In addition to the excellent information above, if the final page size is 8.5x11, use 4 artboards at that size and add .125" bleed in the document setup. When you send a 4 page PDF to a commercial printer, they will usually assume the first page is the front cover, although when set up as 4 spread pages in Illustrator or InDesign, the exported page order will be 4,1,2,3.
If you want to print your 4 page PDF as a booklet (spread pages), use file> Print> Booklet from Acrobat*
*there can't be any bleed or crop marks in the spine for this to work properly, you can remove the inner bleed from InDesign spread pages when exporting to PDF.