Trying to figure out if I'm getting lied to on this sublease.. (Chicago: apartment)

[Michael Scott]

Hello all,

Regulars to this forum probably remember my story. I will be subleasing an apartment this summer in Chicago. Recently I was deciding between 2 airbnb listings, one in roscoe village and one in lincoln square. We went with the Lincoln Square apartment.

Well it doesnt show you the exact address until you accept the reservation. This one is at 5412 N Campbell Ave, Chicago, IL 60625. The listing states several times that its only a 20-30 minute train ride to downtown, has a picture that says "30 minutes to Navy Pier with the express bus", "minutes away from lincoln park zoo", that sort of thing. I just started playing around on google maps, and it keeps telling me its almost an hour to the loop, an hour+ to Navy Pier, 50 minutes to LP zoo, an hour to the art institute my friend will be attending, etc, using the public transit option.

I need help from you fine folks. I'm trying to figure out if we're getting screwed and this renter lied to take advantage of our ignorance, or if maybe google maps isnt accurate with their transit results or what the case may be. I'm very concerned, because I don't know if we can even get our money back.

Thank you in advance for the help.

[MuffinGuy]

I have not yet moved to Chicago, so any former/current residents feel free to correct me if I am wrong. It looks like that location is not even in Ravenswood (that surrounds Lincoln Square?), much less Lincoln Square. Looks like it is in a neighborhood to the north of both of them called Budlong Woods. I would be interested in how accurate Google Maps public transit estimates are in Chicago regardless though.

[Larry Siegel]

It's in Budlong Woods, which is part of the larger Lincoln Square community area. It's not quite Roscoe Village, but it's a decent area.

Your landlord didn't quite lie but did provide optimistic estimates, given that public transportation in Chicago moves slowly. (Drive times are much better, except at rush hour.) The train ride from the Lincoln Square station (at Western between Leland and Wilson) to downtown is no more than a half hour but you have to include the time needed to get to the station, wait for the train, and get from the downtown station to your destination. To get to the train station you will need to take the Western Avenue bus unless you are a very ambitious walker. So an hour total travel time to downtown sounds right.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

It's in Budlong Woods, which is part of the larger Lincoln Square community area. It's not quite Roscoe Village, but it's a decent area.

Your landlord didn't quite lie but did provide optimistic estimates, given that public transportation in Chicago moves slowly. (Drive times are much better, except at rush hour.) The train ride from the Lincoln Square station (at Western between Leland and Wilson) to downtown is no more than a half hour but you have to include the time needed to get to the station, wait for the train, and get from the downtown station to your destination. To get to the train station you will need to take the Western Avenue bus unless you are a very ambitious walker. So an hour total travel time to downtown sounds right.

Yeah, this reads to me like there's a bit of a mix of the OP not understanding how public transit works and the Airbnb host being less-than-perfectly-clear in their listing.

As one of the most-reviewed Airbnb hosts in Chicago, I can tell you that my listing is very clear about anything that would materially impact a guest - such as travel times to parts of Chicago guests will want to visit - because nothing would be worse for a guest than to plan on spending X amount of time traveling during their visit and them discovering that they'll actually have to spend X+y travel time. Every day.

You have the phone number of the host. Call them and talk to them. What was the listing's cancellation policy? Flexible? Strict? If it was Flexible, you can cancel anytime for any (or no) reason. If I were you, if it's Flexible, go ahead and cancel, and email the host and tell them you're canceling because you feel misled and lied to. The host needs to learn that being less-than-fully honest has a cost. Copy Airbnb on that email, because they need to know when a host creates a negative experience for a guest.

If the cancellation policy is Strict, and the listing is as you claim, you can still cancel but there is a penalty if you just cancel. But call Airbnb - reference the listing's claims about commute times and describe what Google says it will actually take. Tell them Chicagoans you've talked to support the Google times and you feel misled. Airbnb will probably let you cancel without penalty. If they give you flack, tell me - PM me - and I'll see if I can help you out. I'd want to see the actual listing myself if possible, and I don't offer this to everyone, but I have gone to bat successfully for guests who've had bad experiences with hosts and not gotten the level of service from Airbnb that I think they deserve. As a host, I really want Airbnb guests to have a good experience - that's why I'm willing to try and help if you need it. But try on your own first, there's no need to complicate things if you can get it done on the first try just by calling Airbnb.

[Michael Scott]

Originally Posted by emathias

Yeah, this reads to me like there's a bit of a mix of the OP not understanding how public transit works and the Airbnb host being less-than-perfectly-clear in their listing.

As one of the most-reviewed Airbnb hosts in Chicago, I can tell you that my listing is very clear about anything that would materially impact a guest - such as travel times to parts of Chicago guests will want to visit - because nothing would be worse for a guest than to plan on spending X amount of time traveling during their visit and them discovering that they'll actually have to spend X+y travel time. Every day.

