Important: there are a few things to consider before choosing this airbnb.
1) The major problem with our stay was a matter of cleanliness. The photos of the apartment are not entirely accurate (ie, the kitchen and bathroom were much more cluttered than they appear) and we were charged a cleaning fee ($45), which was totally inappropriate since it was obvious that no cleaning had been done in a long time. Our room was dusty, there were cobwebs near the ceiling and the floors clearly hadn’t been vacuumed (let alone mopped). More importantly, the bathroom was really not clean enough. When showing us the bathroom, Dany stood on the bathmat in front of the tub with his shoes on, and it wasn’t replaced with a new mat. Luckily we were given a bathmat with our towels, which we would bring back and forth with us from our room each time we took a shower. We had to wear our shoes all of the time (including in the bathroom) because we were not comfortable being barefoot in the apartment.
2) Dany was very communicative throughout the process and responded promptly via text message during our stay. However, he was very particular about check in - not only regarding what time we would arrive at his apartment, but by what means we were planning to travel from the airport. At times this was a bit intrusive - we didn’t feel we needed to report every step of our plans, as long as we showed up on time, which we did. Dany greeted us kindly when we arrived and then gave us a tour of the apartment, told us his expectations, and gave us a list of rules for us to follow.
We are fully aware that by using airbnb we do not expect hotel service, but my husband and I have used airbnb numerous times around the world and we have never encountered issues like these. We were out all day during our week in Chicago and only needed a place to sleep and shower, and here we weren’t comfortable even doing that. The location is great, that is the one plus of this airbnb.
We did not have time to get involved with lodging a complaint with airbnb, and we did not want to directly confront Dany during our stay and cause any conflict. This is an easy issue for him to fix - simply hire a cleaning person. This is what the cleaning fee should be used for. Dany was a nice guy, which other people have mentioned in their reviews - we just can’t understand why no one else has mentioned an issue with cleanliness nor why his cleanliness rating is high. We just feel people should know the current state of this airbnb.