I live in a great little midwest college town: Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. In fact, I recently blog-bragged about some of its great qualities here.
Just last week we were excited to open a new Hyatt Place hotel in the heart of our vibrant downtown. It sits in the past footprint of the Bailey-Rugg Building, aka Metropolitan Building (1871-2008). The building was undergoing a major rehab when it caught fire in the morning of November 7, 2008.
Bailey-Rugg Building circa 1930s. The Italianate style building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Originally built in 1871, the building was undergoing a major remodel, as seen here in 2008 after new windows were installed.
A massive downtown fire in the early morning of November 7, 2008 destroyed the historical building.
So what does all this have to do with my post title? Upon Hyatt Place Champaign opening on June 24, 2014, I posted the following tweet:
The footprint of the Bailey-Rugg Building provided the location for a new Hyatt Place!
Hat tip to Dia (@TheDealMommy) who reminded me of the running Hyatt Place social media promotion “See It, Share It” which you tag your photo of a Hyatt Place experience with #HyattPlace and #HPwin and share it on Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. Every day, one person was selected to win a free night stay at a Hyatt Place! Well… I won!
Wow! A free night for a tweet… sweet!
And what perfect timing! We had plans to visit Chicago for a quick trip over the weekend and Gary happened to post a positive review of the Hyatt Place Chicago River North here.
I’ll let Gary’s review speak for me, because we had a very similar nice stay with excellent customer service, especially from Joshua, the assistant manager whom I believe had a hand in the @HyattPlaceChiRN tweets after I thanked him for his offer of a complimentary dessert for us and said I appreciated the humorous tweets. I’ll let the tweets tell the story. Thanks again, Hyatt Place Chicago River North!
I poked fun at Hyatt Place Chicago River North that the TV welcome was not updated.
Hyatt Place Chicago got in the last laugh! A true #HPwin!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.
I like how you give a historical background in your posts! Very nice 🙂
Thanks, Adam!
I find I get so much more out of traveling when I dig a little into the history of a location or its people. Makes for a more enjoyable experience, memories and stories to share.