Let me start with positives. The price was affordable. If you are in a pinch and need to go to Chicago but don’t want to spend a lot of money, this place fits that. Stacy was responding to our messages pretty late at night when we first got to Chicago, which I appreciated until she stopped responding all together and we didn’t hear from her again. The area is decent. I wouldn’t call it bad, I think that like any major city, you just need to be aware of your surroundings and be careful! Neighborhood was kind of loud, you could hear people outside, and the train is very loud, but nothing too unbearable!
Now, for the issues. Check in was a hot mess. Check in time was for 3pm, granted my friends and I didn’t get there until late because we left after we all got out of work, but we weren’t sent any check in information until 6:50pm the day of check in. Once we got there we were trying to unlock the lock box and were having issues. I will say I have never used a lockbox like this one, so that could be my own error. We finally got it open to have multiple keys, none labeled, so we had to fidget with all of them, late at night in Chicago. I feel like just labeling the keys would easily solve this issue. Then, when we finally got into the apartment, we noticed that it definitely was not what we were expecting. No extra blankets, so make sure to bring your own. The only blankets there were the comforters that were on the beds. The apartment was not very clean. The floor definitely needed swept, and when we moved the couch to sweep under it so we could clean up a bit, we found the end of a blunt underneath the couch. With communication, like I said Stacy was answering us fairly quickly for the time of night, up until we asked about wifi. In the original message sent with check in information, the wifi password part of the message was left blank. I reached out to Stacy and asked if we could have the password to the wifi because the original message did not have it. She sent us a wifi password, and after several attempts the wifi password would not work. The TV was not already connected to the wifi, which I’ve never had happen in an AirBnb before. Usually the TVs are set up and ready to use. Since the wifi wasn’t working, we couldn’t use the TV, and we couldn’t connect our cell phones either. When I reached out to Stacy about the wifi issue, that’s when she stopped replying, and I didn’t hear from her again. Not even for check out instructions.
The area was not even the issue I had with the place. Like I said, in any major city you need to be careful. The problems I had were with the little communication when we needed it, the wifi, and the cleanliness of the place. We do pay a cleaning fee on here, so I would expect it to be a clean place. Overall, it was okay for what we needed it for. We were in town for a concert so we weren’t there long, so we just dealt with it. I hope that this review helps others make a decision, as well as maybe helps to improve the place. I understand getting what you pay for, but basic cleanliness and communication would’ve made it a lot better for my friends and I. The apartment has potential to be very nice.