Thinking of traveling to Chicago with the Mrs for her birthday weekend, and am looking for a nice downtown hotel that doesn’t cost 200+ a night.
Any recommendations?
The Best Western River North. Nice, clean hotel, roughly 200 feet away from both the Rainforest Cafe and Hard Rock Cafe, and a double room is, I think, less than $200 a night, or at least was last October.
W City Center - it’s around the corner from the Sears (Screw Willis!) Tower, is close to lots of things.
D’oH! Didn’t see the $200 limit.
There’s a just-opened LaQuinta on Franklin, pretty much around the corner from the sears Tower. Because they just opened a few weeks ago, I scored a $99/night reservation. I don’t know if that deal is still in effect, though.
If it’s a special occasion I would recommend the Burnham Hotel. Beautiful historic building (The Reliance) renovated into a boutique hotel. Right on Washington and State – great location. Not the cheapest (quick search shows weekend rates of around $150), but within your budget and worth it for a birthday, IMHO.
I second the Burnham. It’s the one I came in to recommend, and I think it’s a nice hotel for couples.
If that won’t work, search for a hotel on kayak.com. Using the weekend of the 23rd I got Hotel Monaco for $159, The Palmer House Hilton for $161, The Silversmith Hotel for $127, and The Hampton Inn Majestic for $161.
Hey, just saw The Central Loop Hotel for $89 on booking.com. I make no recommendation because I’ve never heard of it before (nor that site), but at least the pictures look nice.
The Tremont off the Mag Mile sometimes has good deals. I’d give it maybe 3 out of 5 stars, it can be fair, but I’ve stayed there three times and it works for me if I can get it cheaper than the others.
We always stay at the Swissotel when in Chicago and it’s downtown / Navy Pierish. Link says $139. Definately worth that.
Check Travelzoo for hotel deals in Chicago. I scored the Swishotel for $109 two summers ago, and I see it’s actually on sale now (hurry!). Have to second lieu that it was definately worth it. We pretty much walked everywhere we wanted to go, though a few places we probably sprung for a cab to save some time. The only downfall was the parking was pretty expensive, so we just left our car at a ramp down by Macy’s for the weekend, which cost half of what the Swissotel parking would have been. For this summer I got a deal on the Fairmont Chicago for $119, also through Travelzoo (but that was about a month ago).
I recommend the OP use Priceline. Select a 4-star hotel in the Mag Mile area and enter a price for about $150. It’s almost certain that you’ll get accepted considering the economic climate and its impact on hotels and travel. There really isn’t a bad hotel on that strip and you’ll very likely get the Omni Hotel or the Sheraton. There’s even a chance you’ll get the Park Hyatt since they are terrible at their revenue management and over-utilize Priceline to fill rooms.
A note, I always recommend kayak.com because you can see the prices of the other discount sites at once compared with the direct rate via the hotels. It’s a timesaver, many times hotel rates aren’t any better on the discounters, and I’ve found the discounters are hard to deal with and charge fees if you need to make changes, whereas the hotel themselves hardly ever do. Just sayin.
We’ve had good luck in the past with the Homewood Suites downtown. It seems to primarily cater to business travellers, so weekend rates are often quite reasonable. It’s not the fanciest place in the world, but it’s more than adequate, it’s in the River North neighborhood reasonably close to Navy Pier, and you get a decent free breakfast. It’s a typical Homewood Suites as far as the rooms go, so you get a genuine suite with a kitchenette and living room; much more spacious than the typical hotel room.
The W Hotels will feel more like you’re having a special weekend, and you can occasionally find good weekend deals, although they’re much less common as the summer gets closer.
I’m going to guess (and freely admit I could be wrong), that you actually saw the SOUTH Loop Hotel. If so, I cannot recommend against that place strongly enough.
I live here in Chicago, but the boyfriend does not, so every now and then when we see what looks like a good deal on hotwire.com, we do that for his visits, to get away from my roommates.
