The last week of June was my family's summer vacation. We hit up a few locations, which led to us booking four separate Airbnb's. Choosing them was a difficult process, but living in them had its own set of problems. I'm in no way trying to be negative or discourage you from using Airbnb. It's a great hotel alternative and often a way to save some money. I'd just like to share my experience. Airbnb's are hit-or-miss. You never really know what you're gonna get.
First up was a basement suite in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where we stayed during my dad's high school reunion. As is common with Airbnb, the hosts lived upstairs. They were a young couple with a baby. We would enter through the front door and go down the stairs to the basement, which we had all to ourselves. It was spacious and high tech, with a sectional and an Alexa. My parents stayed in the bedroom, while my brother and I slept on air mattresses. It wasn't ideal, but it wasn't what kept me up at night. That would've been the baby and the toddler. The toddler didn't belong to the hosts, but he stayed with them one night and made a lot of noise, babbling incomprehensively. Plus, their baby did his fair share of crying. I guess that's the price you pay for paying a low price for an Airbnb. One thing I didn't appreciate as much as I should have was the central AC. I didn't realize at the time how much I would miss it.
Our next sojourn was at an old Victorian house near historic Galena, Illinois. We had the whole place to ourselves, which was a refreshing change of pace. My brother and I each had our own room, and my parents shared one. This was the beginning of the frustrating lack of central AC that characterized the remainder of our trip. My parents had a window unit, but I had to combine my ceiling fan with a stand fan to keep me cool. I ended up sleeping surprisingly well. Despite the AC issue, I liked this house better than the first one. It was quieter and we had more space. Unfortunately, we were only there for less than 24 hours.
Chicago was where we spent the majority of our vacation. For that reason, we all hoped that Airbnb would be the best. Neither my brother nor I were particularly impressed with the neighborhood or the house. We had to get in through the back door, which meant walking alongside the house in a creepy corridor. We parked in a private lot behind their house, which would've been nice if it weren't muddy and we didn't have to squeeze past the garage to get to the back door. Once inside, we figured out sleeping arrangements. My parents got the bedroom with the biggest bed, my brother the second biggest, and me the smallest. What is this, Goldilocks? My room was the only one with an AC unit. The only other unit was in the dining room. Even with the AC unit, I didn't sleep very well. The AC was loud, and the streetlights poured in through my windows. When I switched rooms with my brother for the last two nights, I slept better. My parents insisted the neighborhood was nice and safe, but my brother and I had our reservations. We especially loathed walking a half mile to the bus stop in order to get around town without having to pay for parking. We spent five nights in that Airbnb, and each of us had different experiences.
Our final Airbnb was in Springfield, Illinois. We arrived late at night, just in time for bed. We weren't going to be there long since we needed to get an early start to drive home. The top floor of the two-story house was ours. It was nice and cool downstairs, but the temperature went up what felt like 10 degrees when I walked upstairs. I ended up in the room with the sofa bed. It was hot! Thankfully, there was a sizable fan that I pointed at myself. I slept alright for being in a hot room on a not-so-hot bed. We got out of there pretty quickly in the morning, so we didn't really have to deal with four people sharing one bathroom (again). By the time we left, we were all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds that night. We were anxious to get back to our air-conditioned house with our comfy beds and our privacy.
