877chicago.com is the online side of the Chicago Tourism Board, so I thought it would be a trustworthy way to book a room in Chicago. They offered the best price I could find for the Palmer House, so I booked.

This is going to be a bit long, but bear with the background. There are 8 couples going to Chicago to celebrate a birthday. Originally 4 were arriving Friday and staying 2 nights, and the other 4 were arriving Saturday and staying 1 night. So, I made two reservations for 4 rooms each. One couple changed their plans to arrive on Friday, so I wanted to change my reservation. The reservations are said to be fully changeable/cancellable until the day before arrival.

The web site does not allow for changing just one room in a reservation, so I called customer service. The first person I talked to told me that changes like that needed to be made directly with the hotel. That once the reservation is made, the people at 877chicago cannot change it.

So, I called the hotel. They had no record of our reservation, even after I waited on hold for 15 minutes as the customer service representative tried to track them down. She knew where I had made the reservation, so I presume she looked in the appropriate places. In any event, she told me that their contract with 877chicago explicitly states that the hotel does not make any changes to the reservations. Only 877chicago is allowed to do that.

Back on the phone to 877chicago. The agent there tells me that sometimes the online reservations managers at the hotels don't bother putting outside reservations into their system until 24-48 hours before arrival, but they'll fax our reservation over immediately so check back with the hotel in 30 minutes. And no, there's nothing we can do to change one room on the account. The hotel also informed me that since the 8 rooms were all reserved under one name, that person would have to be there for each party to check in. There was no way, through the hotel or 877chicago, to add names to the reservation once it was made.

Perhaps this should have been obvious to me, but it wasn't. We made reservations last year at the Hyatt Regency for a large group, and each person as they arrived knew which name their room was reserved under and checked in independently. 877chicago claims the information is on their web site, but I could not find it even after they told me that.

So, the easiest thing to do at that point was to make new reservations, one at a time, for each couple and cancel the original reservations. There was still availability at the hotel, so I did that. This was Monday of this week.

I thought I was good to go at that point, and called the hotel today to confirm that we really do have rooms. Again, they had no record of my reservation. But I was smart this time and told them what 877chicago had told me about the reservations maybe not being put into the system yet. So, the agent talked to the online reservations manager, and he indicated that he has not had a fax from 877chicago in over a month. In addition, they've had several problems with people showing up to a totally full hotel with what they thought were reservations made through 877chicago, but not actually having rooms since the hotel was never informed.

The agent I spoke to at the Palmer House was wonderfully helpful. She looked and looked to get us the best rate she could, as she knew that the 877chicago reservations were for $129/night. She asked if I was a teacher, which I'm not, but I mentioned that one of the people in our group is. She was able to secure all 8 rooms for $127/night as long as that teacher shows her ID at check in. She patiently took the info for all 8 rooms and sent me confirmations instantly by email. Also, room type and bed type are guaranteed when making a reservation directly through the hotel, so that is a bonus!

I don't know what's really supposed to go on between 877chicago and their hotels, but this was a nightmare that thankfully had a happy ending. I've totally cancelled my reservations with 877chicago and emailed them with my complaints. If I hear anything useful from them I'll let you know.

That's a good price for the Palmer House, so I think you have made out in the end.

Thanks for telling us about 877chicago.com. I have never used them and also find it is not a good idea to do group purchases through 2 parties/vendors as you did, just IMHO. I don't.

In my experience you are always better off - esp with something complicated like this - working directly with the venue - unless you;re getting a huge savings from a third party.

If the latter is the case make sure the third party sends you a confirmation email with all the info specified. (If they're not capable of doing this - I wouldn;t work with them at all.)

I booked through 877Chicago about 3yrs ago and remember not being satisfied. It was a hassle and NOT cheap!

nytraveler - I did get an email confirmation from 877chicago, but that wouldn't have done me any good had the hotel been booked when we arrived. I think this weekend they have plenty of availability, so they probably would have honored the reservation, but I didn't want to take any chances.

JJ5 - Good point about not booking groups through a second party. My only other group booking like this was the Hyatt one I mentioned, and it was through the hotel directly. Never again!