You have the phone number of the host. Call them and talk to them. What was the listing's cancellation policy? Flexible? Strict? If it was Flexible, you can cancel anytime for any (or no) reason. If I were you, if it's Flexible, go ahead and cancel, and email the host and tell them you're canceling because you feel misled and lied to. The host needs to learn that being less-than-fully honest has a cost. Copy Airbnb on that email, because they need to know when a host creates a negative experience for a guest.

If the cancellation policy is Strict, and the listing is as you claim, you can still cancel but there is a penalty if you just cancel. But call Airbnb - reference the listing's claims about commute times and describe what Google says it will actually take. Tell them Chicagoans you've talked to support the Google times and you feel misled. Airbnb will probably let you cancel without penalty. If they give you flack, tell me - PM me - and I'll see if I can help you out. I'd want to see the actual listing myself if possible, and I don't offer this to everyone, but I have gone to bat successfully for guests who've had bad experiences with hosts and not gotten the level of service from Airbnb that I think they deserve. As a host, I really want Airbnb guests to have a good experience - that's why I'm willing to try and help if you need it. But try on your own first, there's no need to complicate things if you can get it done on the first try just by calling Airbnb.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'm pretty aggravated about this. It's been really hard to find a place in Chicago for the term I'll be there (mid June-mid August) that has street parking (required to have a vehicle due to possible suburb traveling for my internship) and that is within a reasonable price range, and we thought we had finally found a good place with fairly good travel times and now I feel duped.

The cancellation policy is listed as strict, which says that you can only get 50% back? I obviously haven't attempted to cancel yet, but just the thought of losing half of the ~$2000 we already paid makes me sick. We're both college students, a thousand dollars each was a lot to put up for us, and to think we could lose half of that really sucks.

Anyway, I would show you the listing, but the host took it down, I guess cause it was already booked up, so only I can see the listing by logging into the account that it was booked through (my friends account, not mine). I have taken a few screen shots of the listing and some of the claims listed by the host, however. I would love to PM those to you if you think this would maybe help clear up whether I really am being duped or just misunderstanding how PT works in Chicago. I know I should have considered walking times, but I kind of find it deceitful to say "20 minutes to downtown chicago by train!" if its really double or triple that, as google maps tells me.

[Freefall18]

You could try contacting Airbnb directly and tell them everything and see if you can get a full refund through airbnb (instead of trying to go through the host).

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Michael Scott

Hello all,

Regulars to this forum probably remember my story. I will be subleasing an apartment this summer in Chicago. Recently I was deciding between 2 airbnb listings, one in roscoe village and one in lincoln square. We went with the Lincoln Square apartment.

Well it doesnt show you the exact address until you accept the reservation. This one is at 5412 N Campbell Ave, Chicago, IL 60625. The listing states several times that its only a 20-30 minute train ride to downtown, has a picture that says "30 minutes to Navy Pier with the express bus", "minutes away from lincoln park zoo", that sort of thing. I just started playing around on google maps, and it keeps telling me its almost an hour to the loop, an hour+ to Navy Pier, 50 minutes to LP zoo, an hour to the art institute my friend will be attending, etc, using the public transit option.

I need help from you fine folks. I'm trying to figure out if we're getting screwed and this renter lied to take advantage of our ignorance, or if maybe google maps isnt accurate with their transit results or what the case may be. I'm very concerned, because I don't know if we can even get our money back.

Thank you in advance for the help.

5412 n Campbell might be close to the brown line or red line, it might be a 30 minute train ride, but that does not count the time it may take to get to the train. once you are on the train, yeah, i can see 30 minutes, if there are no delays like with tracks needing work and trains going slower.

5400 is close to Foster and there is an express bus (#147) that goes express from Foster and Sheridan and it too could be 30 minutes, unless there is extra rush hour commuters, slow traffic, etc. (i'm thinking this in my mind as I type); so these are ideal times, but you have to factor in extra commuters at rush hour, wheelchairs entering/exiting the bus causing a slight delay, and traffic or whatever happens oftentimes on the buses and trains. If there are delays it could be maybe only 15 minutes or so.

Campbell, to my memory might be around Kedzie or California Ave? If that is correct, then it is a bit of a way to get to either express bus down Lake Shore Drive and/or the Red LIne and or Brown Line, so you have to factor in time from your house to the express buses, Red line train and/or Brown Line train. its a little bit more effort because you are kind of in the middle of everything, and have to take an extra bus or something to get to the express things.

Its up to you to determine if it is more trouble to be right there, rather than be closer directly to the express buses/trains that i mentioned. you have to get closer to the lake in my opinion, but your neighborhood is i think prettier.