I have lived in minority areas myself but this neighborhood made me feel unsafe. When I got off the train, people at the corner store yelled “white girl in the hood!”. The next day I went into the corner store and someone tried to sell me drugs. So no I think the spiel about the area was very sugar coated, this neighborhood was a lot more rough than described. The first night was hard to sleep due to constant sirens and bass-y cars rumbling by. It was a Monday night. I have no problems with anyone of any color for their color, I have problems with people harassing me while I’m minding my own business just trying to get from point a to point b.
The house is neat, but going up and down two flights of steps when other guests are hogging the bathroom sucks, and when they aren’t in there, there wasn’t any hand soap. I didn’t bother to message the host to replace it though so maybe that’s on me. I think the little things you can purchase if you forget something like tooth paste or get hungry is a nice touch.
The host didn’t respond to my messages, but I wasn’t asking for anything. I was either responding to the copy paste messages I received from him or trying to communicate my whereabouts for arrival time. It was more like staying at a hotel operated by a robot.
This isn’t a reflection on the host necessarily, but I wanted to mention no one I ran into in the building was friendly. No one. I don’t know if they were socially awkward guests or hosts or who anyone was. No one introduced themselves so I assume they were guests, but whenever I said hi! Or morning! People mumbled a reply and shifted away quickly. Just wasn’t a very welcoming environment in any way.
Overall the place is o.k., just the location after dark was not a fun place to be. During the day was fine, just typical city people begging for money. As a young female traveling alone I would not stay here again. It was just close enough to united center for a concert I was going to, so it did the trick as a place to sleep for two nights.