For a big city, Chicago has very few cool hotels. The James is about it. Sure there are the big classic ones like the Peninsula, etc. but those can be so boring. Then there are the House of Blues and Hard Rock hotels, which just feel so midwestern, fake and cheesy. I stayed at the James in Feb '07, it was freezing in Chicago. We got a great deal on the room, and they upgraded us to a "suite" (interior view, sitting room). The room and public area designs are better than your average W, they had a cool art exhibit in the elevator bank, and the service was friendly and relaxed (the bellmen said what's up dude, which if done genuinely and politely is so much better than yes sir, yes sir all the time). There's also a decent restaurant, and a "secret" lounge that the concierge brought us to through the kitchen so we could skip the line outside (kind of bland and boring inside, though).

Until Andre Balazs moves to the Windy City, this is where I'm crashing.

So do you think the package is worth the price?

You know, if you do the math, include fest tickets, three nights with breakfast it's not a bad deal - around 300 bucks a night with the Standard package - and no hassles during your trip. Throw in a free upgrade to a suite, and I'm in.

I hear the best things about the James from a lot of people. It was one of those things where in a month three of my friends were like, "have you heard of the james? it's really cool. i liked it alot." random. but what's up with their expansion plan? they used to have a palm springs hotel. they need to branch out again.