Raffaello Hotel
201 E Delaware Place
Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 601-8610
- Nearest Transit:
Chicago (Red)
- Price Range: $$$
11 Reviews for Raffaello Hotel
European styled hotel ... which translates into very tiny bathrooms and elevators. Aside from that, I had no complaints. The staff was friendly and helpful even with a midnight check in. Our room had a King with a separate sitting room with pull out couch. HDTVs in both rooms. The room was clean although the bathroom smelled a little moldy.
Location is right next door to Hancock Building and Water Tower Place. Reasonable rates.
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Business trip, early week, 2 nights.
Great location by shopping, John Hancock, and the Water Tower. Walking distance (15 mins?) to Navy Pier and the park. Boutique style hotel with a nice door staff, uncrowded (though minimal) lobby, friendly staff and a nice smell in the air. Tiny elevator up to room 406 and into my tiny room. I was in the smallest room on the floor (the 06 rooms, avoid if possible) but it did have a rather nice street view versus my coworker who had a larger room but a view of a wall.
Literally enough room for the King bed to have a nightstand on each side, a desk by the window and a tv chest-of-drawers at the foot of the bed with about 3 feet or space around it. My suitcase, though small, took up a lot of the space. Very comfy bed, super fluffy pillows, a nice flat screen tv, a moderate selection of snacks and drinks (no room for leftovers in the fridge). I wasn't sure the in bar set up -- there was full, small bottles (not nips) so I think you may have to commit to your wine or liquor. The air system was not temperature control - either you aim it at hot or cold and hope it lands on something comfortable for you. The walls were kind of thin -- I could hear my neighbors talking at night but it wasn't too bad. The noise in the hallway was much worse - I would not want a room by the elevator area as you can hear everyone in the halls.
The bathroom was tiny but very clean. I had to close the door in order to not straddle the toilet while also sitting slightly sideways so not to cuddle with the towel rack. A nice selection of shampoo, lotion, conditioner and soaps -- some french brand that is usually at small boutique style hotels. There was a thin shelf above the small bowl sink and toilet above the one mirror in the room (no full length, had to use the hallway one!), very tricky to wash your face at night a keep your bath products from falling off. The shower had a pane of glass covering half of it and one of those rain shower heads which always look cool but just aren't that practical. Make sure to wipe up the spray that escapes while showering or else you may slip on the tile or end up with wet socks -- very Euro style and thus sub-par for an American hotel bathroom. Could have also used a working fan to get the steam out of the itty bitty room and avoid the sauna condition a shower left it in.
I didn't order any food or partake in the $15 breakfast. I did refer to the concierge at about 10pm for a blues club reference with no luck. They weren't well versed on the area and I had to randomly call a couple places to find one that was open and not too far away (Blue Chicago on the 500 block of Clark - excellent!).
Catching a cab is not easy. The hotel is right next to a Holiday Inn and the two places compete for taxis in the morning. I ended up walking down to Michigan on Tuesday AM after waiting for almost 10 minutes for the bellman to get a cab.
Overall a nice place. Boutique to the max. It was a last ditch effort to find a place to stay and it was about $250/night and included access to the gym. It was clean, staff was nice and if I had to I'd stay again.
Do not be tempted by the pretty HD TVs and cheapish web rates for the area--it's not worth it in the end. My major complaints with the Raffaello are about the tiny spaces and poor customer service. Let's enumerate them.
I should note that I had a King room, not a suite, so maybe the size issues were just for our type of room, but:
1) Oy vey, the bathroom. The room is so small that the sink is freestanding and not part of a vanity, which would have added horizontal surfaces...so there is just one tiny shelf for the shower products they supply AND your toiletries - not a good thing if you've packed for a few nights. I feel gross knowing that my contact case which is supposed to stay sterile fell to the ground and that the five second rule is a fallacy.
In fact, the bathrooms are so small that they had to put the hairdryer in a pullstring bag and hang it from the towel rack(where your towels are also competing for space) and the smaller washcloths are put on a rack inside the shower!
Then the shower itself, in case you haven't checked out the pics, is only half enclosed, which is weird for an American hotel. Though I didn't start a huge flood it was very weird not to have a full curtain or door. Yes, I realize a full see-through glass door is not exactly privacy-inducing, but it's better than half of one!
