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

[Nightfly]

Used Better Bidding PRICELINE link (hope it worked). I've been chipping away at getting a room in the NMA zone for a few days, started @ 3*/$75, no joy. Did $10 bumps over the course of 3 days, then tried 3.5* on last attempt thinking I could work down from there but $107 was accepted at Allerton. I know it's in a great location, looks like they've "boutique-ed" up the property however I read in the Chicago Tribune that they just filed Chapter 11. Looks like a typical squeeze from their lender, not too unusual these days.

Allerton Hotel files for bankruptcy

Per article, all reservations will be honored. Hope so or I'll be sleeping under the bleachers at Wrigley.

I did have trouble with Priceline. It went into the "We'll let you know in 15 minutes mode" Pinged it a few times to check status and it said it had no record of the Request #. Nice. Sent email to Customer Service. In the mean time the booking went through. A little frightening.

All in all, a little rough sledding on this booking, but as long as I get to see my Chicago Cubs spank last year's World Series champion S.F. Giant's (delusional, huh?) on the trip, I'll be fine.

Thanks BB, for all the great insight.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you're happy with the results and this property will work well for your plans. Your checkout date was cut-off in the original topic title so i've edited to indicate that this is just a one nite stay so that this thread can appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins, but please add a reply to this thread confirming and we'll edit according if necessary.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[Nightfly]

My bad. The stay will be 6/28/11 - 6/30/11

Thx.

BTW - Priceline CS got back to me, we're good. I still wonder however, what the procedure is when a request # gets lost on their end? Does one have to wait for a reply from Priceline CS to proceed/cancel/rebid? Too many questions... makes my head hurt.

[AaronJB]

Glad to hear you were able to get confirmation from customer service - I'd definitely wait until hearing back from CS in this sort of a situation.

This property is very well-located right off Michigan Ave. Very short walk to the nearest Red Line subway on Chicago/State, as well (and you can easily take that up to Wrigley.)

[Nightfly]

Just a quick followup... Had a very nice stay at the Allerton. The staff couldn't have been more pleasant and the facilities, for an updated 1920's property, are quite nice without too many of the quirks one finds in a hotel of this vintage. With a Apple Store across the street and Brooks Bros. adjacent, the neighborhood is anything but sketchy. There were a number of airline crews that appear to use the Allerton as their Chicago layover base.

Also worth mentioning, yes, it is in Chapter 11 proceedings, but it does not appear to be affecting operations. The staff are upbeat and enthusiastic, the court case seems to be strictly a case of money guys (investors) doing what money guys sometimes do to make their money.

Administrator: Please feel free to move/copy this in the review section if it would be beneficial to others.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the follow-up!

Glad to hear you enjoyed your stay and the bankruptcy didn't effect your hotel experience at all.