All of the hotels off of South Neil Street near the intersection of Neil and Kirby Avenue are very close to the tennis complex (walking distance if it's nice, but maybe a 12-15 minute walk). These include Hawthorne Suites, I Hotel and Conference Center, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites. Chain restaurants around. Quick drive to downtown Champaign which has cooler bars and restaurants, and fairly close to Campustown (Green Street on campus).
Then there's all of the hotels in Champaign's mall area (the indoor mall, strip malls, book store, all the chain stores, Target, etc. like most cities) just north of 1-74 encompassing N. Prospect Ave., and N. Neil St. Those are probably a ten minute drive to the tennis complex. But near lots of (chain) shopping and food and movie theater. These include LaQuinta Inn, Super 8, Baymont Inn (fine when I stayed there), Courtyard Champaign, Country Inn and Suites, Wingate by Wyndham, Drury Inn.
Another cluster in north Urbana at 1-74 and North Lincoln- a pretty decent Holiday Inn, Sleep Inn, Comfort Suites, Super 8, Ramada. This actually isn't that far from the aforementioned mall area and still about 10 minute drive to the tennis complex.
Further east in Urbana at 1-74 and North Cummingham are Eastland Suites and Motel 6 (both south of I-74) and Hanland Inn & Suites (north of I-74). Again, just a couple of exits and 5 minutes to the mall area and maybe 10-12 min to the tennis complex. My parents stayed at Eastland for my law school graduation and it was nothing fancy, but completely fine. But, that was 9 years ago.
And if you keep going south on South Neil Street (south of the aforementioned S. Neil and Kirby area) you will reach the suburb of Savoy and there's a couple hotels, including a Best Western and Senator's Inn. That's probably a 7 minute drive from the tennis complex.
Right in the center of C-U on University Avenue one of main east-west streets that goes all the away across the cities is the Hampton Inn - centrally located - close to downtown Champaign, downtown Urbana, campus, the mall area and about 6 minutes from the tennis complex. Just slightly east of the Hampton Inn on University is America's Best Inn.
And still a few more around I think (haven't lived here for a while).
Did they ever build a hotel right in Campustown around Green Street? (I don't think so).
And, is that rag tag, faux-chalet hotel thing (Lincoln Inn i think) still open downtown Urbana. I went to a law school function there and it was pretty dirty and rundown, but it may have been rehabbed.
Nothing is going to be THAT far away. Metro C-U isn't that big.
And, finally, if you're looking for deals and can't find any in C-U, don't forget cities nearby. Mahomet is about 15 minutes west on I-72 (small town, probably a couple hotels). Decatur is about 35 minutes west on I-72 and has lots of hotels right off of I-72 to the north heading into the suburb of Forsyth (Decatur can be sketchy, but that area is fine). And, Bloomington-Normal is 40-45 minutes northeast on 1-74, another college town, State Farm headquarters, decent sized area of around 150,000 has a full range of numerous hotels, similar to Champaign. Danville, a city of 33,000 is 30 minutes to the east on I-74 and would have several hotels, which may be cheaper. Finally, Rantoul, a small city (14,000) on I-57, 20 minutes north of Champaign, will have maybe a few hotels, probably cheaper.
