DR edisaurus - I'd look into hotel rooms sooner than later. A friend of mine just booked a few days at his usual stand-by, The Skyline - which also happens to be my usual stand-by - and for some strange unknown reason, their traditionally low January rates are almost double(!) what they were last year. And once he started checking some other properties, he noticed the same trend elsewhere. However, he did find that the rates on the East Side tended to run lower, even at some of the nicer hotels.