Amazing Hotel and Reception Location — An Eventective User from Chicago, IL

The Palmer House Hilton is a wonderful venue for any major event, such as a wedding and reception. As we learned while staying there, it is the longest continuously open hotels in the United States and it is one of two ""Grand"" hotels remaining in Chicago. When you walk through the doors and see the opulence and history radiated throughout, you can not help but be impressed. The location of this hotel appealed to us for several reasons. It is one block from the Chicago Elevated Train (el) blue line, so it's a snap to get there from O'Hare Airport (Monroe/Dearborn). The hotel spans nearly an entire city block, with entrances on Monroe, Wabash, and State Streets (there is no entrance from Adams). There are two CVS pharmacies and two 7-11 convenience stores within a block of the hotel, in case you are looking for a store purchase drinks and snacks for your room. The hotel is one block from Michigan Avenue, Millennium Park, Grant Park, and the Art Institute. The public spaces of the hotel are gorgeous, particularly the soaring painted ceiling in the lobby, off which the Lockwood Restaurant and Bar is found. The lobby itself has a bar, surrounded by additional comfortable seating. Potter's Lounge is accessed from the street level, where there is a Starbucks and small shopping arcade (gift shop, shoe store). The hotel has a slightly different configuration as the lobby is on the second level, not the street level, so it is necessary to bring your luggage either up the escalator, elevator, or stairs to check in. However, this is a non-issue because there are bellmen/doormen at both the Wabash Street entrance and the Monroe Street entrance who can help you with luggage (and hail a taxi on your way out). As for the exact wedding venue, The Empire Room at the Palmer House was gorgeous. It is especially nice if you like grand old architecture with elaborate candelabra, gold leaf, etc. We had our reception there: cocktail hour on the balcony overlooking the lobby, sit down dinner and dancing in the Empire Room. The food was very good and it was nice to be able to offer our guests a choice of entree (beef or fish) tableside and thereby forgo having to print food choices on our invitation. The staff did a good job helping me to get personal items (pictures, cake cutter, flutes, table numbers, etc.) in place and alleviating any concerns in that regard. Overall a completely wonderful experience that we would do again and again.

No Better Meeting Venue than the Chicago Hilton — An Eventective User from Homer Glen, Illinois

I had the pleasure of recently holding our web-site staff meeting at the Chicago Hilton and could not be more pleased. Whether it was the beautiful location (only a few minutes walk from Lakeshore drive,) the great attractions in the area, or the wonderful staff of the hotel, overall, it was an extremely pleasant and satisfying stay. Obviously the location one is staying in is important but you need to mix pleasure with business and no one will accommodate you better then the Hilton in Chicago. After our meeting was up, the knowledgeable staff of the hotel directed us to all the ammenities in the area including the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, the Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and many others that were literally walking distance from our stay. The rooms themselves were extremely clean and well maintained. Our meeting area was quite big, with a buffet and a bar waiting for us as we arrived. If there was anything we needed, the Hotel manager helped us out personally and checked back in from time to time to make sure everything was running smoothly and we had all that we needed. Overall, I would definitely have no problem staying there again. My guest and fellow co-workers universally shared the same attitudes as I did and we would love to return. The pricing was very reasonable, considering that hotels in Chicago get booked months in advance and usually cost arm and a leg. It's tough to find any bones to pick here because as stated earlier, everything was pleasant, professional and the surrounding area was absolutely beautiful. A big bonus for us were the small businesses that were in the same building or only a few hundred feet from the actual hotel. Whether it's the restaurants, bicycle/segwuay tours or the hole-in-the-wall bars, it was a breath of fresh air from the previous locations we visited. I would definitely rate this location a 10/10 and recommend it to all serious businessmen.