HOTELS

Adam Kirby

Techy, Sexy Sax Shows Off
March 17, 2008

The successor to the Windy City’s former House of Blues Hotel, the dazzling Hotel Sax Chicago, is building an eager following among the online community of technology enthusiasts. Dubbed by some in the media as “Hotel Microsoft” for its top-to-bottom commitment to bringing expensive consumer electronics into the mainstream, Sax is poised to get a strong share of the city’s tech-savvy (and thus high-spend) visitors.

The six-month-old Sax threw an impressive coming-out party Friday night, complete with self-tours of open Xbox-ready guestrooms and the requisite plethora of young ladies grooving in hallway silhouette boxes. Special kudos to the hotel F&B staff, whose delightfully simple yet creative truffle of strawberry Pop Rocks covered in white chocolate had my girlfriend giggling all weekend.

The most highly hyped high-tech feature of Hotel Sax is its sixth-floor lounge, a plush video-gamer’s paradise called The Studio—Experience by Microsoft, which is approximately what the typical college dorm room would look like if its inhabitants had an unlimited budget and a fulltime housekeeping crew. Yet even as cool as The Studio is, it it’s not even the most Microsoft-friendly room in the building. That honor goes to the two Presidential Suites (unofficially known as the Frank Sinatra suites, due in part to the overarching urge one gets upon entering to sip martinis and play some poker). Writes the Chicago Tribune’s technology blogger:

“The two Presidential Suites have unobtrusive touch screens in the foyer, so you can dim the lights, change the temperature and cue up mood music throughout the suite. A remote by the bed lets you do all that while you're cozy under the covers. The remote and foyer touch panel need a bit of explaining before you know what controls what, but that's why Microsoft is in Hotel Sax—to let people live with and get used to unfamiliar technology so that they'll want it in their homes.”

The touch screens caught the curiosity of many partygoers, judging by the frequent dimming and brightening of lights throughout the suite. Complementing the automated atmospheric controls in the Presidential Suites are the dens, which have an enormous high-def TV alongside three smaller wall-mounted flat-screens, making it possible to play Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 while simultaneously watching my Marquette Golden Eagles get shafted by some bad officiating. Ahem.

Finally, in yet another reminder that it’s the little things in hospitality that people really remember, hotel staff snuck saxophone-shaped chocolates into the pockets of guests who checked coats. Of all the lavishness and expensive electronics on display that night, it was that unexpected candy surprise on the walk home that my girlfriend could not stop telling people about the next day. Hotel Sax’s futuristic technology is why I wrote this blog, but it was a simple piece of chocolate that earned the hotel a fan for life.

Posted by Adam Kirby on March 17, 2008 | Comments (0)