For next year’s HS seniors and folks planning ahead, this info comes from my sons’ coach via Peter Sargent at Unifieds:
UNIFIED DATES for 2017
The Palmer House dates, for Chicago, will be February 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. ***FOUR DAYS!!!
The New York dates are January 21 and 22.
The Los Angeles dates are February 11 and 12.
Thanks for this post! I noticed that the Chicago dates are all mid-week. Is this normal? Also, do most schools attend the LA unified as well and do they always do them at the Westin? Sorry for the questions. I can’t believe it’s finally our turn! 
How soon should I book a room at Palmer House? How much do people usually pay per night at during Unifieds?
@titanic22 - we were able to get a great rate on the executive floor by prepaying in the summer. You might call ad see if they have any such promotions this year. Strongly recommend the Exec. Floor as we got breakfast, snacks and drinks and it gave me a great place to hang out when D needed room to herself to warm up. And gave D a great place to hang with friends outside of the hotel room. Saved us from having to go out and I think probably saved us $ on food too.
p.s. we did add a day on the front end later and they honored the same rate for that extra day.
p.p.s. If driving to Chicago, be advised parking is expensive. Someone recommended to us we google parking and we were able to get a deal for the week better than what the hotel fee was. But definitely factor in parking. I want to say it was $40 or $50 per day at the Palmer House.
Palmer House is already booked! As is the Hampton Inn.
@MTheaterMom - I think that the Palmer House and several Hilton hotels in Chicago are just not taking reservations yet for those dates - if you look, all dates from January 29 onward are booked.
We used spothero and saved money on parking at the Palmer House. We had a regular room and ate out. No problem. Lots of inexpensive choices nearby.
Palmer house can’t be booked. They didn’t start taking resies until August or so. Don’t fret. I know folks who booked 2 weeks before unifieds – that place is HUGE!
Can anyone describe the quality/variety of the breakfast/snacks at the executive floor?
Parking was $45 a night this year. Incredibly expensive. If you’re driving a distance (like us) the gas and parking expense was close to flying. Wouldn’t recommend.
It’s been several years for us, but the year we went, friends we traveled with got an amazing deal on Southwest - booking flight + hotel. We used husband’s points for our stay, but also had cheap SW flights. D wanted to stay on the same floor with her friend, so we were not on the Executive floor, but had access to it with our room key, which was wonderful! I think it’s been redone since we were there, so breakfast/snacks are probably different now. I remember it being good with some choices - not huge, but plenty to choose from & good.
It has been a few years since we were there, but at the time, the executive floor had a deluxe continental breakfast which included things like fresh home-baked goods, fresh fruit, yogurt, coffees, juices, cereals, granola, etc… I can’tt remember if there were any hot items or not. There were some snacks and drinks available throughout the day including fresh fruit, maybe pretzels or snack mix and cookies and then hot hors d’oeuvres available in the evening. I think there were cookies/brownies and maybe even ice cream available later in the evening. The offerings changed nightly but some of the things I remember were pretty basic things like min-quiches, mini quesadillas, small egg rolls, etc…cheese and crackers, etc… The hotel makes its own muffins, pastries, brownies, cookies etc… To us it seemed the food was plentiful and tasty. But it depends on how hungry you are - especially at night. For us it was the perfect amount for breakfast and the convenience of having it right there in the moorings was super. At night, it may not be enough food for dinner for some as it is definitely hors d’oeuvres. But for us most nights, again, it was nice to have some food and just hang out in the hotel instead of venturing out in the cold.
@MTheaterMom, those dates are normal. It’s usually Mon-Wed, but Thursday has been added for 2017.
The breakfasts were fine on the executive floor, the evening hors d’oeuvres not so great, but when the blizzard hit and room service was running a two hour wait, we were grateful for the food!
@MTheaterMom for planning purposes, you may want to expect to arrive early Sunday or late Saturday (depending on distance you must travel). My S was there 2015 and at least 2 schools (not sure if they were official Unified schools) had dance calls on Sunday. I also remember one of the national coaching groups had a meeting on that Sunday. As you plan ahead, that may be something you factor into your travel schedule.
D had auditions on Sunday for Syracuse and NYU , both schools that are not “official” unified participant, but have auditions in Chicago around the same time as unifieds
Two years ago Emerson held auditions the Saturday and Sunday before. We flew up Saturday to ensure that we would get there in time for auditions on Sunday in case there was a blizzard. It helps to factor in bad weather when deciding when to travel to Unifieds in NY and Chicago, for sure.
Agree on the executive floor advice- it was a GREAT move for us. We generally ate just breakfast/coffee there - maybe a snack at other times of the day. It was nice to have a place to get away from the crowd to grab water/coffee/tea or a snack between auditions. As @IfYouOnlyKnew mentioned, a number of schools this year held auditions on Sunday (or at least the dance call portion); I agree it may be wise to schedule to arrive Saturday. I booked months in advance (and included both Saturday and Wednesday nights initially). I altered the reservation to adjust to my D’s final audition schedule.
To @GSOMTMom’s point, we were one of the unfortunate souls caught in the 2015 Blizzard. My S had the last CCPA dance call slot on Sunday. We should have arrived mid morning, but we just made it to our room with enough time for him to change and walk two blocks to the dance call. Keep in mind, check in can take a long time with the amount of people arriving at the same time. If I could do it again, I would have arrived Saturday.
I’m also another cosign for the executive floor. It made for a very pleasant stay.