unforum

[Clayfoot]

[Anton P. Nym]

Yeah, looks like I either misremembered the price or botched the currency conversion... or maybe May is a deader month than I thought.

Still, it's the best price if you want to stay in River North.

-- Steve'll vouch for the facilities, so long as you're just looking for a place to sleep that's really handy to the CTA. Otherwise, amenities are a tad, er, lacking.

[logic_phyber]

I'm definitely interested, but I think we should have someone close to chicago start looking for group rates maybe?
It would be really nice to have almost everyone in a single place. Gotta say that for the money, if we don't get a group rate, I may be looking at some place in like joliet, or the like. What sunurban cities would be good to look for that are closer, possibly?

[Clayfoot]

[Svengoolie]

[logic_phyber]

Personally, I am currently looking at somewhere outside chicago, where the rates are cheaper, joliet, for example, is like 50-60 a night. Withy group rates, and once we have a venue, we could easily double-quadruple, for those of us who are rather poor

[aliendial]

Too far from the Navy Pier.

[Svengoolie]

So, do we know how much weekend tickets are going to be?

[Dionysus]

I'm starting to look in the possibility of coming, now that I'm making soem small amount of money at Borders...

We'll see.

[Varin]

Those of us in Chicago have been discussing possible hotels where we could have a main base like we did in New York. Of course, that doesn't mean everyone would have to stay there, but if we get a group of people we may be able to get a group discount.

I was planning on checking out hotels in person next weekend, but I just found out I'm going to IDEAS fest. yay! So I'm shooting for the week after that. I felt a lot better about the hotel in NY knowing that someone had been there to scout out the rooms. In order to get a quote for group rates when I go, I'd need to know how big the group is going to be. Looking at a few of the online hotel reservation sites, it appears that group rates start at 5 rooms or 9 rooms (depending on who you talk to).

Also, for those that are comparing Chicago rates to outside-Chicago rates - remember that the big hotels that are right in the center of downtown are going to be pricey. There are many hotels that are in different neighborhoods may be cheaper.

Also, when considering the places like Joliet remember to check on train service availability before you book your room if you're counting on the train. Joliet, for example, doesn't have train service into Chicago on the weekends according to the metra site. I know that other stations have limited service on the weekends, leaving and arriving only every couple of hours.

[logic_phyber]

Thanks for that info. If you are going to look at group rates, i would get a quote for 10+rooms, since it looks like we have at least 10-12 people going, then we can see the prices, and decide how many there will be.

[Varin]

[Svengoolie]

Hey, most of you don't know me, but if you are on a tight budget (and since I'm a loser and will probably be going alone otherwise) you could stay at my place on Friday and Saturday night. I live about 30 minutes from the city on a typical weekend day. I would drive us out there, all I ask is that you pay for my ticket! I don't know how much they cost, but it would obviously be a lot cheaper than buying a room, and this way we could all benefit.

I know it would be awkward just coming to some internet dude's house, but I figured I would throw it out there. We can start talking now, break the ice and what have not.

[brat-sampson]

Just as a catch-up check, are there any other UK peeps out there who were even remotely considering making this trek?

[thunderclap8]

I booked my flight today! Arriving noon Friday, leaving Monday afternoon.

So the next step is hotels. The best rate I can find downtown is still the previously mentioned Red Roof Inn for $133/night with two double beds.

Thoughts/opinions? I'm the kind who likes to have this sort of thing locked in well in advance.