Bracken House, Bournemouth

For £563.33 per month to rent a studio, I was told that bills are included (let’s hope so). This rent would not include council tax which we have to pay separately. Fortunately, the tiny studio is clean with a nice double bed, wardrobe, cabinet, bed storage, shower room and mini kitchen enough to make it comfortable for one or two persons to live except that oven and washing machine are not included. The only disadvantage I feel is that Bracken house’s launderette room has only 2 miserable washing machines and 2 dryers on the ground floor to be shared by more than 50-60 tenants - hence, this launderette room is always busy with washing machines and dryers full due to many tenants washing and dying clothes at random times on any days. So, a lot of my precious time on any day when I decided to do my laundry has been wasted trying to organise my own laundry and then wait for any one of 2 washing machines to become available. Once I could use any one of them, I have to monitor the time when it will finish washing so that I could rush down to the ground floor on time to transfer them to one of the dryers while making sure that I have topped up my laundry card with $$$ and then monitor the time for them to get dried before collecting them quickly in order to free up the washing machines/dryers for others to use immediately - all these activities have wasted a lot of my precious time on any day when I need to do laundry, which is a nightmare even though £3.10 for every wash and £1.80 for each use of the dryer might seem to be reasonable rates as compared to external launderette. With all these laundry costs per month and a lot of precious time lost to wait for these machines to be available and organizing my laundry to use them when they are available could add a lot more to my monthly rent and council tax. I might be better off renting a one-bedroom flat which provides a washing machine for my own use even though I have to pay the utility bills and council tax separately on the top of the rent. If I was not pressured to pay 5 months’ rent in advance (for not being able to demonstrate that I have a guarantor who owns a home in the Uk), I would now be finding somewhere else to rent. So I have to hang on now for the next 5 months before I could find somewhere else to rent. While they should have increased the number of washing machines and dryers for more than 50 tenants to share, the service has not been good - I was not told that I have to pay for laundry and the use of dryer in a small launderette which has only 2 washing machines and 2 dryers. Bottomline is that perhaps any accommodation that relies on agents to demand references from prospective tenants should best be avoided (since tenants would be pressured with manipulative ploys from agents to pay a fortune to hold the room in some shady accommodations by the agents’ excuses that the tenants could not provide sufficient references or guarantor) - because of this reason plus so much time wasted in any laundry day which could technically add a lot more to the monthly rent costs while the worst part was being pressured to pay 5 months’ rent in advance, Bracken house’s management deserves a 1star !!

I have lived here for my first year of uni this place is gross and so horribly run. The amount of issues that I have had that have never been fixed or complaints I have made that have never been dealt with is appalling. The people running this place don’t know what they are doing. Whilst living here there have been drug raids, homeless people walking in and stealing mail and crackheads camped in the doorways this is unacceptable. Avoid at all costs.

Good location, nice rooms, kitchens small with not much storage, communal areas dull and dark. No 24hr security no receptionist apart from three hours a day when everyone is at uni