Hotwire Hotel: Torn between two 4* Chicago Hotels on Hotwire

[shaunchris]

I am currently eyeing 2 bids on hotwire for a 2 night stay in October (4th-6th).

First Option:

4* Hotel. Location is North Michigan Ave - Water Tower - Gold Coast. Hotwire Price is $133 / night compared to 'retail' of $199.

Listed amenities include: Fitness Center, Restaurant, and Business Center

Second Option:

4* Hotel. Location is Magnificent Mile - Wacker Drive. Hotwire Price is $170 / night compared to 'retail' of $265.

Listed amenities include: Boutique Hotel, Fitness Center, Restaurant, High-speed Internet Access

, and Business Center

Any thoughts on who these guys are. Any recommendations?

[Cartersmom]

Yeah, I would be scared that the cheaper one is the Millennium Knickerbocker. Its not worthy of 4 stars, and the reviews on tripadvisor have been horrific, including most recently, bedbug reports :)

I always go with priceline but for my stay in Chicago I have decided to go with hotwire SOLELY for the purpose of NOT getting the Knickerbocker. Although I may bid on a 4* in a different zone..

HTH

Tara

For the other one from the list it looks like the closest match is the Hotel 71; I'm not familiar with that one so you might want to look it up on tripadvisor :)

[AaronJB]

Here's a kind of offbeat suggestion:

877chicago.com has the Buckingham Athletic Club for $135 for your dates. It's a private club in the Loop area that offers a set of about 20 hotel rooms to the public. It's in the 40th floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange building, along with the luxury restaurant Everest. Guests get - according to the website (http://www.bac-chicago.com) - free breakfast and free use of the athletic club.

Just throwing out a suggestion.

[betsybug]

The Boutique may be either the House of Blues (if you can confirm it has HSI) or Ambassador East (check the area map to see if it's in that zone). This board hasn't reported Ambasador as being given a "Boutique" designation, but it should be a boutique. Omni sold it to Preferred Hotels and you should check is out on preferredhotels.com to see if the amenities match.

[AaronJB]

The Omni is not a Boutique on Hotwire (it is on Priceline.) It's also in the North Michigan Ave/Water Tower/Gold Coast area on Hotwire.