If you’re looking for something cheap and don’t mind a semi-chaotic experience, this place fits the bill. Otherwise, stay away.
Pros: easy check-in process, quick communication *before* I checked in, apartment is in a quiet neighborhood with quick access to the Brown line, I slept with the windows open (you’ll understand why below) and didn’t have a problem with outside noise during the night, the Wi-Fi was fast.
Cons: apartment was dirty upon check-in (unswept floors, hair in the shower, dried food on the dishwasher handle, weeks-old dirt on top of the fridge and on the knobs of the stove, the couch has seen better days in general, etc.), the AC unit did not work and the company said they would come fix it but never did (I ended up buying a fan to use, otherwise it would’ve been a sauna in there), the drain in the shower is so slow that you stand in your own filth while showering (they offered to try to come fix this but could not guarantee that it would be complete before I checked out), some of the bath towels had hair on them so I went and bought my own towels to use, the apartment says soap and shampoo are available but there was none to be found so I also had to go and buy that.
Zencity addressed some of my concerns but not all of them and did not make right by any of them. They were not always the quickest to respond and had responses that helped draw out the conversation so a resolution wasn’t swift. For example, when I told them the AC was blasting hot air, they asked me to send a photo of the thermostat. When I told them the shower was draining very slow to the point of standing in dirty water mid-shower, they told me to try a plunger. When I raised concerns over the general cleanliness of the unit, they completely ignored me. I eventually opened a ticket with Airbnb (still unresolved at the time of writing this) to try to recoup my cleaning fee since I don’t believe I should’ve been charged for that when the apartment was dirty upon entering.
While the neighborhood was quiet, the immediate neighbors were not. The apartment directly next to this unit has very loud children. Also, if the smell of cannabis is off-putting to you, I would look elsewhere, as many neighbors around this unit were heavy users and the smell made its way into the building.
Overall, I don’t recommend this place. And will never stay at one of Zencity’s units again. This experience may be bad enough for me to not use Airbnb in the future as well. For a few extra bucks a night, a hotel has a much smoother experience with better customer service and amenities.