Avon Way, Colchester

Everyone will have different opinions but have found what you get included in the room, plenty storage space and ample kitchen with couches & table to be good value for the price they charge compared to other halls. It's not luxury but it's not rubbish either; it's more than fine for students..what do you want a hotel? The Wifi in each flat has never let me down & close to everywhere on foot. Staff are helpful.

Iv had an awful experience living at Avon way. Iv had constant problems with the hospitality team and my flat/room. I would not recommend this accommodation to anyone. Iv even had health issues because of the lack of cleanness and the way iv been treated living here.

I'm not going to say I have absolutely hated my experience of living here.. Because I haven't.. Compared to the Towers on campus I have preferred it, but I did expect better quality and service in so many areas. There are so many issues I came across throughout the year that have spoilt would could have been a really nice place to live.. For a start the flat was NOT clean when we moved in. We were told there would be a deep cleaning process the week before we moved in, and when we got here the kitchen looked as if it has been used that morning, the fridge was disgusting, the rooms were full of mould, the floors hadn't even been swept. It was as if we were moving immediately after the previous tenant had vacated the rooms.. So much for "deep clean". The mould situation has probably been the bane of my existence since I arrived here. The entire surrounding area of the window in my room was coated in it.. I told the office several times that myself and the other people in my flat were having serious mould problems and we were told to keep our windows open as much as we could.. But that made very little difference when the heating was always on full and the room was became it's own little sauna.. (Honestly, in mid winter I was sleeping with my window wide open and no covers.. It was so hot).. But of course, we weren't allowed to control the heating.. It was turned on at a certain time of year and just seems to stay on constantly.. It's May now and the heating is still on in my room at night! I was very frustrated that not only was I expected to deal with the mould problem myself (which already existed before I arrived) but that it was impossible to control or remove all the mould due to the bloody heating! Another issue with Avon Way House is maintenance. Within the first two weeks of moving into our flat, the toilet seat came off, the lights in the bathroom stopped working and one of the lights in the kitchen stopped working. Now this was nothing to do with us, we weren't excessively turning lights on and off, having parties, trying to break toilet seats.. No, it just seemed that things were falling apart. However, since we moved in, only one of these issues has actually been fixed my maintenance (the kitchen light) and that was only because the other kitchen light went out and we explained that we literally couldn't use the kitchen anymore when the sun went down. The bathroom light still hasn't been fixed, so we've dealt with adding more light in there ourselves, and a friend came to fix our toilet seat for us. So if you do live here and anything goes wrong, don't expect it to be fixed.. At least not until you complain for 6 months. My final issue with Avon Way House was the laundrette service. First of all, it's ridiculously expensive! £3 per wash and £1.50 per dry.. For a student who lives too far away from home to just pop back with washing every week, this seemed pretty extortionate. The washing services were also made worse by the fact that there was ONE WASHING MACHINE AND ONE DRYER BETWEEN TWO BLOCKS OF FLATS!! Calling it a laundrette in the first place was laughable.. Okay, yes it was a larger washing machine and dryer than usual.. But being able to pile more clothes in isn't exactly a benefit when you have to wait hours to be able to do your washing. Oh yes and no using the washing machine after 6pm or before 9am, granted that's because the laundrette is between two flats (whom I feel desperately sorry for), but if your schedule is anything like mine it's a struggle to find the time to do the washing AND get there when they are free. What's more annoying is that we couldn't simply just go and use on of the other wash rooms because they are locked to the other flats. Anyway, I think that's it for my rant.. These might not seem like big issues but when you're paying a fair amount to live somewhere you expect better service. In general the management as friendly, if a bit intrusive (they will just let themselves into your flat if you don't answer the door), it is quite nice having a little living room with a TV for haivng people over, the area has CCTV cameras and large gates so you feel a bit safer in the dark (but you are still in Greenstead).. The Nightbus also picks up and drops off from inside the carpark which is really useful for anyone who likes going out on campus. All in all I didn't have a horrible year here, but that might be down to living with the people I lived with rather than the property itself.