Flop Down at the Bellwood Hotel, Chicago

$38 per night for a hotel room on Lincoln Road in Chicago. Is it possible? Apparently it is, if you do not book in advance. The Bellwood Hotel (1409 W Diversey Parkway Chicago, IL 60614; 773-404-6000) offers you dirt cheap rooms which you cannot book.

You have to land up in person, because apparently they haven't heard of this latest fad called a reservation system, or credit cards, or a website. You slip cash under a window to the guy behind the counter which is inside a cage. But they compensate for their lack of technological advancement by keeping rates as low as they were in the previous century.

I've seen a lot many Chicago motels in better shape than this so-called hotel, but even the motels usually charge in excess of $50 per night. Of course, these motels don't blow in stale cigarette smoke along with the air conditioning, which is what the Bellwood's airconditioning system seems to do. Or maybe it's just the years and years of ash and stubs which have penetrated into the walls and layered the furniture and floors and everything else.

On a positive note, if all you want is a place to sleep near to the attractions in Chicago without paying through your nose, well then, hold your nose and sleep soundly at the Bellwood.