Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
I needed for find a use for my credit that comes with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and a staycation in Chicago seemed like the easiest way to use it. The Chicago Athletic Association – The Unbound Collection by Hyatt is one of my favorite hotels in the city. It’s fun, historic, and offers great service and amenities in a location that is convenient for visiting the city on business or for fun.
Anthony’s Take: The Chicago Athletic Association – The Unbound Collection by Hyatt offered us another great stay. Booking this through The Edit by Chase Travel℠ offered a host of benefits on top of those that I would receive from my Globalist status. If you’re looking to visit Chicago and need to be downtown, this hotel in the Loop is hard to beat.
Booking
I booked a Room, 1 Queen Bed room through The Edit by Chase Travel℠ for $155 per night plus taxes. It was the same rate as booking a “Member Rate” on Hyatt.com, but gave me some extra perks. This hotel falls in the Category 5 redemption bucket, which means that a standard room will cost between 17,000 and 23,000 points.
The Edit by Chase Travel℠ offers the following benefits:
- Daily breakfast for two
- $100 property credit
- Room upgrade at check-in (if available)
- Early check-in/late checkout (if available)
- Wi-Fi
- Welcome amenity
A letter was also provided at check-in that outlined the benefits.
Transportation to/from the Hotel
We drove from our home in the West Loop. It took around 10 minutes and I was able to find nearby street parking.
Location
The hotel is located on Michigan Avenue (directly across from Millennium Park and the Art Institute). There are tons of offices, restaurants, and lots of shopping just outside of the hotel.
You enter the hotel through a grand space on Michigan Avenue. There is a Shake Shack in the ground floor lobby.
I loved the staircase. It’s one of tons of architectural details that make this hotel special.
The sports memorabilia also gives a sense of place.
You need to take the elevator up several floors to the hotel’s lobby. These are not the elevators you will take to your room.
One elevator was not working during our stay.
There is a good amount of seating in the lobby. Much of it is taken up by the restaurant that shares the space. Another massive area past reception has pool tables and other games along with a bar.
Check-in
Reception is found near the elevators. We arrived around 5:00 PM and were upgraded to a suite that was ready for us. The agent that assisted me was friendly and explained all of the benefits offered to Globalists along with those that came with my rate. He offered me late checkout (which we did not need) and told us about the upgrade. He then printed my keys and we were on our way.
We were also given two beverage vouchers.
Elevators to the guest rooms are across the lobby and through the room mentioned above with the games. The space was crowded and the lighting was terrible for photos.
The elevator lobby and hallways on our floor were clean and in good repair.
Junior Suite 1 King Bed Madison View (701)
The Chicago Athletic Association – The Unbound Collection by Hyatt has 240 rooms and suites.
The suite opened with a small foyer.
There was a coat rack and mirror near the door.
While this is a junior suite, it is rather large. The bedroom was to the right. It held a king-sized bed, a bench, nightstands, and a window bench. A TV was mounted to the wall near the bed.
I loved the window bench.
A desk split the room.
A welcome amenity was found on it.
There were also some cute vintage-feeling postcards.
The living room area was past the desk. It had a couch, ottomans, and a chair.
A mini-bar was on the wall across.
It held a tea kettle, coffee, tea, condiments, and some snacks and drinks for sale.
The refrigerator was filled with more beverages for sale along with limited space for guest use.
A wardrobe was next to the mini-bar. It held a garment steamer, safe, and a robe.
The bathroom was to the left. It was also quite sizable and had a vanity with two sinks, a toilet, and a glassed-in shower. I loved the subway tiles.
The vanity was spacious.
Bottles of C.O. Bigelow hand wash and lotion were on the counter. There was no bar soap, which is annoying.
The toilet was between the vanity and the shower.
The shower was a decent size with good water pressure and temperature.
More toiletries were on a shelf in the shower.
Another robe was hanging on the wall near the shower.
Dinner
We used the $100 credit for dinner in the lobby restaurant called the Drawing Room. This is the most casual eatery in the hotel (aside from Shake Shack) with two other options: Cindy’s up on the 13th floor and an intimate, eight-seat omakase spot called Midōsuji. This worked fine for us.
We ordered Arnold Palmers to drink.
We started with the Firecracker Shrimp and Stracciatella Toast. Both were pretty tasty.
The mains: Roast Beef Sandwich and Meatball Sandwich were a little small and just meh.
Public Areas & Amenities
The hotel offers the seating outlined above along with the game room and restaurants. It also has a fitness center, event space (that sometimes offers rollerskating), and an ATM.
The ATM was on the ground floor.
The event space is an old gym. I’d like to roller skate here sometime.
The fitness center was on the smaller side, but functional.
There was a good amount of equipment and weights.
I liked that there were Peloton Bikes.
Towels and water were both on offer.
Overall Impression:
The hotel is a great choice in Chicago and one that we will be back to in the future. Hopefully, we have time for breakfast on our next visit.
(Hotel Entrance Image Credit: Hyatt.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
