I stayed at the Unilodge on Bay Street and my experience was worse than terrible. I have stayed all over the world and really roughed it in some places. Despite living in really dodgy hostels in the cross, I still think Unilodge tops my list for the worst places to stay.
1. The rooms are absolutely disgraceful. For $334 a week, I stayed in a tiny studio with no ventilation. The rooms at Unilodge tend to get overheated and there is no way of airing the place without keeping your blinds and door open. Unfortunately, all doors and windows ONLY open into the common corridor, so anyone walking past would immediately be able to see into your entire apartment and your private affairs. I've walked by rooms where students have forgotten to close their blinds and were changing their clothes. Also, the rooms are very dark as there is no adequate sunlight/lighting, so you would need to keep the lights on pretty much all day.
2. The staff is exceptionally rude and condescending. Despite paying a ridiculous amount of rent (plus a $240 application fee and $130 cleaning fee), the staff will act like they are doing you a favor. When I first arrived, I was not given a proper orientation, nor was I introduced to my resident adviser. I was also constantly supplied wrong information by different members of the staff, which greatly inconvenienced me. One particular staff member was an Indian woman who was not only rude to me, but was also condescending about me as she spoke to her colleague about having me sign the contract. Unfortunately, what she wasn't counting on was that I was a lawyer, and knew exactly what was happening. She was also upset that I asked too many questions and demanded a reasonable explanation regarding prices, deposit, dates etc. On the overall, Unilodge management is disorganized - like the time they billed me twice on my deposit, forgot to give me my mailbox key, and told me that the laundry closed at 8pm when in fact it was open 24 hours.
3. This place does not have a proper lease or license agreement for its residents. As a lawyer, I am aware of my rights under Australian law. However, thinking of the average international student, the whole thing looks very dubious and shaky. Their so called "contract" was a page of rules. I asked if there was a proper tenancy agreement and one of the staff motioned towards the flimsy one page written rules. Due to the lack a proper license agreement, Unilodge is free to interpret these terms in anyway they like.
4. The building itself is not maintained. I'm not sure where all this rent goes to, but the floors creak, the card slots in the lifts are not working most of the time, and the place smells terrible. Also, don't bother using the laundry because your clothes come out of the laundry DIRTIER than when you put them in (by the way, it costs $8 to do laundry - $4 to wash and $4 to dry but prices were further increased in March 2013 so I don't know how much it is now). The only thing that IS maintained, is the lobby.
5. Although the rules include curfews and noise level maintenance, these are NEVER implemented by management. During my stay there, there were several times I stayed awake all night due to very loud music and screaming from a party that was happening on the rooftop - on a weeknight!
6. Apart from the points above, the location is good - next to Broadway Shopping Centre - and near the universities. However, there are tons more apartments in the Glebe and Ultimo area that are cheaper, cleaner, and have better facilities. Plus, you won't have to deal with rude reception people either! However, I SHOULD mention that there was one woman who was quite nice to me during my checkout. Hopefully she's around more as she is quite different from the rest of the Unilodge staff.
If you don't mind spending the money, and you're not going to spend much time in your apartment, then you can stay here. I was staying in the non air-conditioned small studio (when I say small, I mean TINY). It looks like the lofts might be a better choice, but they cost more. read more
