Chicago airports

A cool hotel room, pricey Super Bowl stays + an airport funding idea

Hotels, , ,

We have three travel tidbits for you today.

A cool hotel room in Nashville. Not so surprising Super Bowl LX hotel pricing. And an idea Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is toying with.

First, Nashville

The Stuck at the Airport hotel team has a soft spot for themed hotel rooms, even though the pricing for these is often beyond our budget.

The Ryman Vinyl Suite at the boutique Noelle hotel in downtown Nashville is the latest to catch our eye.

Created in partnership with the city’s most iconic venue, the Ryman Auditorium, the suite has a vinly wall installion with playable records, original album covers, and a rare Washburn guitar made from the Ryman’s original 1890s oak pews and signed by B.B. King himself.

The wall are covered in the Ryamn’s photos of Johhnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Minnie Pearl, and other American music icons and a variety of other cool features. Starting rate: $959.

Super Bowl LX hotel prices

Thinking of joining in the Super Bowl festivities in Santa Clara, CA on February 8 this year? Get ready to pony up.

We don’t which teams are playing yet, but the lowest prices listed on Tickemaster on Sunday evening were $8,000. The highest: over $28,600.

If you go, you’ll need a place to stay. A few days ago, Hotels.com data was showing hotel searches in Santa Clara 395% year over year 2- and 3-star hotels near Levi’s Stadium carging five to ten times their normal rates with nightly prices exceeding $1,000 in some cases.

Chicago airports exploring sponsorship schemes

Stadiums, concert halls and festivals do it. So why not airports?

The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), which operates O’Hare (ORD) and Midway International (MDW) Airports, is actively exploring sponsorships for a variety of amenities and locations at each airport.

A Request for Information (RFI) was issued on January 14, 2026, with responses due by February 17, 2026.

In that RFI, interested parties are asked to rank how interested they might be in naming and sponsorship oportunities for everything from restrooms and animal relief areas to children’s play areas, parking structures, water bottle refill stations and trash or recycling cans.

Take a look at the list and let us know what you think.

St. Patrick’s Day events at Chicago Airports

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ORD ST PAT

Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports are joining the citywide celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with Irish dancing, green beer, live Celtic music and… roaming leprechauns.

Festivities at both O’Hare and Midway include the famous Trinity Irish Dancers on Friday, March 13, with performances from 5-7 p.m. in Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 5 at O’Hare and from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Concourse A at Midway.

Live Celtic music from Sean Sullivan and his band One of The Girls will take place on Monday, March 16 from 4:30-7 p.m. at Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5 on the post-security side of the terminal.

And on St. Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 17, concessions throughout both airports will offer dozens of “Shamrock Specials” ranging from green beer, green popcorn and a wide variety of green merchandise. Leprechauns will also be popping up at both O’Hare and Midway and anyone who snaps a selfie with the Irish fairy can post the photo on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (use hashtag #IrishatORD or #IrishatMDW) and share treats from, you guessed it, a pot of gold.

Chicago airports get their own radio stations

Entertainment, , ,

Farmer listening to radio - courtesy U.S. National Archives

Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports now have their own radio stations.

The 24-hour “AIR Chicago” was created for the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) by Clear Chanel Airports, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc., and features smooth jazz music interspersed with airport traffic and weather reports, business news, information about the airports and advertising.

Clear Channel has the indoor advertising contract at the Chicago airports “and this was an opportunity to start a different kind of branding, get more people interested in what we do at the airport, and reach out to a lot more people,” said Karen Pride, CDA spokeswoman.

Pride said the CDA has already recorded “vignettes” about holiday travel that will begin running on AIR Chicago in December and is working on others that might cover everything from sustainability efforts underway at the airports to the art and live music programs offered. There might also be opportunities for airline partners to record messages.

“There are a lot of applications that could be integrated into AIR Chicago,” said Pride. “The possibilities are endless.”

The AIR Chicago programming can be found on iHeartRadio.com and the iHeartRadio app, on the CDA’s website, and on Clear Channel’s local HD2 digital station, WKSC-FM/103.5 KISS FM.

While AIR Chicago is the first 24-hour radio station dedicated to information about the Chicago airports, it is not the first airport radio station. Some airports, such as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, have low-power AM radio stations broadcasting airport parking and traffic information, with the audio also available online. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport offers a web radio player showcasing northwest music.