At the InterContinental Chicago, you pay for more than a room. You pay for an experience. Let me elaborate. I was a bit reluctant to pay a premium for location and amenities. Like any novice traveller to Chicago, I saw the mass glut of cheap accommodations out in the suburbs, and those were originally what I set my sights on. Price is a powerful signal, and the sheer discount of those options drew me in. But after doing a bit of research, I realised that distance does have its costs. The price of transit in the Chicagoland area isn't free. And it's far from what I'm used to. Car use is price prohibitive. (I knew that originally, which is why I wasn't going to drive.) But the sting of using the automobile (parking, congestion, toll roads, etc.) gets shoved off onto taxi fares and auto rental. So, I ultimately had to end up looking for a place well connected with mass transit. But mass transit has its costs too, which meant that staying at a focal point downtown had its advantages. That's what originally drew me to InterContinental. But InterContinental is much more than the right room at the right place. The decor of the rooms and the amenities available to the guest are unsurpassable. I was travelling on international business, so the ease with which I could transact in foreign currency was a draw. (They had a currency exchange right there on the premises.) And the fact that massages, dry cleaning, and event planning were available in-house was a huge plus. My work gets me tied up in knots. It also leaves little time for doing chores. So the ability to grab a massage while my suits were being finished was a relief for me. But, on top of all that, the event planning was what put InterContinental over the top. Being able to coordinate a comprehensive tour of Chicago while completing my business and managing my personal life was a weight off my shoulders--and something I won't forget. In the end, if you're a newcomer to Chicago staying in a time-crunch, the InterContinental is for you. The pricetag of rooming downtown can seem prohibitive, but when you factor in the convenience and savings in marginal costs, it's nothing in the end. And the InterContinental is not only price-competitive with the other downtown options, it also makes staying downtown the convenience and thrill it should be.
