We had a wonderful stay at the hotel Essex! This was our first trip since the pandemic and we were quickly put to ease from our very friendly welcome!

The moment we entered the doors, we were quickly greeted by the wonderful staff and they were very helpful. Sanitizers were readily located and the hotel itself is very clean.

The room was beautiful and clean. No concerns there!

The location was fabulous! We walked the majority of our trip and no issues with finding public transport when needed!

This hotel should not carry the le meridien brand. The cost cutting measures from providing the cheapest toiletries to requiring daily in-person request of $15 breakfast voucher PER ROOM, providing daily 1 bottle of water upon request, and no room clean up did not justify the $250 per night hotel rate. I booked the hotel for 2 people for 7 nights and although I don't mind the front desk not recognizing the titanium status, I mind when the room has no slippers and has only 1 bathrobe. Without daily clean up services, I asked for additional conditioner and shower gel through the app. Ended up getting bar soap and shampoo when I returned to the room after a long day of conference. Went down to the lobby to ask for toiletries and breakfast vouchers and received an attitude that I bothered them. The hotel achieved their cost cutting goal because we skipped the breakfast and not asking for the water alongside toiletries. This is my worst experience with a "le meridien" that has a business model on par with super 8 and motel 6. Good luck to the success of the hotel.

Pros:

Staff - The staff was very friendly and generally helpful, albeit with what may be purposely deceitful explanations of platinum benefits and the resort fee benefits.

Location - If you need to be in south loop or near Michigan Ave, this is well located.

Cons:

Rooms - The rooms are tiny and not at all functional for business. The bathrooms are smaller than what is found in budget European hotels.

Toiletries - The hotel was missing standard toiletries. I first checked into a room that had zero shampoo. The next room had only shampoo and hand soap. For a hotel of this class, this is very weak.

In room coffee - I only received one caffeinated coffee pack in my room over 5 nights. I only was replenished with decaf coffee packs/pods. Often I wasn't getting to my room until after midnight and having to leave early in the morning, so I was only able to rectify this issue one day.

In room toilet paper - It was awful industrial-class toilet paper. In my experience Marriott properties typically use the hotel series of Charmin or Cotonnelle, but this was the type you'd find in a public bathroom. It was part of a clear theme that the hotel is generally skimping on soft products.

No iron/laundry bag - Not that big of a deal, but the room has no iron/ironing board and there was no laundry bag.

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In sum, most of the issues are fixable but quite annoying when added up. The general sense of this place is that they cut corners everywhere they can. It was clear it was a lower-class hotel in its previous life and that they upgraded some design features but nothing else. It is not up to par with standard Marriott properties. I have stayed in many other Chicago hotels, and I can affirmatively say there are much better properties to stay at (both Marriott and non-Marriott) for around the same price.