need advice on a hotel and rental agent (Chicago, Lincoln: apartments, leasing agent)

[80sman]

im leaving for chicago in a few weeks from the uk and need to book into a half tidy hotel, doesn't have to be anything super but i dont wanna end up in one of the dives that rent rooms by the hour also i need a rental agent i'm looking to rent an apartment in lakeview or lincoln park, but i wont be driving over there so need a good agent that will take me around, any suggestions will be appreciated...

[chet everett]

In the broad business district of Chicago, which encompasses the Loop, Lakefront and North Michigan Ave there are really no hotels / motels that make money on "by the hour" rooms. {I'm sure there are some folks that go to a moderately priced hotel for a midday hookup off Craigslist or what have you, but they'll be paying for a whole night's stay and competing with expense account types to do so...} so you can put those fears aside. That said, the cleanliness of some of the less expensive places is sometimes a little questionable. Probably better to use price line and shoot for a good price on a hotel that has some extra rooms than go with a place that has low everyday prices, if you catch my drift.

The reviews on the various sites mostly seem believable, and with the high percentage of business travelers there are often many more rooms than takers, especially on Saturdays...

When it comes to "rental agents" I would strongly advise doing a great deal of "pre-shopping" as many parts of the city have been massively overbuilt with a glut of condos that are now available for rent. Many of these are available directly from the owners that are losing money and cannot afford the commission of an agent. Even if you do not go that route you still ought to have a handle on what is a fair price for a given area / size of unit...

[jdiddy]

There used to be a sticky with all the apartment services on here, but apparently its been modified to have less useful information. There are lots of rental agencies, I know Apartment People was voted the best in the Chicago Readers last 'best of' polls. Not sure how much that really means, but there you go.

Probably a good idea to look at Craigslist and The Reader to get a good idea on pricing for those neighborhoods (and others that offer similar amenities to Lincoln Park/Lakeview). We used an apartment service to view some apartments last year after getting tired of filtering through all the crap on craigslist, and the woman who showed us around knew very little of Chicago outside the Gold Coast. But, then again, she didn't work for the Apartment People, which is why her company didn't win any awards.

[ToriaT]

Priceline. Bid sixty dollars for a three star in the river north gold coast area. You will get a decent hotel for a good price. I've done this and gotten both Embassy suite and recently the Ambassador East.

[babyblues2]

I used a very good leasing agent through American Reality. He showed me properites in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Streeterville and Gold Coast (all areas I was interested in). If you would like his name, please PM me.