Elliott House, Edinburgh

I stayed here last year for the final year of my degree and was very satisfied with the accommodation. Staff were friendly, welcoming and happy to help if you had any questions. The studios were bright, clean, comfortable and spacious. If you want to be involved with the social side of living there are events arranged regularly and a common room to socialise in. The location was quiet so was a good place to study, only slight negative was the walls are very thin so if you have sensitive hearing can be annoying hearing neighbours move around but this can be worked around by wearing earplugs if necessary. I never felt unsafe here as the security is good and the fire alarms are tested weekly. Great central location for exploring Edinburgh. Most students are post graduate I thought so partying noise is minimal compared to first year halls. Would recommend living here!

I am 26 and wanted a studio to be on my own.



Elliott House has an amazing staff, very friendly and dedicated, willing to help.



The good point in the studio is that it is new, lovely and the corridors are generally clean, as well as the laundry.



However, the walls are thin, and there is no carpet on the floor. It can be seen as a good idea, but the problem is that when your neighbor walks with shoes or heels, you'll hear every single step. Furthermore, you cannot move the furnitures. My bed was against a wall, and the one of my neighbor as well. Therefore, I would hear everytime she was hitting the wall with his elbow.



Despite these two main disadvantages, I'd definitely recommend Elliott House. I'm quite picky and complicated to satisfy, and I'd go there again because in comparison to other halls, it's definitely the best in Edinburgh.

major problems at this accommodations, including faulty design where noise is an issue. Mold in showers, and mold smells from drains. They want you to sleep on dirty beds with rotted food on it. If this is acceptable for you, then book here. You won't be disappointed.

Elliott House was a last minute decision for me, but I'm glad i booked it. It is a great location being a short walk away to Princes Street, shops and transport.

The people are friendly and welcoming. The is often a games night and other events on for people to join in. Staff are very helpful and easy to talk too. They deal with any issues that come up with a professional manner.

The rooms are a good size and very modern, living in a shared room there are no problems sharing space wise.

Making this last minute decision has been the best choice made, would definitely recommend Elliott House for students.

I moved in Elliot House on a whim and it turns out it was one of my better ideas. For the past two years I have enjoyed the comfort of the rooms here and the great location, with everywhere I need to go within reach due to the major bus routes right outside the door.



Over the years I have seen this place improve significantly and become somewhere I'm happy to call home. I have never had to worry about my safety or security, thanks to Marc and Agata I have come to enjoy the social side of staying here.



I have never been the most social person but was immediately felt welcomed by them and thanks to the different events they have run over the year have met great people.



The WiFi here is great and able to reach much better speeds than I could at home, which was a major point for me, and my room feels exactly what I wanted it to be, a place where I can relax.



I would highly recommend this place if you want to come somewhere were you can be as social as you want to be and not be annoyed by large amounts of noise.

Elliot House is fantastic student accommodation. So much so that I have extended my lease and i'm staying next year too. I can hardly say anything negative about it.

Regarding the other reviews here I cannot understand any of the negative comments made. They obviously must have a chip on their shoulder as I can 100% confirm I have not once felt unsafe here. There are no drugs and none of the ridiculous claims they are making.



Rooms:

My room is huge. I am lucky to have a premium plus / deluxe studio and its everything I need. A microwave combo oven, kettle, fridge, freezer, sink and hob. Perfect for cooking and enough room for everything. Another cupboard would be helpful but I manage to fit everything in the ones I have.

The bathrooms are a good size and the water is always warm. All rooms have a radiator that has no set turning on times and rooms can be heated within five minutes. During summer it was quite hot but I invested in a fan which made a big difference.



Social:

The social life of a place really depends on the people. The staff at Elliot House make such an effort holding afternoon tea sessions, games nights and international food nights. There is a big group of people who choose to socialise in the common room but most at EH like to keep to themselves. I wish some of the Chinese students would be a bit friendlier but they seem to have their own groups of friends so arent alone in any way.



If I could change anything it would be nice to have more laundry machines as sometimes there is a queue to use the washers and dryers.