The South Loop Hotel isn’t close to anything, the cleaning staff could use a refresher on how to clean, they say they have a restaurant but do not, and the “coffee shop” they do have is terrible and does keep anything resembling normal hours. They do have free wi-fi, but that’s only when it works. When it doesn’t, the staff often can’t be assed to do something about it, other than hand you an ethernet cord. In general, the staff up front are good about checking you in or out, but can’t or won’t do much else. The rooms didn’t even have coffee makers, for crying out loud.
Their lounge was hopping on Friday & Saturday night, so that might be good. We didn’t try.
All in all, I suspect this hotel was built in the anticipation of gentrification in the area, and was wrong. I think it’s going to be out of business within a year or so, and that’s sorta sad in that someone’s going to lose a lot of money (probably), but there’s no way they’re going to rescue themselves being as they are.
In general, we do like Hotwire.com. This was our first bad experience with it. We once managed to get a 5 star hotel for $79/night (near O’Hare, though). And I think we paid ~$89/night for the Hyatt Regency downtown through hotwire. I would actually very strongly recommend hotwire still, but for the OP’s wants, I’d make sure to stay within the Mag Mile area. There’s about two other “areas” near there, and I can’t remember them, but I doubt you can go wrong in any of the three via hotwire, if you are not committed to a specific place.
SLH was considered in the “Museum Campus” area, so I suggest avoiding that area if you go through any of the places that are like hotwire with “mystery” hotels.
No, it was The Central Loop Hotel at 111 West Adams. It’s new?
But I can tell you I’ll never stay at the South Loop. Egads.
Check out biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com. They list recent winning bids for hotels. For the area you’re interested in, it looks like you should be able to get a nice hotel for well under your budget. Of course the usual caveat applies–make sure you understand how priceline works before you make your bids.
Husband and I spent one night at the Holiday Inn Express - Cass Hotel: Downtown Chicago Hotels | Hotel Cass a Holiday Inn Express Chicago Hotel last Memorial Day weekend. It’s a block or two off the Magnificent Mile - if your wife is a shopper, this is the place to be!
A “boutique hotel” - the rooms are a bit small & valet parking is a pricey $45/night - but we took the train into the city. We enjoyed our stay overall.
The W City Center may be worth checking out–I found a really great online price there (after I’d already booked with priceline, grr). The hotel has small rooms but it feels funky and cool. Also has a happening bar in the lobby.
The Embassy Suites near the Navy Pier is a nice location; always worth checking. Their free breakfasts can make staying there a pretty good deal.
I’ll second the Monaco as a cute, romantic boutique hotel. They’ll even give you a goldfish for your room if you request one. Great location right near the river and Michigan Avenue. Can’t vouch for the price, though; the company covered it…TRM
ETA: The Ambassador East and Ambassador West are just north of the Loop, near Rush Street and mucho entertainment options. Also very nice, and might be a tad cheaper than the actual Loop hotels.
Never stayed in a hotel in downtown Chicago (tho I’ve slept at my desk within sight of many mentioned above! :p) This thread is weird, as I can see the W out my window (used to be the Whitehall), I walk past the new La Quinta every day to and from the train (used to be the headquarters of some Jewish-American federation or someting) and my office used to be in the Bankers’ Building - which now is the Central Hotel! Just kinda funny!
Where you stay depends somewhat on what you what to do. I.e., if you want to hit N Michigan and River North, you’ll do better staying up there. OTOH if you intend to do the museums, it may be more comfortale staying further south. I believe there is a Quality Inn or Best Western right on S Michigan, but I’m not sure.
I have spoken with several folk who have gotten great deals through Priceline and similar sites. It really would be cool to stay at one of the neat old hotels like the Palmer House, the Drake, or The Hilton Towers if you could wrangle a cheap rate just to fill a bed. Or the newer hotels like W, Allegro, or Burnham. Your choice depends on whether you are looking for a hotel simply as a base of operations, or as an integral part of a romantic weekend.
Ah, the Drake! I’ve never stayed there (living a mile away, why would I?), but I’ve sucked down many a martini in their bar. The whole place has a wonderful, musty, decadent and decaying feeling. Staying there would feel like being in an old Cary Grant movie in need of restoration. If you can wrangle a good price, that would be a trip…TRM