2) The whole room was small, with the TV (granted, a nice 32 inch flat screen) less than a foot away from the foot of the bed...I couldn't even roll my small suitcase around the bed and had to push it over the bed to the other side so it wouldn't block the door. Oh, and the elevators are tiny too, but that's not as aggravating.
3) The customer service was POOR on many accounts.
a) One day, we left the hotel around noon and before we did, called the front desk to make sure that our room would still be made up. Then we return late at night only to find the place exactly how we left it, not a single towel replaced or sheet tucked in.
b) The next day, we got some dessert take-out and stopped in the lobby to ask for some silverware - they said they'd send it up to our room....Half an hour later, we had to call down and ask again. So in the instances we asked for help, they ignored us completely.
c) Then, upon checking out, we notice on the bill that they overcharged us $20 or so for items from the mini-bar that we didn't even take! Do not want!!! (Not to mention, space issues also plagued the mini-bar: they stocked it full of so many $4? sodas and vitamin waters that there was not a single inch for us to put our own water or leftovers.)
4) Our first morning in Chicago we made the mistake of eating at the Raffaello. It was 16.95 a person for really paltry food with very little selection too. I'd like to highlight the frozen bagels that you have to toast yourself to make edible, and the lack of water (just juice or coffee). Do yourself a favor, if you do stay here, walk 1 block to 900 N. Michigan and eat at the Oak Tree for brunch.
5) All the pluses turned into minuses...For example, they supply you a DVD player but the power cord does not reach the outlet unless you move it onto the floor. They had wireless internet for $9.99 for 24 hour use, but it literally wouldn't work on my boyfriend's laptop at first.
Two words of advice: Look elsewhere.
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Apparently this place was recently renovated. It needed it. It's hard to compare an old hotel like this to a modern hotel, so maybe I'm being harsh giving it 3 stars. I got a deluxe suite for $329 a night, which was a little less expensive than most of the major hotels in the city during this time of year. It had two rooms, plus a bathroom, plus a little office nook. The rooms were tacky with lime green stucco-spackling whatever on the walls and the couch was uncomfortable. There were two high definition TVs which was cool, except they were super loud when you turned them on and I only got like 40 channels. The coffee on the bar was DISGUSTING. Granted this is to be expected, but the maid never replaced the coffee I drank and the coffee in the lobby wasn't ready until 7AM. I don't get it. If someone is at the front desk all night long, shouldn't the coffee be ready at 6AM??? I think so, but apparently Chicago doesn't get up that early. I also don't think this place has breakfast because I never saw any food and there was no bar ergo no cocktails. The wireless internet completely sucked and went in and out constantly making it a pain in the ass to write my Yelp reviews. The bed was super comfy though. The shower scene was really weird until you figured it out. First it was one of those European style showers that's only half covered with plexiglass and no shower curtain so half the shower is useless and water gets all over the floor. Europeans are against taking long hot showers, which is why they do this. It's supposed to be cold and uncomfortable so you get in and get out. I like hot showers. Then there was the showerhead. Every single knob fell off and there was some hand held thing on a hose which I didn't understand at all (see pic). What am I supposed to stick this up my ass somehow? Completely confusing, it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to turn it on but that shut off the "rainforest showerhead" so I froze my little buns off. Other than that, everything was fine except the elevators were super slow. The help was pretty nice for the most part but I got a little hint of attitude when I checked in and my room wasn't ready at 5 PM. And how is this my fault??? Great location just one block from Michigan Ave.
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I'm a fan. Granted, I got a great rate because I think they have JUST reopened after a remodeling or something and I my company may never pay for me to stay here again when the rates go up. But if I can swing it, I damn well will!
Beautiful decor, my room had probably 600 sq feet and 2 separate rooms, with 2 flat-screen TVs. Service was fine - no problems. Breakfast could have been better but it was still fun to share tables with the eclectic guests over a cup of coffee and the newspaper. When you travel for business, you have to get your kicks somehow!
This cute little boutique hotel truly has it all! I stayed here on a Friday night and it was magnificent. The decor was very elegant, the rooms were cozy and warm with nice modern clean furnishings. The bathroom was spacious with an awesome shower!!! The amenities that the room included were a mini fridge, microwave, and a 32" flat LCD TV.
