I am trying to book a few nights in January to tag onto the front-end of a Company Conference, and the room rates are showing as $499/night!

I did the exact same thing this year in January, and paid around $180/night.

The $499 is presumably a "rack-rate", perhaps because I am still almost 6-months out?

Any idea when the hotel might start charging sensible rates?

We are after all talking about Chicago in January! Bleak doesn't even begin to describe what the weather will be like!!!