Location:

Perfect. Theres a bus stop literally right outside that serves all the universities. You can walk to Edinburgh uni or get the bus. Napier Craiglockhart is about thirty minutes away on the bus (where I go) and you can get literally anywhere in the city using the bus stop outside. Leith Walk is five minutes away which has load of wee shops and there is a Tesco express five minutes walk away. There is also a co-op, Iceland and most importantly a Greggs nearby. Princes Street is ten minutes walk away and so is the end of the Tram line. The Omni centre is round the corner which has a gym and restaurants and cinema.



Management: Marc, Agata and Don are wonderful members of staff. If there is a problem they will fix it as soon as possible, if theres a suggestion they take it on board immediately and they genuinely care about the residents. They put so much effort into making the residents feel comfortable and welcome.



Security: The area is very safe and so are the flats. To get even close to residents doors there are two fob points. The doors all lock and record any attempts to open without the dedicated fob.



I would highly recommend Elliot House. Especially for those over 20 as most of the people who live here are working on their masters. I feel comfortable, safe and welcomed here. I cannot recommend it high enough.



Also on a side note using CAPITAL LETTERS and accusing people of DRUG USE is a ridiculous way to leave complaints.

Also the fire alarm goes off when the alarm detects smoke so I'd rather have to leave the building and not burn to death. It also has gone off once in the last month.



Pick here, its great.

It has only been 6 weeks here and it is terrible. The fire alarm goes off three times a day, there is rubbish all over the sidewalks, the is recreational drug use rampant in the building, drinking. It is dirty. What a mistake coming here.

I'am currently a postgrad at Edinburgh university and living at Elliott house. I have been here since September 2015 and I would definitely not recommend Elliott house for a number of reasons:



- Overpriced- Elliott house is way way overpriced, even for Edinburgh. I would recommend looking at flat shares which are readily available, but unfortunately I didn't know this at the time. You could easily get a flat which is far superior to the studio hovels they offer, and you could get it at less than half the price they charge. Honestly its extremely expensive for what you get.



- Size- Don't be fooled like I was, the pictures show you decent sized rooms that look like they give you an ample amount of space, in reality you will be placed in a tiny hovel of a studio with your bed situated 30cm from your kitchen which is not only a pain but illustrates how cramped these studios are. The pictures on the site are only pictures of the most expensive flat they offer, and you could get a far better 2 bed flat for what its charges, so its not worth it. There is very limited storage with only a cupboard and small bed draws.

Essentially you will not be able have more than 2 people over at a given time.

-Dead atmosphere- Hardly anyone lives here, the buidling is 3/4 empty, if you're thinking this is a place to make friends and socialise, you're definitely mistaken. All that will greet you are empty halls, I have literally seen a total of 3 other students in the past 10 months, the common room is empty apart from management.

- Location- Don't be fooled. Yes its about 15 minutes from Princes st which is good for shopping on the high st, but for Uni its not ideal. It takes approx 30 mins to the uni, and given that there are many other halls that are within a few minutes walk of uni, this is certainly one of the worst in terms of distance, and if you're at herriott watt its even worse, It takes about an hour on the bus to get there. I think the distance is probably why there are not many students here and its 3/4 empty. Furthermore the area is a nice residential area which is safe and rather charming, however no students live it this part of the town, most live in the centre or the Morningside and Newington area, non really live this far north in the city. Nearest shops are small tesco's about 10 mins away.

-Flat- The flat is furnished with ultra white desks and walls, which is nice initially, however overtime if you don't maintain the flat its easy for the walls and desk in particular to get quite messy, you'll need to buy a hoover, only a hand brush is provided, which is definitely not enough. All bathrooms have no windows, and thus its very easy for mould to accumulate unless you actively scrub down the shower quite often as I learned. You don't get a washing machine but you have to go all the way into the basement and use communal ones which charge you quite a bit for using them, and can add up to a significant cost over time. One of the most annoying aspects is the lock system, as opposed to a normal lock and key, Elliott house has an electronic swipe system everywhere and the charge can run out and the system doesn't always work which is such a pain when you have to contact a warden at 11pm to get in (if they pick up!)

