotel when it was a Le Meridien. It was a disappointment for all concerned as a Conrad. On the plus side, our guests were able to check in early with no problem and they generally liked their room. On the downside... They learned after the fact that all rooms with two beds have no bath tub (only a shower). Our guests moved to a room with a bath tub and found hairs in it, which they had to clean themselves. When the coffee bar had no caffeinated coffee and our guests asked for some, they were told it would be delivered immediately. When they called 30 minutes later the front desk admitted that they had "forgotten." While the concierge and doorman were quite helpful, our guests told us that the front desk personnel were sullen and unresponsive. Our guests were generally under whelmed by one of the "five best hotels in Chicago." Conrad has a long way to go to compete with the Four Seasons, Peninsula and Park Hyatt.
