Hotwire Hotel: 4* Chicago (Loop) Palmer House Hilton

[chicagotraveler]

Hi,

I am searching HOTWIRE for a Chicago hotel for Aug. 22-23.

For $95 Hotwire offers a hotel with these amenities in The Loop:

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

High-speed Internet Access

Could this be the Palmer House? I've seen others find it for 129 or so so I'm wondering if this is likely a different hotel because of the lower rate.

Thanks!

Also curious about cost of parking there.

[chicagotraveler]

Hi,

I have used HOTWIRE but not PRICELINE in the past. I'm looking for a hotel within striking distance of Wrigley Food and with restaurants nearby for after the game for:

Aug. 22-23

Budget: $125 or less

From what I've read, I'd love to land the Conrad Hilton. Again, would PRICELINE or HOTWIRE be best for this property? Any tips on how to get it?

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks! I will post my results to help other newbies like me.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please keep all posts for the same stay in the same thread.

The HOTWIRE hotel above is a match for the Palmer House so that would be our best guess. As per their website parking charges at that property are currently: Self Parking:35.00 and Valet Parking:45.00

As far as the Conrad Hilton, you can't target a specific hotel with PRICELINE. With HOTWIRE you can look for a 4.5* hotel with the amenities which match what has previously been reported in the Hotwire Hotel List, but if it's not shown then there's not much you can do to make it appear.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Let su know what you decide to do for this stay or if we can be of further help.

[AaronJB]

There are very few hotels nearby Wrigley Field, and they - especially in the case of the nearby Best Western - raise their rates through the roof when games are going on. There's no reason to stay near the field when there's much more in the way of hotel choices (and cheaper choices) in the downtown area. You can then just take the Red Line train Northbound from downtown North to Addison and Wrigley's right there.

Priceline and Hotwire are discount services, and not what you want to use to get a specific property cheaper. You use either services because you want to get a hotel cheaper, and if you get the one you wanted, consider yourself lucky.

If the Loop hotel is the Palmer, it's right by a Red Line stop. I don't recommend driving in the city if you don't have to, but if you are taking your car, near the Palmer there is the Millennium Park garage, which is about $25. For $10 more, you may want to use the hotel's self-park.

[chicagotraveler]

Thanks much! Yes, I realized I had posted to two different threads and could not figure out how to move them together. Thanks for doing that and I'll remember that in the future.

About the Conrad Hilton, it sounds like you're saying my chances of getting it by bidding for River North are slim. I've noticed a few wins for the Conrad using that approach. Would you advise against trying that?

Thanks again for the help and the parking info for the Palmer. That would be a nice second choice and it sounds like HOTWIRE might be a safer bet for us.

Thanks again. Great web site/ forum!

[AaronJB]

If you bid for a 4* in the River North area, you could possibly get one of more than several hotels. Imagine if someone asked you to pick a card and you wanted an Ace. The card you picked could be the Ace, but it could also be a ton of other things. Priceline can be a discount service because you can't choose to stay in a certain hotel and have to be willing to stay in whatever hotel it gives you.

The River North/NMA area has more going on at night, but the Palmer House is particularly convenient to transit. If you stayed at a River North/NMA hotel, in many instances it can be a bit of a walk (not a massive walk, but at least a good stroll in some cases) to the subway.

[chicagotraveler]

Thanks! May I ask one other thing?

Another option is to go for my home town of Skokie.

For $68, HOTWIRE shows a 2.5 Star with these amenities:

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Tennis Nearby

Pool

Laundry facilities

Does this sound like the Doubletree North Shore or the Holiday Inn?

We will definitely post our results when we settle on something!

Thanks again.

[chicagotraveler]

Thanks much for the help! I decided to go with Hotwire rather than risk losing the possibility of the Palmer House.

We're happily booked :) :

Aug. 22-23

Palmer House Hilton

$96

Amenities:

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

High-speed Internet Access

I would still welcome info on Skokie as we stay there when we bring kids (speaking of which is it a problem with Hotwire to bring three children which boosts occupancy to 5?)

I will also post the above on the new calendar.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success and thank you for sharing your results with the board.

Glad to see you got a nice deal and received the hotel you were expecting.

In regards to occupancy of 5, technically the room is reserved for quad occupancy, and 5 may go over the 'legal limit' room occupancy in many standard hotel rooms. You should be fine if you all can fit into two beds or if one of the children is young enough to sleep on the floor (sleeping bag, buy an air mattreess, put sheets on floor, etc) but i certainly wouldn't "flaunt" the fact that you have five... best have one adult stay with a child in the lobby or walk around the block while the other adult checks in (either by themselves or with the other two children)

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Enjoy your stay.

[AaronJB]

The Skokie hotel could be the Holiday Inn Skokie or Doubletree, as both have the same amenity listing. The listing in question *did* have a 3.5/5 tripadvisor rating on the detail page, which would lead me to think that it may be the Doubletree, but I'd still be VERY cautious, as this listing would still definitely have the risk of being the HI.

I'd recommend looking into the Northbrook area in terms of the North burbs, as those *tend* to be nicer hotels and closer to Metra stations (in many cases.)

[chicagotraveler]

Thanks again for the prompt help and advice!

I will definitely spread the word about this site.