Might be good for people on a tight budget with low standards or plan to hang out in the…read moreneighbourhood more than in the building. However the building and its staff provide a terrible experience where it is greatly preferable to find somewhere else to stay so as not to spoil your time in this great neighbourhood.
The staff are very moody and unpleasant for even the smallest of things. I got scolded simply for walking into the main building when the door was open as others were exiting because I didn't pull out my keycard, when I told them I didn't need to since the door was open they frowned and made a clicking noise at me! When I went to pay my bill at the end of my stay the lady at the counter got mad at me because she kept screwing up the card machine saying I didn't explain it right or something. I was also only given one keycard to enter the building even though I told them from the start there were two of us. This meant whenever I or the person I was staying with had to go out without the keycard we would have trouble getting back in, with the staff getting passive aggressive and huffy at us even though we repeatedly asked for a second keycard. Apparently the people who make the keycards was on holiday so there weren't any extras. Seriously?!
The water cut out constantly as well, at times without warning. Sharing a room? Make sure to test if the water happens to be on whenever you need the bathroom otherwise get used to the smell of your roomie's waste until the water comes back. If you ask the staff about the water situation, they will get annoyed at you and tell you all the info is written in a little piece of paper stuck up in the elevator, which is their only method of communication. During my one month stay the water was out for 2 days straight, and then another two times with a few days in between. The two day stint caused the pipes to my room to fill up with something, leading them to not work even after the water came back. When I called someone from administration to come up and take a look, when she got there and I explained the situation to her she immediately started laughing and saying it had nothing to do with her and to call the renting agency, rushing off with a big smile on her face at not having to give a damn. The renting agency also tried to run from the responsibility but that's a separate issue.
My room looked directly into the hotel next door, giving a wonderful view of a grey wall full of windows and a bit of sky if I pressed my face against the glass and looked up. This also meant the flat was in constant darkness and really cold, which got kind of grim after a while. There is also a fire alarm that goes off every few days for no reason and at all hours of the night which is extremely loud, extremely shrill, and can last up to 5 minutes. Enjoy that at 3 in the morning. The elevators would also be shut down randomly so I hope you're into climbing stairs and young.
Half of the apartment's are for tenants and the other half are tourists renting furnished apartments, making this a weird hotel/apartment hybrid that fails at both. From what I heard from the tenants they don't get treated much better and I once saw a tenant's meeting they held in the rumpus room that ended in a crowd of people screaming at the administrator standing on the podium the entire time.
The area around the building is very nice and I recommend it but this review isn't for the neighbourhood. Not to mention the area is filled with other places to stay that aren't run by bitter, lazy and incapable people. Seriously, find a hostel if you're on a budget or a proper hotel if you can afford a little more, but this place will just ruin your stay.
