Priceline Hotel: 3.5* Chicago (River North-NMA) Allerton

[mish4]

Hey guys and girls, I wanted to get your opinions on why my bids did not go through.

I am looking at the Millenium Park, Loop & Grant Park Area for 8/5/10 - 8/9/10. (Thursday - Monday)

The following bids failed:

80$ for 4*

90$ for 3*+

95$ for 4*

On the 95$ bid for 4* I also added an area which had no 4* hotels (to give myself another chance.)

I am attending Lollapalooza (a music concert) so perhaps that weekend is already heavily booked? I thought my bids were reasonable for Hotels starting in the 200$ per night. Perhaps I need to raise my bids to 100 - 105$ a night?

I am going to wait 24 hours, and try to bid again tomorrow.

I appreciate any feedback, Thanks!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

Lollapalooza is traditionally an expensive time period and rates in Chicago (or other major cities) can vary significantly from day-to-day. Additionally, every one of the Loop hotels fills up first, because people would rather be closer to Grant Park than have to stay North of the River (which I've never agreed with, because it's really a very easy and nice walk from Michigan Ave, and there's more than enough public transit in Chicago to get where you want to go quickly.)

It's still far enough out that regular rates for these dates aren't terrible, but prices are already higher in the Loop than they appear to be in the River North/North Michigan Ave. area. A bid for the Loop for a 4* may very likely take more than $105 and possibly $125+ if hotels are not aggressively discounting because they know the crowds for these dates will come. I'd say that $100-115 for a 4* is more likely in the River North/NMA area. I would suggest actively trying to lock in something, as if previous years are any indication, prices could certainly have further upside from present levels.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[mish4]

I continued bidding and seemed to have pretty terrible results.

I kept the Loop as my main area, only adding poorer neighborhoods when i wanted to bid again, without impacting results.

I varied my bids from 100 to 160$ and still couldn't get a 3*+ room.

It gave me the choice of adding 25$ to my bid of 150$ for a chance to rebid but I denied. At 175$ I can get a retail rate of 180$ in that area. Sheesh!

I may take AaronJB's advice and open the area to things more north of the loop. Or just settle with a 180$ / night room.

I wasn't expecting the bidding to go this poorly. I am tired of looking at PRICELINE for the day. Also having 10 emails to remind me that the bid didn't go through wasn't useful.

I am done for the day! Tomorrow is a new day.

[thereuare]

You're smart to take a break, as when you get frustrated is the time you're most likely to make a "bad" bid... either add an wrong re-bid zone OR make a bid you'll later regret.

Once the frustration from this bid subsides tomorrow let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll try to help.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding.

[AaronJB]

Sorry to hear that your bids were not accepted. :)

A few thoughts (a Loop suggestion and thoughts on NMA.)

The 4* Standard Club is $160 on Orbitz.com (coupon code ORBITZ5 works for another 5% off). The Standard Club is a very historic (current location since the 1920's, club has existed since the mid-1800's), very upscale private club in the Loop that rents a small set of rooms (it's noted on Orbitz that there are only a few rooms left for these dates.) Staying there would be a really unique experience and despite being a private club, it does have hotel-like amenities. It would also be an easy walk to Lollapalooza (which is generally held in the area of Grant Park just to the South of the Art Institute, so if you walked directly East of the Standard Club a few minutes, you'd wind up right where the concert is.

The Standard Club is also a 5* platinum club: "Being chosen as a Platinum Club is based on the results of a survey (of over 6,000 private club managers and presidents) conducted to identify America's top 150 private clubs. The survey examines country, golf, athletic, yacht and city clubs."

The Standard Club has not been seen as a PRICELINE or HOTWIRE win, as with not that many rooms, the Club is not seen all that often even on major travel sites.

As for NMA:

Aside from likely being cheaper (and possibly quite a bit cheaper), there will be more going on walking back to the hotel in the NMA area than there will be in the Loop area, which can be VERY quiet later at night - if you do stay in the Loop, I'd try to stick with the crowds heading back to their hotels. On the first night before the show, there's a wider variety of nightlife and restaurants in the NMA (and nearby River North) area then there is in the Loop.

It's a $6-8 cab ride from the furthest NMA hotel to Grant Park (less if you get a hotel more towards the South boundary of the NMA area.) The savings can go towards cabs on the way back. The walk from the NMA area to Grant Park goes right down Michigan Ave - it's a pretty walk and doesn't feel as long as it is (and it's not that bad of a trek.)

Finally, I'd also highly recommend taking water into the concert as the first week of August can definitely be hot.

Thank you for using the site's PRICELINE, HOTWIRE, Expedia or Orbitz.com links.

[rebelfan]

I'm bidding for the same dates, but I WANT River North, not the Loop, because I'm not attending Lollapalooza.

I have made bids for NMA up to $122 - all rejected. Like the previous posters said, I expected the NMA area to still be reasonable, but I'm beginning to wonder. I'll try again tomorrow.

[mish4]

So I finally got a bid ACCEPTED and have a hotel.

Let's review the situation:

4* 130$ NMA got rejected

4* 140$ NMA + Loop got rejected

4* 145$ NMA + Loop + Lincoln Park got rejected

3.5* 130$ NMA got rejected

3.5* 140$ NMA + Loop got accepted.

One thing I am pretty suspicious about is Taxes / Fees that Priceline adds to your total.

I am staying 4 nights, so it was 140$ per night multiplied by 4 nights = 560$. Throw on their ~100$ tax/fee that is a total of 660$ So theoretically I am paying 165$ night.

The Hotel I got for "140" a night, is listed on priceline as 193$ a night. I read some reviews on the hotel and people complained that the rooms were small, but I'm happy I have a place. The location is supposed to be really awesome. (right on North Michigan Ave)

Is it usually more expensive to book a hotel from the hotel itself, compared to online venders? Do hotels normally charge pretty high taxes/fees in addition to their posted rates? In other words if i stayed at a hotel booked through the hotel, would i be likely to pay 100$ in taxes/fees for 4 days?

Anyways, it seems like around 140+ is the bidding rate for 3.5* + in the NMA area.

I hope that i can see a bit of Chicago aside from the concert in Grant Park.. Anyone have any words of wisdom here...

Hope this information is useful to someone. Thanks

[AaronJB]

Congratulations on your success!

Which hotel did you get?

A lot of the taxes/fees in terms of Chicago hotels is due to the fact that the hotel tax in Chicago is a hefty 15.4%.

Thank you for sharing your result with the board and using the site's PRICELINE link.

Enjoy your stay.

[mish4]

The Allerton Hotel

[AaronJB]

Thank you for the follow-up. The Allerton is in an excellent location right on Michigan Ave (well, the front door is on a side street) - there's a Red Line subway a few blocks away on State/Chicago (and you can take that to get downtown quickly.)

Let me know if you have any questions about the area.