HotelChatter || Bad Rate :: Hotel Indigo Chicago Downtown for Mother's Day

[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on April 28, 2008 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]

We went looking at boutique hotels in Chicago to answer a question. How bad would the damage be if a husband wanted to take the mother of his children away for the weekend? We pulled up the nights of May 9 and 10 and came out better than expected, with nightly rates under $200 before taxes at Hotel Sax, Raffaello Hotel, Kimpton's Hotel Monaco, and W Chicago City Center.

So why is a standard at the sorta-hip 3.5-star corporate boutique chain Hotel Indigo nearly $600 (with taxes) for the entire weekend? (Not per night.) That's more than the Good Rate at Affinia Chicago, without the junior suite, the Asti Spumanti, and the edible chocolate body frosting.

They are offering an "Indigo Indulge" package pictured here, but to call it underwhelming would be too kind. For an extra $20 a night you get a dessert to split and some Starbucks coffee. Couldn't we just buy that ourselves for, oh I don't know, $20?!

It looks to us like the suits have been spending too much time staring at spreadsheets instead of checking out the competition. There are only four hotels in Chicago priced higher for that weekend on Expedia.

One is the China Doll Inn near Lincoln Park, which we would have considered for the Bad Rate if we could decide for sure it wasn't something out of a strange dream. The others are Sutton Place, The White Hall, and Trump International. Oops.

We know The Donald's ego won't allow his hotel's rates to come down to market levels, but Hotel Indigo...? Take your sweetie elsewhere for Mother's Day romance.

Hotel Reviews:
Hotel Indigo Chicago Downtown Gold Coast

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