Location, location, location! This hotel was perfectly situated for our stay. It is only a block from Michigan Avenue, right behind the Hancock Tower, so it was close to all the dining and shopping, and close enough to walk to Rush & Division to party it up.
Our rate here on a Friday night for a room with double beds based on 2 person occupancy, was $125 without taxes. OMG!!! I don't think you can get a room at Holiday Inn at that rate or if you could, why would you? So basically, if a Chevy Nova and a Beemer cost the same thing, what would you pick. Exactly.
If I ever need a place to stay in the city, I would put this place on the top of my list!
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I stayed here while house-hunting from out of state back in 2004.
I wanted to be close to but not in the middle of "touristy" Chicago but needed a place that wasn't too expensive. I found a low price ($99) searching the web and liked the look of the place from what I could see online.
When I got there, they definitely exceeded my expectations. My room was actually a small suite with a separate sitting room and bedroom. Each was about 12' x 15' from what I remember. Although the hotel and its furnishings are showing a bit of wear, the room was clean and comfortable. The front desk staff was courteous and the valet service was excellent.
Bottom line, if this is a good location for you, compare the Raphael's rates to other hotels in the area. If Raphael fits your budget, book it.
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This is where my parents stay when they come to visit. It's right by all the action of Michigan avenue but is a heck of a lot cheaper than other hotels down the street from it (as Skazoo said, you can find online specials for $99/night).
The hotel is very old--smaller elevator, worn carpet in the hallways. That being said, it's clean and cozy. If you're looking for luxurious and brand new---go down the street and stay at one of the other hotels but if you'd rather save money, book the Raphael.
I stayed here during my first trip to Chicago. Very cute & modern, right next door to the legendary John Hancock building. The location is SUPERB, within walking distance to everything! Small bathroom - but nice fixtures - especially the rainfall showerhead.
The price was very good for its location, but I did book this 2 months in advance. Prices were still pretty decent when I checked recently.
There was one lady at the front desk that was really nice, and I swear she was at the front morning, noon and night - every single time we came and left. As for the rest of the staff, ehhhh. They didnt exude the same kindness she did (I wish I didn't forget her name!!).
On Friday morning we woke up to quite a bit of comotion in the adjoining rooms. The hotel is just finishing up a huge renovation project, which I did read about, but we were NOT notified that they were doing work on our floor and we could've at least gotten an advance apology for any disturbances we might run into. So we left to go shopping down Magnificent Mile and had to return to our room because I forgot my wallet - only to find 2 guys in our room working on the TV. My bag was sitting at the bottom of the desk, beneath the TV, so these two workers were hovering over my bag while they work - they should've thrown a towel over my stuff! They justified their presence was to improve our stay by installing the HD wiring so we can have better TV... Sorry, but I don't go on vacation to watch HDTV in my hotel all day. They were nice about it, so I didn't turn into the raving bitch that I normally do. My friend and I felt obligated to talk to the manager, and he too could only justify that the work was to better our stay. He said that if I had the Privacy Please tag hanging on the door they wouldn't come in. But we had to remove the privacy please tag in order for the maid.... so it didn't quite make sense to me. Once again, I didn't turn into a raving bitch because the manager was nice about it (my friend thought he was a pompus ass). So I just let it go - sooo not like me! I didn't want to spoil my vacation by arguing with them, I didn't have the energy!
I will be writing to higher beings about my stay. The least they could do is comp the $4 teeny-tiny Fiji water we took from the fridge.
All in all, very cute, modern hotel. It will be fabulous when the renovation is complete. GREAT LOCATION. One nice front desk lady, I could care less about the rest.
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This smaller European-style hotel is not a bad place, although it is lost in the shuffle amongst the numerous fine properties in Chicago. It has an attractive red brick exterior and a good corner location between Michigan Avenue and the lakefront. The charming rooms are cozy if not luxurious.
We got a great price for this place off of Hotwire in 2004. I think it was 109. It had a great location and not matter where we went in the city there was a train that could bring us back. It was neat to be so close to the Mag Mile. I love small little places like this. The room was old, but to me it reminded me of what Chicago is.
Maybe we should go back there sometime.
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