Guest Experience – Page 5 – Building The Godfrey

A Warm Welcome with a Shining Chandelier

As guests enter our hotel, we hope they will feel warm and welcome. So much so, the very word “Godfrey” means peace and welcome. We previously blogged about the importance of the lobby and making a great first impression (cliche and all!). We want our guests to experience a chic and sophisticated lobby and a key feature of that is the chandelier we just installed.

We caught up with Chris McDonough, design director at GETTYS – the firm responsible for our sophisticated and contemporary interior design. Chris said the marble-clad oval shaped lobby provides a welcoming experience for the guest with the large concentric ring pendant serving as a focal point. While visible from the street as well, this fixture reflects the strong geometry of the building and establishes the upscale feel for the property upon arrival.

Below is a first look at our chandelier, along with a flashback to the space pre-installation.

Location for the Godfrey's chandelier — Location for the Godfrey’s chandelier (Aug. 2013)

Guests may feel stressed from the hustle and bustle of travel and upon entering our hotel, we hope they feel the surprise and delight of our beautiful space. After all, we are designing with the guests’ experience in mind.

Geometric Glamour

This holiday season The Magnificent Mile isn’t the only place to find a dazzling display of lights! What do you think of the filigreed light fixtures that take center stage in our lobby? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Twitter!

What Ladies Like When They’re On The Road – Site Visit

Today, we conducted a site visit to check out the latest and greatest at the hotel. With so many changes happening, we could hardly decide where to focus. But, we reflect back on the female guests and frequent travelers who we surveyed and questioned months ago about their travel preferences.

We consistently heard three requests for amenities in the room:

Full length mirror
Luxurious bathroom products
Abundant counter space in the bathroom

We can now say: Check, check and check.

First, we learned many ladies (and likely our gentleman too) want a full length mirror in the hotel room. We certainly understand – even when you’re on the road, you still want to look stylish. Here’s a look at the full length mirror:

You're looking good! A picture of our full length mirrors. — You’re looking good! A picture of our full length mirrors.

Second, we know bathroom products matter. Guests love quality products and L’Occitane delivers nothing short of a “beauty phenomenon,” as we’ve heard others say. We previously blogged about how excited we are to offer these products in our guest bathrooms – you can view the blog post here.

Last, for the counter space, we heard many female (frequent) travelers say they preferred the extra counter space in the bathroom. The extra space allows them to set up their hair products and tools, along with their makeup bags and other needs. The extra space (shown below) allows for at least two people to easily share the space with their travel kits and make up.

Enjoy, ladies! And we know the male travelers won’t mind either. Enjoy, all!

Here’s Our Card

We hope our guests will be in their element with our new “Element” cards. Designed to bring a smile to our guests faces, these cards were developed around humor and laughter and play on the periodic table of elements. We’ll distribute them to guests throughout their stay with us. A few sample elements include:

Mt: Meetings

Li: Libations

Rs: Room Service

Fi: Fitness

Tv: TV

We hope you enjoy discovering your element with us!

I|O In the News

We’re thrilled to announce that Crain’s Chicago Business has the scoop on an inside look at our one-of-a-kind urban roofscape, I|O. To view the article, please follow this link. The piece gives lots of great previews of what’s to come, including info on our future menu, a full-color photo rendering and much more. Thank you Crain’s for featuring the hottest future spot in River North!

Above: Rendering image of I|O.

Above: Beautiful southern skyline view of Chicago from I|O