I stayed for 3 months and for the price and quality, I'd recommend you stay far away. In fact, I needed to give myself some time before writing this review. So here goes:
When I first was looking into the place, I was told that despite wanting to start on the 15th, I had to pay for the whole month. Mind you, a $750 difference. One would think that my flexibility there might have carried over. Nonetheless, busy at the time, I decided to bite the bullet.
Pretty much no one living there had the chance to see their room before moving in. Considering that sometimes people did come in every now and then to tour, that should speak volumes. I am one of these people: I looked at their other properties online (as well as this one) and it looked pretty good. Buyer beware, huh?
My first day, travel weary, I checked my email a final time wondering if the property manager I had emailed a day or two ago had responded. She had not. When I found the address I knocked a few times and no one answered. I called the number in the emails to no avail. After 20 minutes of waiting I knocked again and someone finally answered. Alas no one knew I was supposed to be arriving (after making the date very clear over email). It just wasn't in the books. Long story short, it's eventually figured out.
The room was supposed to be fully furnished, linens etc, but failed to make good on the linens bit. Or a pillow. To be fair, the room wasn't dirty. It was however very small (to be expected in SF though). I never full adjusted to the whole in room sink bit. The bed however was a nightmare. It was extremely creaky and loud. In the morning, you can hear the other tenants moving in their beds (yeah, you're not gonna want to bring someone back here after a night out). It was also a lofted twin bed and, as I mentioned, lacked linens. My first night I slept on a bed of clothes because I was too tired to sort out who could help me and when. Not my proudest moment.
Good luck getting through to anyone but the RAs unless you owe money. There are RAs, which by the way, if you're more of a young adult or mature community member, you're going to hate it. Not the people, the idea. The RAs themselves are actually really great and helpful people. I have to give them credit for making the best of the situation. I only blame the "upper" management here for the low quality.
You can't drink. I've read all sorts of crazy stuff in leases that are never enforced but this is. There are passive aggressive signs (typically on weekend night) threatening a $300 fine or potential eviction if caught with alcohol.There are actually many such signs which really contribute to the overall dorm-hotel-cross-feeling. Being 21+ it felt like a dorm.
There are cameras everywhere. Now this is kinda tricky because at least 50 people live there. As a computer privacy advocate, it really really weirds me out. I just don't like cameras in my living space. They are everywhere besides the actual room and bathrooms. From the moment you walk in the door to the moment you get into your room, you are on camera the whole time. This, mixed with some of their less reasonable rules (such as no drinking), makes for a rather uncomfortable social climate.
There are a lot of people but no central communication channel. It's like a hotel crossed with a dorm. 50+ people, easily. I'm not even going to go into how this affects fridge space, the kitchen, dishes, etc. You can imagine. Most of the other residents are students, interns and the like.
Remember how I mentioned the bed? After losing a fair bit of sleep, I got in touch with the RAs about it. I was lead to believe it would be a full bed and not a twin. No big deal, nothing in the lease about the size of the bed, but I wasn't sleeping well in it. One of them emailed the "upper" management and CC'd me on it. No response. A week goes by, no response. I send another. I eventually sent an email saying that I was going to move a different bed in if I didn't hear back but wanted to work with them w/r/t where I should store it. No response. Eventually I just did it. It took a good weekend to execute. I moved my bed in, disassembled the old one and stashed it.
There was actually no problem for about a month or two until, one day, I was told I had to do something about it because they didn't have the space. I politely said that I was trying to avoid this situation by getting in touch with them many times but never once heard back. The response was "that doesn't mean you can do it". Really frustrating, eventually they just fined me and we moved on. I didn't have to reassemble the bed so it was well worth it.
I'm barely scratching the surface here but I'm trying to not be unreasonable. If you've read all this and still feel it's okay, then good for you, it might be okay for some people. I'd also recommend reading through the other reviews on here. Note how the five star ones tend to be their first review. You decide what that means. read more