Management- They don't know what they are doing most of the time. The manager struggled and they sacked him and replaced him with someone. The staff are young and its seems as though this is the first project their in charge of. The common room is often out of bounds because management are having meetings, so its not much of a 'common room' to be honest. Management tend to use the common room as an extension of their office and so not many people use the common room or simply can't becasue its out of bounds. They often fail to respond to emails when its about complaints, for example the phone and the buzzer not working which so often they do not and is such a pain when getting packages.They have also often not knocked on doors and just enter the room, most likely because its 3/4 empty. They have commonly entered and luckily I was fully dressed and not engaging in 'activities', but still its unacceptable and gives no respect to privacy. Builders and contractors will do the same as well, they will enter without realising rooms are occupied. Often they are also not at the front desk but at the back and thus not there to address concerns. Once I entered the common room when there was not a sign saying otherwise, but there appeared to be a meeting, I only wished to check my mail, but was greeted with the most vile looks by management and in particular by a higher manager who is only at elliott house for meetings normally.

Security- Generally secure and located in a rather safe area, you'll get woken up sometimes by drunk football fans but that may be unavoidable. There used to be a security guard during the night, however I believe he was sacked, perhaps because he was smoking weed, which was common knowledge. Now there is no security guard during the night. However the worst thing is the lock system as mentioned, I didn't realise that MY DOOR DIDN'T LOCK PROPERLY FOR 3 MONTHS. It literally could be pushed open, all my things were essentially left to the open everytime I was out until they fixed it. It was a very common problem with many flats here and it was a recurrent problem that many had, the lock system is terrible.

Essentially the whole place is an overpriced mess, THE OTHER REVIEWS ARE WARDENS aka people staying at Elliott house and get payed to turn off the alarm in the evenings when it goes off and they have to promote CRM AND ELLIOTT HOUSE. Trust me the reviews are not genuine and will be a mixture of wardens and management themselves, because they know that they don't have enough people here (understandably) and its there job to get people signed up, but once you're here you're stuck, BEWARE!!!


I don't normally write reviews, but I Elliott house needs to be avoided, there are plenty of other options trust me. I panicked about accomodation last year last minute, but in hindsight there are plenty of better options.


Hope this helps :)

I had the greatest time at Elliott House between January and April 2016. I was only here on an exchange semester so could not commit to any long term contracts. After a few contact attempts with a few places, Elliott House was the only one that responded to my queries. It was an obvious choice!



The brand new building definitely felt brand new. As soon as I moved in, I felt at ease and comfortable. The facilities were fantastic - very well considered and well equipped, including the kitchen (with microwave/convection oven), bathroom, bed and workspace. It was definitely my home away from home.



The location is also fantastic, with most things in the city within walking distance and public transport close by. I would absolutely recommend Elliott House.

I was struggling to look for accommodation as my university offer came very late. Found the place by luck and it's been great! For a studio, the price I am paying is quite cheap considering the amount being charged by other university accommodations. The place is only 10 minutes away from Princess Street so it's pretty central. More importantly the halls are pretty quiet, which I really appreciate.

As a postgraduate student, I was looking for a place that would offer me confort and privacy, somewhere safe and close to my university. Elliott House gave me all of that and more. The building is well-situated, within walking distance of the city centre, shops, restaurants and supermarkets. Across the street, there are bus stops to take you anywhere in the city. All accommodations are studio apartments, which means everyone has their own bathroom and kitchen. As an additional benefit everything is brand new. The building is also secure, with eletronic gates and doors, as well as management to help you when needed. As for the people living and working here, they are all very friendly and the atmosphere is quite peaceful.



Overall Elliott House is a great place to live in and I would recommend it to anyone looking for accommodation in Edinburgh.

Amazing place to live! When arrived to Edinburgh, everything was so sad and grey, but Elliott house seemed really light and bright place! Many thanks to Simon for helping me with booking and re-booking my room!