One person's food is another person's poison. Regardless of your income level, this page will show you what exactly to do to find the cheapest hotel in Chicago that is just right for your needs. Whether you're traveling to the Windy City for business or pleasure, the premier city of the Midwest offers affordable hotels to every type of person. And this page will tell you all you need to know to find discount hotels in Chicago.

Chicago is a huge metropolis. Where exactly would you like to stay? Are you going to drive a car, or do you plan to use public transportation? Taxis in Chicago are not for the cash-strapped, but an extensive network of buses and light trains will take you almost anywhere in the city.http://www.transitchicago.com/ There are also trains that go to the farthest reaches of Chicagoland like South Bend, Indiana and Kenosha, Wisconsin.http://www.rtachicago.com/ No matter what you would like to do in Chicago, choosing the right location for your hotel is a necessary step. The safe bet is to stay within walking distance from the venue of the main purpose of your visit or from the most practical home base for parking your car or taking public transportation.

Not long ago, you would have to try a number of search engines to find the best hotels. Today, you can save a lot of time and money by using a good search aggregator, otherwise known as a metasearch engine or price comparison site. You can check sites like TripAdvisor.com, Kayak.com, Priceline.com, Travelocity.com, SideStep.com, and Hotels.com, but you can also see for yourself that none of them compares to the relatively unknown metasearch engine hotelstocompare.com in terms of finding the most affordable hotels.

Use the following steps as a guide to the hotel search aggregator:

1. The following link will take you to Hotelstocompare.com page: Search for Chicago Hotels
2. On the "Refine Search" section of the page, under the "Get Rates" button, you will find the orange "Location Distance" hyperlink. Click on this link.
3. Two drop-down menus will then appear. Use them to focus your hotel search in a particular area. For example, if you want to stay within 2 kilometers or 1.2 miles from Navy Pier, use the upper drop-down menu to specify "2km (1.2 mi) from" and the lower drop-down menu to pick "Navy Pier."
4. Click the "Get Rates" button. The hotel metasearch engine will then show you all of the hotels under 1.2 miles away from Navy Pier.

Beside the "Refine Search" section of the page, you will find the "Sort" section. On this section is the "Price" hyperlink with the orange arrowhead. Since you are seeking the best budget hotels, click on this hyperlink.

The engine will then arrange the best situated hotels according to price, from the most expensive to the cheapest. Click on the arrowhead, and the hotels will be arranged from the cheapest to the costliest.

Each hotel listing will show relevant information about the hotel, such as price, address, stars, reviews, description, map, and distance to the point of reference you picked in Step 1. Use them to compare and contrast the hotels you find worth considering.

Clicking on the "plus" sign will show you an overview of what the hotel offers. The "map" hyperlink will lead you to a Google Map of the hotel. The "reviews" hyperlink will lead you to the guest reviews. When judging reviews, make sure to consider not only the message of each review, but also the number of reviews. In general, the more reviews, the more statistically meaningful they get.

If applicable, the metasearch engine will include listings of hostels. The horror flick Hostel gave them a bad rep, but some people actually prefer staying in hostels. Still, it is generally not for the faint-hearted.

So you've narrowed down your list. It's time to pick the hotel that is just suitable for your needs.

In general, a cheaper accommodation is also less comfortable accommodation. To save money, people are willing to sacrifice a little bit of comfort. Knowing your comfort level is an essential part in choosing the "best deal" hotel for you. Do you need at least 5-star luxury? Are you content in staying at any of the hotel chains?

The safest and usually the cheapest option for most people, particularly those who travel with their families are the hotel chains, including some motel ones. Hotels are like just about any other product in the Post-Industrial world. Except for the independent hotels for the rich and famous, "mass produced" brand name hotel chains just squeeze or buy out real competition. This is sad news to people who prefer independent hotels or family-owned ones, but this is reality.

The most recognizable hotel chain names are found in Chicago: Holiday Inn, Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, Marriott, Courtyard, Renaissance, Travelodge, Best Western, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Fairfield Inn, Four Points, Hampton Inn, Ramada Inn, Super 8 Motel. The hotel industry is a fairly deregulated market, so a Super 8 Motel can be a lot more expensive than a Holiday Inn.

Recommended Hotel Search Aggregator: Hotels to Compare

Chicago Transit Authority Chicago's public transportation system (serves Midway and O'Hare international airports) can be accessed on line at http://www.transitchicago.com/

Regional Transportation Authority Greater Chicago's public transportation system can be accessed online at http://www.rtachicago.com/