This listing is on a very dangerous street, which we only learned after a shooting took place outside the apartment on our first night. We overheard the next-door neighbor say it was a machine gun and they were afraid for their lives; this listing is a first-floor apartment with a ton of windows, so needless to say, we could barely sleep that night.
Instead, we researched the street more thoroughly and discovered that it's right on the border between rival gangs. In the past weeks and months there were several indiscriminate shootings, muggings, and other violent incidents concentrated near this listing.
As if the shooting wasn't enough, Leo & Alex's response to it was another shock. Their attitude, in their words, was that "Chicago can be like that sometimes." When we asked for a partial refund to help us with the high cost of booking a safe stay elsewhere, their response was "if you fear for your life at the unit refund shouldn't be the reason to stay or to leave." They'd only return our money if someone else booked the place for the rest of our stay — but the chances of that were zero to none.
I’ve stayed at 11 Airbnb listings in 4 countries over the past one and a half years, and I’ve never seen dismissive and selfish behavior like this from hosts. Leo & Alex don’t deserve their superhost status.
But frankly, none of the interpersonal stuff matters. What matters is safety. This Airbnb is dangerous, and countless others in Chicago are safe. What more needs to be said? We didn’t know any better, but hopefully now that you’re informed, you won’t repeat our mistake and you’ll stay somewhere else.
(If you want to read more about the shooting, you can go to the website "go dot citizen dot com slash vrPj2A0Uppb" to see the Citizen report.)