CampusKey Potchefstroom (Innilaan)

This is for Campus Key Innilaan in Potchefstroom- 50 Steve Biko Street. Probably the worst student accommodation you will ever come across. When you look at their Google reviews, please don't be fooled by the seemingly great reviews that will pop up, those reviews are usually left by the CK "mentors" who are supposed to represent the place in a good light. So when they leave, they are encouraged or told to leave a good review, probably so they can get their deposits back in full or something. But this is not a place you'd want your child to live, as a parent, and this is not a place you'd want to live at, as a student. Their social media pages, more especially their Instagram, are very enticing, trust me, one look at them and you'll be eager to go and live there. It looks fun, there are a bunch of events, the outside looks very nice, and cute little facilities-it looks very, very promising. But the admin and living problems you will encounter once you start living there are seriously not worth it. Innilaan, especially, is INFESTED with ****roaches. ****roaches in the kitchen, in the cupboards, on the ceiling, running across the stoves, in the fridge and freezer, in the toilet, in the shower-even if you rent a room where you won't have to share with a roommate, trust me, you'll be sharing with ****roaches. Hell, you might even find ****roaches in your food. And the maintenance staff needs to be dragged to come and fumigate the unit. And that poses the question: why was it not fumigated before the new tenants came ???? Instead of ensuring that they have a well-run establishment, CK Innilaan is more concerned with running and maintaining their Instagram page, having a bunch of events, and finding strategic ways to get you to spend even more of your money like only having about 16-20 rows of laundry lines for the WHOLE of Innilaan and Molen(and Innilaan is HUGE) just to force people to end up using the dryers which cost R30 PER LOAD. If they could take all that effort they put into shooting elaborate reels for their Instagram pages and put it into actually maintaining the place, it would be a five-star establishment. Speaking of money, if you have hopes of getting your full deposit back after moving out, LOL think again! Once you've chased them for your deposit for weeks, prepare for them to dip their fingers into your deposit and deduct senseless amounts from YOUR money. They have this weird entitlement to your money. Deducting money for "breaking" things in the unit knowing full well that they put you in a defective unit in the first place-OF COURSE things are going to be broken by the end of my stay, they were broken when I got there! That stupid rebooking fee(about R1300, which is conveniently non-refundable) they make a noise about for the whole of October/November will not save your spot for the following year because they WILL give your space away if they feel like it. The units are not well kept, some of the units come with defects already, even when you have just moved in; the noise levels are shocking-it's like living in a 24-hour night club(even during exam times when they've enforced their so-called quiet time-that "quiet time" means NOTHING); it gets rowdy over there-glass doors in the clubhouse breaking over the weekend because people got too overexcited(or drunk) playing pool, loud music playing, people loudly playing play station on the communal TVs, people playing loud music right outside the study area where people STUDY and WORK; the staff is not all that friendly(they have somewhat of a condescending, insincere nature to them, of course, you won't see that when you're coming to view the place, they're still acting very sweet and kind at that time); some of the other staff, like the cleaners and maintenance men, are just plain rude-end of story, so don't be fooled by pictures of the staff smiling and looking all happy on their social media pages. Some of the maintenance men are bad-tempered and rude as hell, the cleaning ladies are the same. After every weekend, the communal dustbins are overfilled with empty bottles of alcohol, empty bottles of alcohol on the lawns, in the clubhouses, in the corridors, by the study area-everywhere. Prepare yourself to log countless maintenance reports over the year because one thing about this place? They don't know how maintain their units, at all. Or maybe they do know but they just don't want to. The finance/billing department is absolutely ***********, they will bill you incorrectly three or four times before you can get an accurate invoice. The water gets cold after there has been load shedding, what's up with that????????? Also, some of the main switches in the block trip when there is load shedding, which is weird. And with the number of times there is load shedding, imagine how many times the main switch tripping will affect your unit(and then imagine how many times you will have to log a maintenance report). Look, for the amount of money they expect you to pay, you shouldn't be experiencing the problems you'll experience when you get there. That place is not good value for money AT ALL. Having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get your laundry washed so that you can get some space on the laundry lines because the establishment is too selfish to put up more laundry lines is CRAZY. So to recap: ****roaches, say bye to a full refund of your deposit, grouchy cleaning and maintenance staff, condescending office staff, more ****roaches, noise and rowdiness, more money out of your pocket, stupid maintenance problems, more noise and rowdiness, blah blah blah. But anyway, go there at your own risk and enjoy :)