It’s a room that feels like you’re crashing someone’s apartment who is very particular in a dying neighborhood of Chicago a short drive from the airport.
It was hard to do a video call with the WiFi.
It’s about 45 minutes from the airport via public transit with 2 transfers and 2 different transit companies. Much quicker via car.
Unfortunately I had several miscommunications with the host.
The first one I should have clarified better prior- the listing at the time of my stay stated no extra guests (which from my experience means overnight guests or guests significantly using the space and not someone stepping inside briefly) and no parties. My brother, whom I was visiting, stepped in out of the cold to the living area to discuss where we were going to dinner for about 20 minutes. Based on my discussion with Sylvia at this time, “no guests” means no extra people in the space whatsoever, so from my understanding of the conversation even someone helping bring luggage in would have been not allowed. Regardless, we got that sorted out and we left for dinner and he didn’t come back.
For check-in, the host expressed frustration that I had not sent her information about when I was going to arrive, although she requested that information less than one day prior when I was already traveling, and the listing had the checkin process listed which didn’t include a requirement to notify about the time of day (and there is a self-check in process after a certain time). We had to use the self-check in process although it wasn’t during the typical time for that because the non-self-check-in process didn’t work, although this was likely temporary due to someone receiving surgery that week and not feeling well, so that’s understandable and we were able to get in.
The room is comfortable albeit has awkward ceilings above the bed and had a remote to turn on the light switches, and required a space heater (kindly supplied by the host) to bring the temperature above the setting of about 65 degrees in the apartment.
There was also some unfortunate miscommunication in which the host answered all but one of my questions promptly several weeks before the stay, but the answer to one question that was not positive she waited to tell me until I could no longer cancel the reservation.
After these communication hiccups, I was very nervous about any potential future missteps, and the listing notes in several place not to touch items that aren’t yours, yet the AirBnB had several areas of items that appeared to be for guests- candies, a water and tea area, etc, but they weren’t labeled so it was not clear.
There’s no TV, but that’s not a huge deal for me.
There are a few restaurants and cafes in walking distance but a LOT of places were shut down permanently, including the nearby laundromat.