Weekend Trip to Indianapolis

Last week (before the Colts playoff game versus the Ravens) the Ultimate Sports Wife mentioned she did not have to teach ice skating for a full day the following Saturday morning (tomorrow) and asked if we should go anywhere for the weekend. I was already planning to drive to Indianapolis for the AFC Championship Game if the Colts defeated the Baltimore so I mentioned to Nicole we should go to Indianapolis if the Colts won their game (and somewhere else if they did not).

Booking the Hotel
When I got back from Indianapolis last Saturday night, the Colts had won and Nicole thought a weekend in Indianapolis would be fun, so we booked a hotel that night – the night before their opponent was known as the Jets defeated the Chargers on Sunday.

For the first time, I used Hotwire.com since my usual hotel sites (Marriott.com and Hilton.com) were more expensive than I liked. Hotwire offered a 4-star “Downtown Indianapolis Hotel” for $79 per night – much less than the $220 for the Marriott Downtown and $130 for the Courtyard at the Capitol. Hotwire wrote that their 4-star hotels included the “InterContinental, Hyatt, Omni, and other prestigious hotel brands.” Those brand names made Nicole comfortable so I booked the hotel on Hotwire. However, the University Place Hotel & Conference Center Indianapolis was the hotel that we actually booked.

My thought – What hotel is that? Unbelievable. Let me go check tripadvisor.com now. TripAdvisor had mixed reviews – some people thought the hotel was great, others wrote that it was a priceline.com trap since the hotel was over a mile from downtown on the campus of IUPUI. I was not sure what to think – but with no refunds I did not have many other options at that point.