I booked Joyce's lovely home for our family trip that included 7 people. We had different arrival times on the check-in day: my aunt with her children at 12:00pm, the rest of us at 5:00pm. I notified Joyce about this check-in request upon booking this BNB, and she was happy to accommodate us.

The place looks exactly as charming in real life as it does in the pictures! All of us felt so at home during our one week stay. She provided all the essentials: plenty of bath towels, toilet paper, shampoo, coffee/sugar/salt/pepper, an extra air mattress. We didn't run out of anything. She even left banana bread for us on the table when we arrived (it was delicious!).

When we were having trouble with the wifi, she responded right away to my text (it was about 9:00pm on a Tuesday). Her husband came over to check the router and fixed the problem within minutes. Thanks again for that!

Overall communication between us was great;
I received a text from her a couple days before check-in to confirm the plans. She let me know when my aunt arrived and welcomed her. She texted me again Day 4 of our stay just to check on us. When we saw her outside, she would encourage us to contact her if we needed anything. Although we didn't see her when we left, I texted her my thank you's and she responded warmly and wished us safe travels.

Grocery stores, restaurants and cafes, Dunkin Donuts, etc. are about a 10-minute drive from here. Getting to downtown takes about 15-20 minutes by car.

As a note, it would have been really nice to have a TV downstairs for when the family gathered in the morning, but it honestly didn't hinder our stay at all!

I do have to address one other important thing regarding my family's experience though. Maybe it's because I'm not from Chicago, but the neighborhood is a bit intimidating when you first come. The surrounding areas are more run-down. It was honestly discouraging at first. HOWEVER, this feeling dissipated after a couple days of our stay. We came to see that it's a quiet, and safe, part of the neighborhood. Joyce lives right next door, and as you can pick up from the rest of my review, she is detail-oriented and does everything to make your arrival, stay, and departure comfortable.

Thank you Joyce for making us feel so at home, I would definitely stay again if ever I'm back in Chicago, and I encourage other families to stay here as well!