Hotwire Hotel: 4* Chicago (NMA-River North) InterContinental

[santillan]

Please help me ID this hotel:

Dates: 23/24 December (1 night)

Best Value - USD 88.-

Amenities: Fitness, Pool, Restauran, Business Center & High Speed Internet

Customer rating: 4.3 out of 5.

There are 20 reviews and most are quite high.

Any ideas?

Thank you,

Santillan

[AaronJB]

That would appear to be the Intercontinental, a hotel with a fun and interesting history and a hotel that I'd recommend.

[thereuare]

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

Let us know whatever you decide to do and how it goes.

[santillan]

It was the Intercontinental. Great!

Dates changed though: 10/11 Jan. (1 night).

Price: 88 USD per night (with taxes 108) - BEST VALUE

Amenities: restaurant, fitness, pool, business center & high speed internet.

There were lots of good reviews on the Hotwire page.

---

Now I have another question, this time indeed for the nights of 23 to 24 December.

Chicago hotel:

4 *

There are 2 possibilities:

4-star hotel in Magnificent Mile Area - Streeterville

This upscale establishment offers thoughtful features, quality rooms and a high level of service. See hotel details

* Fitness Center

* Restaurant(s)

* Business Center

* High-speed Internet Access

Best Value : 89 USD

or

4-star hotel in North Michigan Avenue - Water Tower - Gold Coast

Customer rating: 3.2 out of 5 | 20 reviews (MOST REVIEWS ARE AWFUL!!)

* Fitness Center

* Restaurant(s)

* Business Center

* High-speed Internet Access

Best Value: 79 USD

Which hotels could these be?

Please help.

thanks (may be I should post it separately. will do so.)

Santillan

[santillan]

I got the Intercontinental for the night of 10 January for 89 USD and I'm pleased as punch. I have read a lot about the hotel's two towers. Which one would you suggest I could try for upon arrival? The old or the new? Somehow I think the old must be nicer, but I'm not sure; may be someone could advise?

Many thanks,

Santillan

[AaronJB]

Since you got the reservation via a discount service, you are not entitled to a room in the historic tower, which is usually a $50 difference/upgrade. You could definitely ask for a room in the old tower, but they may either just say no or ask you to pay a fee for the upgrade.

As for the historic tower, rooms there are generally a bit more elegant and a bit more spacious (and the rooms are decorated differently, although no big deal there), but given the variation in historic tower rooms (there are supposedly something like 175 different room variations), you won't know exactly what you are going to get in the historic tower until you get there if you do wind up in the historic tower.

Personally, I think the rooms in the newer tower are just fine (very nice, even), and the historic tower rooms are not enough of an upgrade (I think) to try to aggressively persue getting one. If they just happen to be on a slow day and give you one, terrific, but if they try to charge you $50 to upgrade to a regular historic tower room from a regular new tower room, I'd save the money for something else.

I like the hotel though, and think its history is pretty fascinating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterContinental_Chicago

The Frommers review of the hotel: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/chicago/H24345.html