thanksgiving short term apartment rental chicago
October 22, 2009 1:08 PM   Subscribe

Halp! Chicago Short Term Apartment Rental for Thanksgiving Weekend?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a.) 2-3 bedroom apartments in Chicago available for short term rental or b.) websites/agencies you have found reliable for such purposes? I have tried Craig's list and it seems to be a rather mixed bag (typo-laden posts with blurry pics, ahoy!). Google searches seem to bring me either super expensive "luxury" stuff or studio apartments. We need and apartment with a kitchen so that Thanksgiving dinner won't need to be ordered out. Bonus points for an apartment in a decent neighborhood and near the El. This would ideally be a Weds-Sun rental, but if a whole week's reservation is required, that is manageable. As the most internets savvy person in my family, the task of figuring this out has been given to me. Hope me, mefi!
posted by mandymanwasregistered to Travel & Transportation around Chicago, IL (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I successfully rented a condo in Atlanta during a time when all the surrounding hotels were booked. I used vrbo.com to find it, and it worked out just fine. VRBO is only a listing service, not a broker or an agency, so you'll be dealing with the owner or their management directly. Good luck!
posted by tybstar at 1:14 PM on October 22, 2009


When my family visits me in Chicago they like to rent a condo for the weekend. We've had nothing but good experiences renting through http://vacationrentchicago.com/. There are a variety of sizes available up to 3 bed/3 bath (the large 2/2 unit we rented had an additional sleeping nook, so you can save a little money if someone doesn't mind sleeping in the "living" area). The condos are at 30 E Huron, which is right off the best part of Michigan Ave., so you are right by Water Tower and the red line at Chicago Ave. The kitchens in both units my family rented were really nice and open to the main living area. Cooking a large meal in one would be no problem at all.

We've also rented a condo for the weekend from Stan Properties, but had a pretty bad experience with them. We tried to rent in one building but they switched us to another building, and we ordered parking but when we got to the apartment they had left parking off the reservation, so we were in downtown Chicago with nowhere to park. Getting a refund for the parking they didn't provide was a total pain as well. So I would avoid them, if at all possible.
posted by frolic at 2:13 PM on October 22, 2009


I just had luck with At Home Inn Chicago. Minimum stay for most places is 3 nights, some are 2. The Old Town apartment that we got was small but in great shape and had a good kitchen, was in a good neighborhood and about a block from a brown line El stop.
posted by wyzewoman at 3:10 PM on October 22, 2009


These guys have some good spaces.
posted by asuprenant at 3:30 PM on October 22, 2009


Whenever people visit me in NYC, they find apartments via the vacation listings on Craigslist. It's mostly people who will be out of town and are renting out their places - furnished, w/ dishes, sheets, etc.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:45 PM on October 22, 2009


Ok, just re-read the post and saw that you tried craigslist. One of the downfalls of it is that you're not sure if the place is nice/legit. My parents/friends have done this in NYC probably 9-10 times, without any issues. If you email the listings, they'll usually send you more/better pics. If they ask for a huge deposit or 100% of the rental fee upfront to hold the reservation, then it might be a scam.
posted by melissasaurus at 3:48 PM on October 22, 2009


Response by poster: Thank you all for your answers! I will check them out.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 4:19 PM on October 22, 2009


Response by poster: We ended up finding an apartment at this site--which I thought I had found via the askme, but now I'm not sure how I came across it in my mad clicking. Anyway, thanks for holding my hand a bit after my initial panic about sorting through all of the listings.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 10:30 AM on October 25, 2009


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