Angela

Hi there. My friend and I are going to Chicago on the 4th of July weekend. Any hotel suggestion? I need a hotel which would be accessible to public transportation (Or is it a MUST to have a rental car?). Could we get a decent hotel for less than $100/night?

ric

You definately do NOT need a rental car in Chicago. You can get around the city and even get to the suburbs using mass transit.

I would call the major hotel chains (Hilton, Marriott, etc) and see what specials they would have. They often have weekend specials that are deeply discounted. It is probably too early for them to know what the specials will be like in July.

jane

You can do a search here--others have asked about Chicago hotels recently.

pj

Try metromix.com or chicagotraveler.com

Don

Angela, use Priceline. Go to http://www.BiddingForTravel.com and check out the Illinois-Chicago hotel topic. If you look at pages 9 and 10 in that topic, you'll see that last year (for 4th of July week) people got 3* and 4* hotels for prices in the $30-$60 range.

If you decide to try Priceline, read the Hotel FAQs on the BiddingForTravel.com Web site. There's great info on how to come up with a reasonable starting bid and how to use free rebids to maximize your chances of a successful bid.

Usual disclaimers apply--no vested interest in your using Priceline or the Web site mentioned above, you can't pick a specific hotel (just a star-level and a Priceline zone in Chicago), yadda, yadda.

Whatever you decide to do, enjoy your trip to Chicago!

Laurie

Angela, be aware that Taste of Chicago is that week. I am not sure if it actually brings a lot of people from out of town but it is definetly crowded with locals. Maybe it isn't really a problem since Don said that people were getting very cheap rooms at the same time last year.