Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel Reviews

We book the Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel for our wedding ceremony and wedding block just a mere 3 months before the wedding day after needing a venue change last-minute. Christine and the team at the Renaissance could not have been more accommodating! They made us feel at ease, which was hard to do during a stressful time. We hosted welcome cocktails before the ceremony in their "urban blue" room which was a spectacular experience for guests. The Renaissance even created a custom signature cocktail for us to serve, which was delicious! We then hosted the ceremony in "looking glass" which turned out beatiful. All of our guests who stayed at the block also had very nice things to say! It was a wonderful day, thanks to the Renaissance team!

The team at the Renaissance was amazing! Starting with our event coordinator, every person we interacted with went above and beyond to make sure we had the most perfect weekend.

The space is beautiful; starting with an elegant, interesting venue saved us time and energy on decorating and florals.

Can not recommend the Renaissance enough as a wedding venue!

My husband and I live in Chicago, so when it came time to reserve a room block for our wedding we were in uncharted territory...we'd never booked a hotel room in Chicago before! We priced shopped the rates, compared locations for convenience, and narrowed it down to the Renaissance and a few others. We went on a fun date night where we went on a little hotel-bar-pub-crawl, and we absolutely fell in LOVE with the Renaissance! The chic, modern, urban vibe was exactly what we wanted for our guests. The rooms are gorgeous w/ great views, and the location being within 2 blocks of every CTA train line can't be beat. Our Group Housing Coordinator (Gloria Pol) was fantastic to work with and their online planning portal allowed us to get a full report on all guest reservations on demand. We had a TON of guests coming in from all over the world and they were very generous about adding rooms (and days) to our block as needed. The day of the wedding, the 50 person shuttle we had booked to bring our guests to the venue showed up nearly an hour late (seriously, do NOT work with Infinity Transportation) and the team at the Renaissance went into action to help all of our guests find a taxi in a timely manner. We highly recommend the Renaissance Chicago Downtown and can't wait to come back and visit on our anniversary!

We just had our wedding at the Renaissance Downtown location. We are so happy that we decided to go with this location. Staff was professional. We worked with Megan Goehler- she was amazing. The terrace space that you can use for cocktail hour is the best view in the city. The food was great. The package included our cake, which was delicious. They handled so many details for us and made sure everything ran smoothly. It was the best night of my life and I had a wonderful time. Our guests raved about the reception and those that stayed there said the hotel was very accommodating. When you have out of town guests flying into Chicago, you want them to have a great Chicago experience- and this is it. They can also do lighting and plasma slide shows- which we did and both were well done. We looked at over 15 venues between the city and suburbs and I can say without a doubt that we chose the right place for the most important day our lives.

I cannot say enough about how much we LOVED the Renaissance Chicago. We worked with Kim Spring who made the whole experience unforgettable. She handled our every request.

Strengths of the Renaissance
* Cocktail space is the best in the city. The Patio is breathtaking and our photos were incredible because of that
* The food. Everyone raved about it. It was phenomenal.
* The wait staff. They were so so so wonderful to our guests. They did a great job getting food and drinks to people at cocktails. They helped guests to their table. They served quickly and politely.
* The ballroom. It was breathtaking. We used the pipe and drape that the Renaissance has and I would highly recommend it. It set a lovely backdrop for the head table.
* Kim Spring. She was extremely prompt and helped us work through every detail. When we didnt like any of the steak toppings at our tasting, she set up a second tasting. When we wanted to do brunch - she coordinated. She returned phonecalls and emails near immediately. She was the best!
* Brunch at Great Street. If you are planning to have a brunch, I would highly recommend having at Great Street. Food was great, prices were very very reasonable.

Things to watch for
* The hotel itself. Although we left more than enough hotel bags, not all our guests got one somehow. Our rooms were not in a block with our guests rooms near each other - they were all over the hotel.
* Your placecards designating which entree your guest chose. We thought ours were really clear (it was a stamp in different colors). I would recommend having a totally different shape to designate meal choices though because the wait staff had a really hard time and consequently served people the wrong entree.
* The afterparty if you plan to have one. We didnt really think about it when booking but the options are all very expensive. If we went thru banquets, every drink was going to be $10. We were told that using one of our suites was not an option because of noise, and because the Presidential Suite that the Bride and Groom get is "one big room". That was not the case. We ended up going to Bar Novo which was really expensive. I'd recommend negotiating an afterparty in Cuisines into your package, or risking it and going to one of your guest rooms. If you want to make a sacrifice, the bride/groom suite is huge and would be perfect. How much room do 2 exhausted people really need anyways :)

This hotel has just added their restaurant as a new wedding reception venue. The Great Street restaurant is a beautiful room, it has just been refurbished and is neutral tones and modern decor. It has floor to ceiling windows around the whole room with views out to the river. The dance floor is very large and the room is spacious. We only had 75 people at our reception but the place could easily fit double or more!! The food was outstanding, none of the usual "wedding food" and our delicious cake was included. All the staff were great and went out of their way to make our day run smoothly.

During our wedding weekend we had a room block here for all of our guests (30+ rooms). Overall the experience was poor. They had 7 or 8 other wedding blocks the same weekend and it was hectic to say the least. Elevators took FOREVER (like 5+ minutes to get to the lobby) and so did the valet.

They charge a ridiculous amount for distributing welcome bags, and some of our guests did not even receive them. They emailed us two days later (after we had left town) that there were extra bags and at that point it was too late for us to get them back.

They promised us (the bride and groom) chocolate and champagne as part of the contracted room block and we never received it. Our room was also not even ready until AFTER 4 pm (check-in time) which caused stress and made us late to our rehearsal. If you are looking for a stress-free place for you and your family to stay for a wedding in Chicago, go somewhere else.