Hotwire Hotel: Chicago Hotel Help

[regoarrarr]

Hi. First of all, thank you for this service - I've spent the past day or two reading up on things. I've read the FAQ as well as several threads and think I have the basic concepts down. I have used Hotwire before, but am not an expert by any means. I'm not opposed to Priceline either but was a bit worried from some of the things I read about it being difficult to secure a particular type of room.

Here's my situation:

Going to Chicago and looking to stay June 6-10. Those dates may be a bit flexible (maybe come in on the 4th or leave on the 9th etc.) It's not out of the realm of possibilities that we could go a complete different week this summer if a great deal could be found another week.

Family of 5 (2 adults, 5 yo, 3 yo and 9 month-old). We are looking for a suite type hotel, that has at least 1 bedroom and ideally 2. If it has only 1 bedroom then it would need to have a sleeper sofa but most suites I saw did. Pool is necessary, so is a kitchen (possibly could do a kitchenette), and any types of complimentary breakfasts or such would be great.

Budget is $100 a night, but it's somewhat flexible and of course I'd love to find something cheaper. Location is not really that important - the things that we are looking to do in Chicago are visit the Children's Museum, the Science and Tech. museum, Navy Pier, the zoo, and Wrigley Field, but we are willing to drive and/or take the El. In looking around at various hotels in the area, one I saw that looked nice was the Mariott Residence Inn (several in the area), but it was listed at $150 or so on their website and I couldn't find them on the Hotwire or Priceline hotel list. I'd be willing to consider other hotels as long as they met most or all of the criteria in the previous paragraph.

I'd be grateful for any help that you could give - I also recognize that the answer might be that Hotwire or Priceline wouldn't be the best option for this particular situation. Thanks in advance!

[thereuare]

I don't think that the opaque services are going to be right for your particular needs... only exception would be if you could find a Suite icon on HOTWIRE and then we would be able to identify it (and also draw the conclusion that 5 people won't be a problem).

Another option is to try for two rooms, which can sometimes be cheaper than one room booked directly.

EasyClickTravel may also have something that meets your needs.

You may also want to try the following:

Fairfield Inn

Residence Inn

Homestead Hotels

Staybridge Suites

Let us know if we can be of any further help.

[lowballer]

I think your best option is to stay in a suburb and drive in each day, taking care to avoid rush hour. A decent hotel downtown in midweek in June for around $100 is probably not reasonable. Also, the attractions you list are all over the place and are not all near L stations. So you'll need a car anyway or will have to learn bus routes. (By "Science and Tech Museum" I presume you mean the Museum of Science and Industry, which is far from everything else.)

I'd start by looking at hotels in the suburbs near ORD, such as Elk Grove Village and Wood Dale. On Orbitz I'm seeing several suite-type places for around $100 and below. You could also try Schaumburg or Oak Brook, but these will be further out. If you're renting a car you might want to extend your stay to five or six days, so you can get a weekly rate instead of having to pay for four weekdays. Most of the hotels right around ORD (ie Rosemont) charge for parking, but this is rare in any of the other suburbs.

Sounds like you'd be more a candidate to use HOTWIRE rather than PL, because you want to have some control over the type of accommodation you get. But a lot of conventional rates seem to meet your budget at this point.

One place where you are in luck is with Cubs tickets. The market for those has definitely softened in the last few weeks as the Cubs have been playing like... well, the Cubs. Everyone wants White Sox tickets now!

[regoarrarr]

Thanks for the responses so far.

A couple of clarifications:

We are driving to Chicago, so we don't need to rent a car.

And yes, I did mean the Museum of Science and Industry.