Priceline Hotel: 4* Chicago (North Michigan Ave - River North) Hotel Felix

[VB23]

Got this one on my first bid. I used the PRICELINE link.

I've stayed at other 4* hotels in Chicago using PRICELINE bidding, but this time I was very disappointed with this hotel. I don't think the Hotel Felix should be rated a 4* by Priceline. The tiny room was redone and the shower was nice, but the walls were paper thin and there was the constant sound of doors slamming in the hallway. I guess there's a spa somewhere in the hotel, so this must be what qualifies them for the 4* rating.

I have two more trips scheduled for Chicago soon, but I'm going to skip PRICELINE bidding in the NMA zone because I would not want to end up at this hotel again. I wonder how many people bidding on lower star levels will get 'upgraded' to this hotel?

[thereuare]

Sorry to hear this hotel didn't meet your expectations. Hopefully it at least met your needs and was worth the $57/nite rate (which does seem like a good deal for Chicago vs. conventionally booked rates)

You could use PRICELINE in the future but avoid this zone, or consider HOTWIRE where you take a guess as to the hotel offered (and choosing a hotel where you're reasonably assured that it's not the Felix). You can also try out our new MAPS and HOTELS.com site which should make it easy to find the best hotel within your desired star rating and desired location, and easily see the trade-off of going higher/lower in star rating or a nearby location.

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

Hope your future stays are more to your liking.

[AaronJB]

HOTWIRE splits the NMA-River North area on PRICELINE into Mag Mile-Streeterville (which the Felix falls in) and the NMA-WT-GC area (which doesn't.) The potential Felix may not even be showing on HOTWIRE for the dates chosen, but if it is, there is another option in the NMA-WT-GC zone. You could get upgraded if you try a lower star rating on PRICELINE. The Millennium Park/Loop/Grant Park area can result in a hotel too far in the S or W corners of that zone - fine during the day and especially during warmer months, but nothing much going on at night and a bit too far a trek to things in the middle of Winter.

Sorry to hear that your stay at the Felix was disappointing. I think the issue with this property is that it used to be an older (early 1900's?), lower-end budget hotel and they did a revamp on much of it, but may not have been able to go the full way (this property does have smaller rooms and I'm guessing the pre-existing older structure also had small rooms, etc.) Morgans Hotel Group was going to revamp a similar (although in worse condition, I didn't even know how they were going to fix it up) property not too far away and turn it into a Mondrian, but it never happened.

Additionally, with HOTWIRE, adding two children (even if there aren't two children in the party) may bring up different choices.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.