A New HGV Points Option in Downtown Chicago

[Zenichiro]

I came across an interesting discovery while looking at Chicago options in RCI.


The original Virgin Hotels Chicago property has changed quite a bit over the last year. The hotel was sold in 2025 and is now being converted into Sports Illustrated Resorts Chicago through a partnership involving Accelerated Assets and Travel + Leisure.

What caught my attention is that the property is now showing up as a bookable option through RCI.

Last year, when I was planning a Chicago trip, Virgin Hotels Chicago was available through American Express Hotel Collection and was typically running somewhere between $200 and $400 per night. The hotel has always been well regarded, currently holding a 4.6 rating on TripAdvisor with nearly 4,000 reviews.

We ended up staying at the Pendry Chicago instead, but we did have dinner at the Virgin Hotel restaurant and it was excellent. The property always seemed like one of the more unique hotel options downtown.

While browsing RCI, I found the hotel listed as Sports Illustrated Resorts Chicago. Out of curiosity, I selected a random week and found availability for 5,440 HGV points plus about $168 in fees for a week.

For HGV owners, this could be a great way to stay in a prime downtown Chicago location using points instead of paying cash rates. The location is hard to beat, with easy access to the Riverwalk, Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue, and the Loop.

It’s not every day that a former Amex Hotel Collection hotel becomes available through RCI, so this is definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on for future Chicago trips.

 

[Zenichiro]

One other thing that stood out while researching this property is that Chicago appears to be part of a broader Sports Illustrated Resorts expansion by Travel + Leisure. There is already a Sports Illustrated Resorts Nashville property, and a much larger Sports Illustrated Resorts Tuscaloosa development is currently under construction near the University of Alabama.

The Alabama resort isn’t expected to open until 2028 and is planned to include hotel accommodations, vacation ownership units, condos, restaurants, and sports-themed entertainment spaces.

What I found interesting is that neither the Nashville property nor the future Tuscaloosa resort appeared in my RCI searches. At least for now, Chicago seems to be the only Sports Illustrated Resorts property currently showing up in the RCI exchange network.

Overall, this looks like an interesting new play for Travel + Leisure. Rather than focusing solely on traditional beach and resort destinations, they appear to be building a portfolio that includes urban and sports-focused properties tied into the vacation ownership ecosystem. It will be interesting to see whether additional Sports Illustrated Resorts properties eventually become available through RCI.

 

[mountainboy]

One other thing that stood out while researching this property is that Chicago appears to be part of a broader Sports Illustrated Resorts expansion by Travel + Leisure. There is already a Sports Illustrated Resorts Nashville property, and a much larger Sports Illustrated Resorts Tuscaloosa development is currently under construction near the University of Alabama.

The Alabama resort isn’t expected to open until 2028 and is planned to include hotel accommodations, vacation ownership units, condos, restaurants, and sports-themed entertainment spaces.

What I found interesting is that neither the Nashville property nor the future Tuscaloosa resort appeared in my RCI searches. At least for now, Chicago seems to be the only Sports Illustrated Resorts property currently showing up in the RCI exchange network.

Overall, this looks like an interesting new play for Travel + Leisure. Rather than focusing solely on traditional beach and resort destinations, they appear to be building a portfolio that includes urban and sports-focused properties tied into the vacation ownership ecosystem. It will be interesting to see whether additional Sports Illustrated Resorts properties eventually become available through RCI.

More folks to enter the funnel....
Lots of $$$ in events/sports/concerts, so T&L/Wyndham is going for them (just like the National Park/Outdoorsy crowd with Eddie Bauer collection, many pulled from WorldMark etc).
They may use rentals via RCI to get fresh meat for sales folks + earn rental $ until they sell enough TS units via the new program... I believe they are pushing all of these thru their usual TS owners channels also (via WorldMark/Club Wyndham etc)...
Thx for the nice tip re the SI at Chicago!

 

[Zenichiro]

More folks to enter the funnel....
Lots of $$$ in events/sports/concerts, so T&L/Wyndham is going for them (just like the National Park/Outdoorsy crowd with Eddie Bauer collection, many pulled from WorldMark etc).
They may use rentals via RCI to get fresh meat for sales folks + earn rental $ until they sell enough TS units via the new program... I believe they are pushing all of these thru their usual TS owners channels also (via WorldMark/Club Wyndham etc)...
Thx for the nice tip re the SI at Chicago!

Yeah I think it’s a gem for sure as long as they keep it to the former standards. It was about $300 per night for a base room with Amex THC and you can book the 1bd suites for around $300 per week.

 

[jp10558]

Overall, this looks like an interesting new play for Travel + Leisure. Rather than focusing solely on traditional beach and resort destinations, they appear to be building a portfolio that includes urban and sports-focused properties tied into the vacation ownership ecosystem. It will be interesting to see whether additional Sports Illustrated Resorts properties eventually become available through RCI.

On the Club Wyndham forum where this Sports Illustrated has been discussed in a thread, there is a lot of skepticism that this will be a winning move, or at least that there would be much interest in a college sports timeshare location. It feels like seasonality would be extreme, there'd be game weekends that were home games, and maybe like Homecoming or general alumni events? But most people I know who do follow college sports don't go there for many games, they watch on TV. Many would be quite a trip, and for those who are closer, they would just make it a day trip.

There was then the question about if there would be any other draw, because you can't really run a timeshare on ~4-10 weekends a year. T&L just closed a bunch of highly seasonal resorts in the NE and these seem as / more limited draw than those. Those were at least widely attractive to all sorts of people for ~3 months a year. These are attractive to a highly niche set of people a few weekends a year.

 

[marciaheitz]

I never understood why the Wyndham property closed. It was in an EXCELLENT location and it was the only true timeshare in downtown Chicago. It had to be popular...so why did it end up closing? I actually stayed there once.

 

[Zenichiro]

On the Club Wyndham forum where this Sports Illustrated has been discussed in a thread, there is a lot of skepticism that this will be a winning move, or at least that there would be much interest in a college sports timeshare location. It feels like seasonality would be extreme, there'd be game weekends that were home games, and maybe like Homecoming or general alumni events? But most people I know who do follow college sports don't go there for many games, they watch on TV. Many would be quite a trip, and for those who are closer, they would just make it a day trip.

There was then the question about if there would be any other draw, because you can't really run a timeshare on ~4-10 weekends a year. T&L just closed a bunch of highly seasonal resorts in the NE and these seem as / more limited draw than those. Those were at least widely attractive to all sorts of people for ~3 months a year. These are attractive to a highly niche set of people a few weekends a year.

Well this is a decent location for Chicago. Just 15min to United center and 5 mins to museums, shopping exc. HGV Mag Mile is just a few blocks away.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Maybe Sports Illustrated should consider a location near a toxic waste dump in Hammond Indiana like the Bears are. Of course that proposal will never go forward once they figure the site will cost several billion dollars to clean up.