Living at Study Inn was one of the worst choices I made in my life. I lived in the Coventry (Market Way) division. I’ll explain this in various sections.
The room:
First off, ignore the measurements they put on the website and all the photos they use to deceive you. All the rooms are in different sizes and they judge the sizes of the rooms (deluxe or superior) subjectively. I had a deluxe room and my friend paid for a superior room, which was exactly the same size as mine. In fact, I dare to say that it’s smaller.
Also, the toilet is so small that you step INTO the shower when you sit on the toilet. The heating is pointless because it automatically shuts down when the room gets to a certain temperature, so you end up waking up from the cold at night because they have these vents which blow North Pole wind into your room all year round. In fairness, the bed is alright and they have a TV. Internet is slower than my phone but at least it’s there. However, we had a balcony and it was NOT cleaned beforehand. Overall, the room is anything but they say on the website.
Moving on to facilities in the building, I never used the TV room, conference room, or the gym. But the washing facilities are minimal. There are one drying machine and washing machine on each floor; and there are at least 50 people living on each floor. So they break constantly and no one fixes them until it fits THEIR office schedule.
The service:
This is the worst part of this organisation. To begin with, the front-line staff (e.g. the security and the people who handle parcels) are actually very friendly, I never had a problem with them. However, the parcel handling process is extremely inefficient. Parcels come in and they take at least a day or two to send a slip to your room and then you have to go and collect it from one counter which is very disorganised because the parcels are not referenced or stacked properly. It was better for me because I lived in the same building, but all other tenants from other divisions in Coventry had to travel here everyday to collect parcels which I never understood why it is so hard to have a mini station in each division.
Now moving on to the managerial service, which forgive my language, is utterly ****. Before you pay your deposit and sign the licence agreement, they are so nice because they are still at the stage of trying to lure you in. But once you paid the first rent cheque, they turn on you so quickly you haven’t even unpacked yet. They take rent payments very seriously, like you can’t even be one minute late or you will get a knock on the door. But when you need something from them, they will only do it in their own terms.
Here’s an example. We had a shared balcony with the room next door, but the balcony door locks were broken which was a serious security issue because the tenant in the other room could basically come in and out of our room if they intended to. I hassled them for over 8 weeks before it was fixed.. during which I emailed them maybe 15 times, they came 3 times to check on the lock and say ‘they will be back’, and never once did they have the courtesy to email me back informing me the status until I emailed them first. That door was open to neighbours for 8 weeks.
Another example, the bathroom light was out once. Now I don’t know about you all, but I am guessing this is considered a pretty desperate issue seeing as I have to **** in the dark. This took a week.
Another incident which shows how stupid these people are. The licence agreement states that external appliances are not allowed such as fans or lamps or rice cookers. As ridiculous as that sounds, I had my boxes arriving a few days AFTER I signed the licence agreement. And half way through packing, I stopped and went out for lunch, came back and they have ‘come in’ and confiscated my lamp from my boxes. At this point I should mention, because they ‘clean’ our room each week and have regular maintenance, they come in from time to time without your consent. Anyway, I had an argument with the managers saying the boxes were due to be delivered before I signed the agreement so what do they expect? That I unpack outside the ****ing building? They ended up giving it back to me, bitterly.
The managerial staffs NEVER takes blame even though it is clearly their job or fault to do something about it. I never received an apology regarding anything. And moving on to deposit, keep dreaming if you think you can get that back. They tell you it will be transferred back to you within a month you move out. Have a guess? Of course they’re lying. It has been over 3 months since my departure and I have yet to receive my deposit from them, during which there may have been 20 emails and 10 excuses involved. One of which is that they try to claim you never sent them your bank details. Only one person I know got their DEDUCTED deposit back, and it is only because he went up every single day to their office. If you have that level of dedication, congratulations you just might get some of your deposit back.
All in all, moving into Study Inn was the worst decision I ever made. This is an organisation which my friend described it, and a quote, as ‘a place that don’t treat you as a human’. I strongly advice everyone NOT to be tricked by them. If you still feel like moving in or don’t have a choice, all I can say is good luck.