Hotwire Hotel: 3* Chicago (Magnificent Mile-Streeterville) Four Points

[travelAlot]

My success on this Hotwire purchase may provide help to others who are contemplating whether the amenities may be for the Holiday Inn Mart or the Sheraton Four Points. I was a but nervous during the purchase process as I was pretty sure that the Four Points (just off of Mich Ave and on Rush Street) would come up, but you never know. Very excited as this is a great hotel, very underrated, perfect location and huge rooms with free internet and a frig/microwave, indoor/outdoor pool.

• The amenities were Non-Smoking, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business, Laundry -- the Holiday Inn is technically not fully nonsmoking (it does offer 6 total smoking rooms based on its website) and the Sheraton Four Points is fully nonsmoking...it will be interesting should the HI be a winning purchase with the nonsmoking icon....in the past the Sheraton didn't have the nonsmoking icon (I used Hotwire clues to bid on PL in 2010)
  
• The TripAdvisor stars were listed as a 4.5 rating on the purchase/amenity page -- again the Four Points matches this and the Holiday Inn shows a 4.0 rating
  
• The 95% of Hotwire customers recommend this hotel was tricky -- both hotels are in the 90s on Hotwire vacations, though the Four Points (as it should be) is upper 90s on Trip Advisor and Holiday Inn is 80s
  

I absolutely purchased via Hotwire as the other metrics (PL packages, Hotwire packages, room rates etc) show the HI as way cheaper and more likely via a bid on PL. Lesson is don't be greedy -- maybe a $45 PL bid woulda won but why risk the HI. Plus I have an Entertainment Book $20 rebate.

I first linked through Better Bidding to HOTWIRE before purchasing. Thought I'd share the success and strategy as I've seen a bunch of queries about the Sheraton Four Points and Holiday Inn with similar amenities.

[yellowdog]

Congratulations on your success!

Thank you for sharing your result with the board and using our HOTWIRE link to book this :)

Also thanx for reporting the new Smoke Free icon.

We hope you're satisfied with the outcome and will like the hotel.

Enjoy your stay.

Yellowdog.

[travelAlot]

Please correct the price back to the $56 amount that I posted. That is what I paid on Hotwire. Otherwise it is misleading folks. The $20 bonus was a $20 rebate for the entire stay via the Entertainment Book.

[yellowdog]

Sorry, my bad!

Yellowdog.

[travelAlot]

Thanks much.

Also wanted to alert regarding the Hotwire amenities for Sheraton Four Points vs Holiday Inn Mart.

I did a search for friends (who were thinking of joining me for part of my stay), and found that the Non-Smoking icon along with the Trip Advisor rating of 4.5 is what IDs the Four Points. The identifiable hotel for 4/23-4/25 is clearly the Holiday Inn Mart -- the same common 6 amenities as the Four Points but a 4.0 Trip Advisor rating and no Non-Smoking icon. The latter may change soon as the HI has a whopping total of 6 smoking rooms (per its proprietary website).

So if anyone is looking at the six common amenities and trying to determine the hotel, first try to match up the Trip Advisor rating and then additionally validate with/without the Non-Smoking icon.

[thereuare]

To confirm... you haven't purchased this HOTWIRE property, correct?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.