Hotwire Hotel: 2.5* ORD North - Please Help ID (Oct 4-10, 2007 - Marathon weekend)

[shneebs]

Hello all,

A group of us are going to be in town for the Chicago Marathon... would love to stay downtown, but prices are too high for my blood... probably going to have to settle for an Airport hotel and take the "L" into town each day. Because of this, Priceline is probably out since at least with Hotwire, we can make sure we get a place with an airport shuttle. I'm currently leaning towards the 4* Westin/Hilton options listed below - 2 people to a room - both are either at or near an "L" stop, and price reasonable. Looking for help to ID the two 2.5* Hotwire listings in bold below.

Best options that I see on Hotwire right now are:

2 people to a room:

4* ORD North -$89/night (match for either Hilton O'Hare or Westin O'Hare) Amenities: Shuttle, Gym, Pool, Restaurant, Business Center & H. S. Internet

-or-

2.5* ORD North - $74/night (no match in Hotwire list on this board) Amenities: Shuttle, Free Breakfast, Gym

I'd expect this to be probably a Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, other?

(Note: Best downtown option for these dates is $229/night for 2 people - match for Club Quarters in the Loop)

4 people to a room:

4*ORD North - $149/night (match for same as above)

-or-

2.5* ORD North - $86/night (no match in Hotwire list on this board) Amenities: Shuttle, gym, pool, restaurant and laundry facilities

(or a 3rd option: 3* ORD North - $89/night with Amenities: Shuttle, gym, pool, restaurant, business center and laundry facilities)

(Note: Best downtown option for these dates is $369 - too much!)

Any words of advice? We've already tried renting a condo - we're too late for that... all the good ones are gone... B&B's seem full too. We do have a cancellable booking at the Residence Inn O'Hare - 2 bdr rooms for $199/night which is pretty good, but it is a bit more of a pain b/c not as close to an "L" stop...

Thanks in advance,

Shneebs.

[thereuare]

Any words of advice?

Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

Since the marathon isn't likely going to inflate prices for your entire staty, why not split the purchase... staying by the airport during the peak period and in the heart of the city of the other part of your stay?

Please use this HOTWIRE link to begin any purchases you make.

[shneebs]

Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

We've thought about that, but the two "high price" nights are smack in the middle of our 6 night stay, so if we really wanted to isolate the high cost nights, we'd probably end up staying downtown on the nights of the 4th & 5th, back to the airport on the nights of the 6th & 7th, then back downtown on the nights of the 8th & 9th... I really don't think changing hotels twice during our 6 days would be much fun. Our flight is early on the 10th, so staying near the airport on the night of the 9th actually makes sense.... So to answer your question, if I were going to consider splitting my stay, the arrangement that would probably make the most sense would be to stay downtown for two nights (4th to the 6th) and then go back to the airport for the remainder... What to do... what to do...

Oh, and any guesses on the Hotwire 2.5* hotels in ORD North?

Shneebs.

p.s. Not sure how much correlation there is between Hotwire prices & Priceline winning bids, but I just punched in each of the two night groups on Hotwire... prices are still high downtown. Apparently there is a huge doctor's convention on top of the 45,000 people who run the marathon... Best downtown prices are as follows:

Oct 4th to 6th - $214/night - 3* NMA

Oct 6th to 8th - $266/night - 3* Loop

Oct 8th to 10th - $169/night - 4* NMA

[AaronJB]

Evanston may be a bit more fun place to stay outside of the city. Evanston is a college town just North of the Chicago border, and has a wide variety of restaurants. Also, two forms of public transit - the Metra trains and CTA trains - from Evanston to downtown. When you stay at O'Hare, you're stuck taking the CTA for the hour-long trip from ORD to downtown. If you stayed in Evanston, it would be easy to go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens (chicagobotanic.org) in Glencoe (North of Evanston), which are gorgeous in the Fall. Evanston to downtown is not as long a trip as ORD to downtown, and the Metra trains are very nice.

Just tossing out ideas.

Are you driving? If you are, there are some great suburban options.

[shneebs]

Evanston may be a bit more fun place to stay outside of the city....

....Are you driving? If you are, there are some great suburban options.

I looked at Evanston... I didn't find any deals to compare to Hotwire ORD pricing, so that probably isn't going to work for us. And no, we're not driving - we're flying in from Canada. :)

4* ORD Hilton/Westin is probably our preferred option so far. The question now is whether to wait and see if anything better comes along (and risk the 4* ORD option selling out / disappearing), or buy now and then hope we don't see any better deals after our money is spent!

Shneebs.

[AaronJB]

There will likely be no better deals coming along for the Marathon dates because, and trust me on this, there will be people *in* the marathon who just start looking for a hotel a couple of weeks before the race and go, "Gee, why is it so expensive?" Then they start looking in the burbs because they have no choice. The Arlington Heights area just North of ORD is another idea for a place to look, as at least there's a Metra station (nicer than CTA, although doesn't run as often) in Arlington Heights and some of the other nearby towns.

[shneebs]

Here's another idea that might be considered a little on the "shady" side... Since I read that there is a big doctor's convention on the same weekend as the marathon, I found the convention's website... Their hotel rates are fairly reasonable for downtown (relatively speaking) - in the $200 to $250/night range. I went through all the steps on their website, right up to "reserve now", and it didn't ask me for any confirmation that I was registered... What are the odds I could get in on their rate and not have someone question me on it? The only reason I didn't go through with the reservation for now is that they want a $175 deposit to hold the room...

Has anyone ever tried a similar strategy - successfully?! :)

Shneebs.

[shneebs]

Just a general question: As I recently posted in the Chicago Hotwire forum, I'm looking at booking hotels for a group of people for the Chicago Marathon weekend... Downtown prices are outrageous right now, but Hotwire prices look more reasonable. CTA would be our preference for travel (vs. renting a car or taking cabs), so proximity to a CTA stop is important to us. I just noticed something while looking at Google Earth last night: As far as I can see, all Priceline 4* locations are pretty much adjacent to a CTA stop! Am I missing one? The Hilton O'Hare is by the O'Hare stop, and the rest are at the next one (Rosemount). This includes the Hyatt Regency, Westin, Doubletree and Sofitel. For my dates, I'm looking at $89/night at the Hilton, so maybe I could score $20/night cheaper on Priceline?.... Can anyone think of a 4* ORD Priceline location that ISN'T near a CTA stop?

Thanks in advance,

Shneebs.