Priceline Hotel: Need help with Hyatt McCormick

[RinksT]

Hello,

I'm new to priceline and so far all my bids have been rejected. I've tried:

Greater Chicago

4*

4/15 - 4/16

$55

Greater Chicago + Midway

4*

4/15 - 4/16

$65

Next day

Greater Chicago

4*

4/15 - 4/16

$84

Greater Chicago + Midway

4*

4/15 - 4/16

$95

Am I doing this wrong? I thought I was in the right area. From the prices I've seen posted here it doesn't seem too low. Any ideas?

[AaronJB]

I'm guessing that you need to be at McCormick for a conference/convention? While the Hyatt McCormick does come up reasonably often on Priceline and Hotwire, if the hotel does see a lot of demand, it may have limited availability. There are few other hotels in the Greater Chicago area, so if the Hyatt doesn't have PL inventory, nothing will come up.

I'd strongly suggest considering the Loop area (Millennium Park/Loop/Grant Park on PL), as that's really pretty close to McCormick - you could take a Metra electric train line from one of the downtown stations right to the McCormick station. Do you need just the 15th, check out 16th or do you need 15th/16th, checkout 17th?

[RinksT]

A friend and I wanted someplace close to Chinatown. The location is important since we didn't want to drive around too much. Both of us had never stayed at a 4* so I thought I would give this a try. So no conference or anything like that. We're staying one night on the 15th and leaving the next day.

I checked hotwire and if my guess is right, they have McCormick for 109.

BTW, this might be offtopic, but I assume McCormick has free parking, right? I also read on a different thread that there is valet parking (for a fee). Do we have to accept that? Getting a good hotel for a low price would be great but extra fees for non-optional extras kinda spoils the deal. What should I expect from a 4*?

[AaronJB]

The only hotel I'm aware of with free parking is the Best Western River North, which doesn't work with PL.

If you stayed in the Loop, you could take the "L" right to Chinatown and park in the Millennium Park lot for $20 per night. Hotel parking in downtown Chicago is commonly $35-40+ per night. Some of the areas around Chinatown aren't great, so taking the "L" directly there and back is something you may want to consider.

[AaronJB]

Additionally, if you stay in the Loop, it's much easier to sightseeing downtown. There's really nothing near the Hyatt McCormick (at all) aside from McCormick.