Headed to Chicago tomorrow to attend Blackhawks game w/ fellow FTers. Looking at dif hotels (River North, Mag Mile, UIC area). Some of the hotels are showing cheap rates $79-89, but then when you click on parking it says $44/day - crikey, isn't that higher than Manhattan? And when you consider the cost of the room being 79-89, have to laugh at parking being 1/2 the price of the room.

So - when looking at the Springhill Suites River North (since all the FS hotel lounges are closed), I noticed a promo TRS which includes free parking. Of course it's more $$, and now that I think about it is actually the same as if I booked the cheap rate & just paid the stoo-pid parking. But here's the question I have -

When you click on the TRS info (it's under deals at this hotel), you get this verbiage:

"Rates from: $119-$359
Valid Through: December 30, 2009
.Find out more
PROMOTIONAL CODE: TRS
What's this?
Book our premium parking package and enjoy stress-free valet parking! Stay in a spacious king or double suite. The offer also includes a hot breakfast buffet and free wireless internet access. We are located convenient to the Loop, Navy Pier, McCormick Place and more!"

So I thought well - if I can get a suite for the $119 - which the bolded part implies - then worth doing. But then when I click on check rooms/rates/availability, it brings up $159 for the suite. But the way the verbiage is written above, implies you're getting a suite when you book the rate.

Given I'll be in the room for such a short time, arriving at 3pm, FTers getting together for meal, game & apres game partying & then leaving the next morning to head home, I don't want to pay FS pricing regardless of where I end up. But also occurred to me that if we wanted to head back to hotel for drinks post-game (vs a bar), having a suite would be nice (note - no, not loud racuous partying, but drinkies in suite for space purposes).

Thoughts? Cheers.

Sharon

Long time with no chat with you.....

You do know that suites at a Springhill are not really suites don't you. They are just one big room with a little wall to divide the space..... I like them but I'm not sure that is what you are looking for.

Greg

Forgot about that - but the room description for the studio suite is 330sqft & the king is 420sqft. So - any thoughts that I'm entitled to a double or king based on the above bolded verbiage?

And L4P - great to hear from you! Cheers.

Sharon

Looking at the site, I'm going to guess the $120 gets you the studio suite which is 330 sq ft since there are three rates when I pull them up.

The corner suite which is 420 sq ft can be booked for $140.

I'm also betting that a phone call will get you upgraded from the studio to the corner suite at no charge. Try the elite line first and then the hotel....


l4pi

Good idea. But look at this...

Additional Information
Premium parking!
Get VIP service when you pull up your car to our front door for
valet service! Grab your valet ticket and enjoy chicago!
- Spacious King Suite or Double Suite featuring one king or
two double beds
- Complimentary Hot Breakfast included
- Free Valet parking with in and out privileges for one standard
passenger vehicle or SUV (maximum vehicle height is 6'8")
Holding Your Reservation
•We will need a credit card number to reserve your room.
Canceling Your Reservation
•You may cancel your reservation for no charge until 6:00 PM hotel time on December 26, 2009.
•Please note that we will assess a fee of 138.48 USD if you must cancel after this deadline.
If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card.

Of course I'm making the ressie after 6pm, but I don't want to get stuck w/ what sounds like a 'prepaid' at this time if I decide in the morning to stay at a dif property.

Cheers.

As mentioned, give the Plat line a call. They can call the hotel for you and find out what your options are and what they would be willing to upgrade you to. (You can even have the Plat agent to ask about any possible Plat reductions in the parking fee.)

Then after you find out what your room will be and what the parking charges will really be, you can make an informed decision on making a reservation or not.

Just an update. Laughing at myself after all the above. I ended up booking a $89 rate & not the TRS rate. The $89 had a $50 BB promo. I did the booking just before driving to Chicago & was a bit frazzled since it was snowing heavily & I needed to get on the road. The Plat line confirmed I had a king suite - I forgot that I was actually asking about the king corner suite (my bad).

Because of the major snow in Michigan I was late getting to Chicago & meeting up w/ fellow FTers, so after standing behind 8 21-yr-olds w/ 4 cases of beer checking in, I again forgot about the corner aspect of the room & just asked if I had a king suite, which I was assured yes I did. I also asked if I could be put as far away from the beer drinkers as possible, and was told 'already taken care of' Wasn't until I got to the room that I realized it was a normal king suite rather than the larger corner king I wanted, but again was late to meet FTers/in a hurry & figured if by chance we ended back at the hotel if there weren't too many FTers it would still work.

A few things just as fyi for folk...

Trip Advisor mentioned there is Sterling Self-Park 'around the corner' to the hotel where 24-hour parking is $28. That would be on Kenzie about 1/2 block from the hotel entrance (Hotel is on Dearborn between Kenzie & Hubbard). I was going to look for that but again running late as I was, at the intersection that the hotel was on I saw a self-parking sign (not Sterling) & decided since it was so close to go w/ that. Normal rate there is $44, but RI & SHS guests get $34 rate. Valet parking is $44. You take the Kenzie Street (not Clark St) elevators to ground floor, go outside, around the corner & into the entrance of the RI/SHS bldg (both outside portions are only 15 feet each). The Sterling at $28 is only 1/2 a block farther than the hotel parking, so if you want to save a further $6 on parking it's not far. Also, if someone is using the hotel parking & you arrive after 4pm & are out by 7am, the rate is $18.

Registration for both RI/SHS is one floor up (ie, to the US that would be 2nd; to Europeans that would be 1st, but it's marked w/ a "L" so not hard to figure it out).

Registration was quick (after the beer folk were checked in), status noted, took the points, and was given the $50 BB right away. Lobby seems quite nice. I noticed there's a Wii in the lobby that some kids were playing w/.

While I was up in plenty of time the next morning, I missed breakfast because I ended up checking email so no reports there. Didn't make it to the health club so no reports there either.

When I logged onto internet & put in my hotel room #, it said i-net was free for 3 days. Also said it was still free if stay was longer than 3 days, just had to re-enter the room #.

BTW - I overheard the front desk agent say to the beer drinkers that there are only 2 double rooms on each floor (the rest are kings). Evidently the beer drinkers wanted 4 double rooms all adjoining. Also, agent said that the doubles were not adjoining but were next to each other. So the beer drinkers were put on floor 15 & 5; I was in room 1622.

Room was nice (had a view of the Wrigley Bldg? Tribune Bldg? & part of Lake Michigan). Frosted wall, etc, so think it's one of the newer or newly renovated SHS. I literally was only in the room for 10 minutes before heading out & then back only to sleep. The FTers & I hit the bar after the Blackhawks game, but ended up calling it a night about 10:30pm, so no apres-apres partying & thus space wasn't an issue.

Check out was quick. They give you a card to put in the self-parking meter/exit after you put the original ticket in, which then reduces the rate to the RI/SHS rate & you can use a credit card to exit. Actually I missed the signs everywhere in the garage saying pay in the lobby (they don't mean the hotel's, but the lobby of the parking garage) & lucked out to find there was a credit card lane at the gate.

If I needed to be in Chicago again, I would certainly add this property to the list of places to stay especially if the rate was good.

Cheers.

I agree Sharon-and since the rate is often less than 1/2 what the FS properties are charging I will definetly keep this property in mind.
Thanks for the detailed rundown on the parking^ If I had known about this I would have saved $20 during my visit.