65
citywide conventions secured by Choose Chicago in 2025
202565
202449
More big shows means more compression nights. It also means more weeks when a hotel competes with every other hotel near the Loop for the same planner.
Hotel marketing in Chicago, planned around the convention calendar
We market Chicago hotels to fill the weeks McCormick Place leaves empty, and to win direct bookings in the weeks it fills, with prices shown the way the city now requires.
A Chicago hotel's year is shaped by citywide conventions, summer leisure and, since May 2026, a new 1.5% district charge on larger downtown hotels. We plan film, photography, the direct-booking site and paid media around those facts. Rates are on published pricing; managed paid media begins at $3,500 monthly, and we never mark up your spend.
Chicago-based crewConvention calendar planningCTID price disclosure checkedDirect bookings, owned ad accounts
The Chicago hotel market, in four figures
11.9M
hotel bookings in Chicago in 2025, a record
Up from 11.6 million in 2024, with a record $2.9 billion in hotel revenue.
Demand is there. The question for each property is how much of it arrives through channels that take a commission.
3.56M
downtown room nights filled in June, July and August 2025
4.3% above summer 2024 and past the 2019 record, while revenue rose only 0.8% to $949 million.
Rooms filled faster than rates grew. Summer marketing should protect rate, not just occupancy.
19%%
hotel tax in the new Tourism Improvement District
17.50%19%
Hotels with 100 or more rooms in 16 downtown and near-downtown ZIP codes pay a 1.5% charge from 1 May 2026, for five years.
Every quoted rate now needs a clean, separate line for the charge if it is passed to guests.
Sources: Block Club Chicago on Choose Chicago's 2025 results (10 February 2026); Choose Chicago summer 2025 release (1 October 2025); Chicago Sun-Times (18 March 2026) and the City of Chicago Department of Finance notice on the Tourism Improvement District charge (May 2026).
How the calendar changes a Chicago hotel's marketing
Short answers to what owners and revenue managers ask us first.
Which weeks need the most marketing?
The ones without a citywide show. Convention weeks sell themselves through group blocks. The shoulder weeks around them need leisure, staycation and local event demand, and that is where paid search and social earn their cost.
What should we do during a big McCormick Place week?
Protect direct bookings. RSNA, the radiology meeting, runs 29 November to 3 December 2026. Put the distance and transit time to the venue on your own site, with clear rates, so the booking goes to you rather than an online travel agency.
Does the new district charge change our ads?
It changes your booking pages. If you pass the 1.5% charge to guests, the city requires it to be disclosed in advance and shown separately, labeled as the CTID Transaction Charge. We check every rate display before a campaign sends traffic to it.
Does Instagram bring hotel guests?
It brings people to your door. On one client account we ran, 90 days produced 10,592 profile visits, up 1,190%, and 332 taps on the business address, up 1,085%, TERAMOK-reported. For a hotel bar or restaurant, address taps are foot traffic.
What about hotels outside the district?
Smaller and neighborhood hotels avoid the new charge and can say so plainly in price-led campaigns. Their story is the neighborhood, not the convention center.
Spend where the city is not spending for you
I handle the budgets, and a fair question from any hotel owner is this: why pay for marketing when Choose Chicago is marketing the city? The answer is that the city fills the convention weeks. Nobody fills your Tuesday in February but you.
The new district charge is expected to raise more than $50 million a year for Choose Chicago. That helps the whole downtown. It does not choose your hotel over the one across the street.
So we put most of a hotel's paid media into shoulder weeks, add nothing on top of the media bill, and register every ad account to the hotel itself.
How we run a Chicago hotel engagement
01
Map the year
We lay your occupancy history over the citywide show calendar and mark every soft week for the next twelve months.
02
Audit the booking path
Rate displays, the CTID line, page speed on a phone and the distance to McCormick Place, checked before any money is spent.
03
Shoot the property
Our crew films rooms, lobby, bar and views, timed for the season you want to sell.
04
Fill the soft weeks
Search, social and email aimed at leisure and local guests for the weeks without a show in town.
05
Review after the first, second and third month
Direct bookings and rate against last year, reviewed with you. No 12-month lock-in.
Swipe or tap a step
Questions from Chicago hotel owners
Hotels with 100 or more rooms in 16 ZIP codes, including the Loop, River North, the Near West Side and the area around McCormick Place, from 1 May 2026. It is 1.5% of room revenue and lifts the combined hotel tax there to 19%.
Mostly for direct bookings, not for demand. Use those weeks to move guests from travel agencies to your own site, and save the larger budget for the weeks around them.
Our fee for running ads on Google and Meta starts from $3,500 each month; organic social begins at $3,500. Building a direct-booking site falls between $25,000 and $50,000. For a hotel film, budget $15,000 to $50,000. Platforms bill the media to you directly.
Yes. We shoot rooms in blocks the front desk releases, and public spaces early in the morning. Exteriors are planned around the season and the Film Office rules for any street work.
Yes, including neighborhood and airport hotels. Without the convention pull, the work leans on search, reviews and local partnerships.
Sources
- Block Club Chicago, Chicago tourism saw a boost in 2025, 10 February 2026
- Choose Chicago, Chicago hotels set record for summer room demand, 1 October 2025
- Chicago Sun-Times, hotel tax increase for the tourism improvement district, 18 March 2026
- Chicago finance department notice: the 1.5% district charge, informational points (May 2026)
- RSNA, annual meeting dates for 2026
Send us last year's occupancy by week
We will mark your soft weeks against the 2027 show calendar and propose where the first $5,000 of media should go. John prices the rest in writing.
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