I wouldn’t recommend this place if you value quiet mornings, are above 5’10”, ever need anything very quickly, or are expecting a finished smelling space. It’s not the worst if you’re on a budget, but I won’t rebook this space next time I’m in Chicago.
While the basement is “finished,” the moment I walked in, I was hit with a musty, unfinished basement smell. It was quite prominent in the front area of the basement as you walk in, but not as bad in the back by the rooms. I mentioned this to Roberto immediately via the app, and didn’t hear anything back until I arrived home late the next day to some plug ins hanging on the doorknob to the entrance.
One other thing I immediately noticed were the extremely low ceilings. I’m 5’8”, and when I would change clothes, my hands would hit the ceilings as I changed shirts. If you’re much taller than 5’10”, I would not recommend staying here due to the ceilings.
The next morning, we were awakened at around 6 am to the people above us…definitely not what we had hoped for in the quiet department. You can hear every step and conversation. If you are a person who would like to sleep in at all, I would not recommend this place. I totally understand that the hosts live above and it’s tough to manage sounds, but it was brutal to be woken up so early.
We worked all day and arrived back late that evening. We came home around 12:30 am, to realize that the code to get into the backyard (how you enter to the residence) had somehow gotten changed and we were locked out. I messaged Roberto again to let him know, and figured I wouldn’t hear from him due to the time. We waited a bit, then my friend decided to jump the fence to get us in. The code to the basement was still working, so thankfully we were able to get in and go to sleep.
This morning we woke up early, washed our dishes, attempted to find a trash can to put out the trash (we didn’t find a place to do this, so we put our trash bag right near the front of the space to try to be respectful of their check out wishes), and headed out — but not before hearing a man talking about the text I sent about being locked out the night before through the floor, ha.
After leaving, I finally got a text, asking if we were ok and if we got in the night before. I told them we’d managed, explained where we’d put our trash for them, and I didn’t hear anything else.
If you’re on a budget and you really need a place to stay, this will do. The beds are clean, and it’s in a decent spot in Chicago. However, if you’re wanting to sleep in, are a scent-oriented person, or above 5’10”, this probably isn’t for you. It’s not bad, it’s not great, but it’ll do, so long as you’re limber enough to climb a fence if necessary!