Chalmers Street, Edinburgh

The location is one of the only good/promising thing about this place at the moment, and potentially the reason that the rent is so expensive. This year we had constant construction from 8am—8pm every day for almost the entire year (heightened at exam season), which led to internet connection issues — particularly among those with online exams — no water for extended periods of time and almost once every month (no shower, toilet, or water to wash dishes or clean my hands), and no hot water almost every week for multiple days! The staff are all lovely, and it is not their fault, but there was very little support or help. Some of the construction blocked windows and my friend spent the entire year being unable to see out of her window, and the noise came from both the machinery and the music from workers. No information was given to us, albeit an email every three weeks, and when we asked for it, we were told that ‘they didn’t know.’ Even the facilities we have paid for — our courtyard and BBQ area — were unavailable to us and we had to walk along the front of the street to do our laundry or pick up parcels. My room lock had been broken for a year, and despite maintenance constantly saying they had fixed it, it had never been looked at — as well as our broken oven which they claimed to have fixed twice, but had never even been into the flat. A refund should have been given or at least offered, especially for ‘luxury’ student halls. They also claimed to not have a parcel containing an expensive watch that I had bought for my boyfriend’s christmas, even though there was a photo of it being handed to one of the staff members. They still claim they never got it. Also, with automatic doors that remain open for some time (and often break and stay open for hours at night) mean that random strangers frequently wander in. I have found delivery drivers outside my door or drunk students from the meadows in the hallway.