Canterbury Student Village

The room size was okay and the price is the one thing this place has going for it. A few weeks ago the rating was 2.6, then it suddenly rose to 3.8 even though there was only one five-star review in that period. That says a lot. Getting hold of Cloud student homes is like talking to a ghost. Emails take ages to get a reply, and nobody picks up the phone. When I arrived, the floor was dirty, there was human waste in the toilet and on the seat, food left in drawers, and dust everywhere. The manager said I should have booked an arrival appointment for cleaning, even though mine was scheduled two hours before I actually got into the room. My cluster went two full weeks without a microwave. The building had no running hot water for five days, and the Wi-Fi was down for nearly two days. It still isn’t working as I write this. When it does connect, it can be so slow my phone switches to mobile data. I also waited two weeks for the cluster stove to be replaced, and the cleaners barely do anything in the kitchen. There are too many problems to brush aside, and from the other reviews my experience doesn’t seem unusual. I’d advise living here only if you need to save money. God bless.

My mum wanted me to leave straight away after someone opened my room door without knocking or giving notice. She was right to be upset. I’d applied to live at Cloud student homes, and the place already made a poor first impression: cobwebs and insects in a bedroom corner, an uncomfortable mattress full of springs, and a keycard that didn’t work on my first night. On my second day, a worker opened the door while I was on my bed. What if I’d just got out of the shower or was getting changed? He said “oh sorry” when he opened it wide. I asked if he was there to fix the keycard, he said “yes,” shut the door and left without doing anything. It wasn’t okay for someone to enter without permission, especially when I was paying 7k. There were clearly unoccupied rooms along the way, with doors open and beds lifted, but the worker walked past them and used a keycard on my room, whose door and the doors of the rooms next to it were shut. After rereading the contract, we felt this was a clear breach because there’d been no prior written notice, so the tenancy should be cancelled and I shouldn’t owe rent. We spoke with the property manager, who was helpful and told my mum and me the tenancy would be cancelled. At first that seemed settled, but then they tried to collect rent. When I raised the rent notifications, the manager said I had to keep paying until a replacement tenant was found. I could understand that if I simply no longer wanted to stay, but after what happened, I shouldn’t have to find someone else or keep paying. The tenancy should just be cancelled. I also don’t think the room was properly cleaned before I moved in. I wouldn’t sign a contract here. Just don’t do it. The reviews on their page are already bad, and I’m only adding fuel to the fire.

The Wi-Fi is a mess. For student accommodation, I expected at least a usable connection, but downloads crash or disconnect, and gaming is out of the question with ping always above 100ms. The rooms and apartments weren’t cleaned before I moved in. I was told, “we havent cleaned since the last tenants.” The walls were dirty, scratched and covered in blue tack, and the carpet hadn’t been properly cleaned. They even tried to make me keep the previous tenant’s mattress. It was full of bedbugs and mites. Kitchen and room furniture was broken or barely worked. The toilets were grimy, and it took four requests to get them cleaned. Even then, the job wasn’t good. The shower only ran cold. Staff and maintenance are practically useless. They don’t answer tickets unless you plead with them at reception, and you can still get ignored. The ensuite isn’t worth a penny for this stupid price, especially this far out with practically no facilities. The ping pong and pool tables in the pictures don’t exist, and the outdoor benches and areas are broken and always disgusting. I’ve been here about a month and have tried every way I can think of to move out. Avoid this place. Those five-star reviews have to be fake, and these people don’t deserve anyone’s money.

The service depends on which investor owns your block, even though students think they’re contracting with Urban Student Life (USL) and will get the same standard as everyone else. My daughter’s room is owned and managed by cloudstudenthomes.co.uk. In the rooms next door, owned by other investors, the mattresses are newer and comfortable. Hers is so bad she can’t sleep, and I’ve had her crying to me on the phone. Despite repeated calls and emails, no replacement mattress has arrived, and we’ve heard nothing about the other inventory problems. The rooms owned by Cloud Homes also had no Student Welcome Box with drinks and snacks, or USL-branded welcome leaflet with useful information such as fire evacuation details and emergency numbers. Other investor-owned rooms did have these. We got a box after phoning the office, but Cloud Homes should provide one as standard, especially since it includes safety information and carries the USL brand we thought we had contracted with. When you ask on-site staff about the room or flat, the standard response is to contact the investors. I’m not sure what the staff are there for besides lending vacuum cleaners and giving out keys. Cloud Homes apologises for falling short but hasn’t acted so far. I dropped my daughter off nearly two weeks ago, when she was among the first to move in. The unit was dirty, with dead insects, cobwebs and dust in the rooms and shared areas. Her mattress was the worst I’ve seen. It folded like a slice of bread and felt like cardboard to sit on, with no bounce at all. The mini fridge and shower also didn’t work properly. We recorded all of it on the online inventory form, but after an acknowledgment email there’s been no word on if or when anything will be fixed. To prospective students, international students and parents, I wouldn’t recommend this place. Check carefully who you’re actually contracting with and what that means for your room, because you’ll pay the same rent but may not get the same experience. If things improve, I’ll gladly update my review.