Studio in Rue Lecourbe, 75015 Paris, France, paris

Honestly, if it weren‘t for the nice location this place would‘ve nothing going for it. The prices are absolutely rediculous, especially when considering that the rooms are neither modern, nor well equipped. You basically get the bare minimum for paying way too much. The mattress is an absolute joke, the desk has barely enough space for a monitor, the chairs are crippling, the bathroom doesn‘t have a proper ventilation and it‘s moldy. The facility itself provides nothing either. There‘s a communal space, that was locked during my whole stay of nine months. Also no access to the backyards. The management was just incompetent too. I either did not receive an response to my mails days after sending them, or when I did they were just utterly useless. And during my last weeks seemingly nobody seemed to care to come into office. When it then finally came to my checkout, nobody arrived either — fantastic! Go save your money and get something proper.

If only I knew.. I would stay away from this residence FOR SURE. I was crying day&night with the lack of sleep and the problems I was facing… It was the worst experience. During winter, they never open the heating, while the person on the desk admitted it was for economy while heating is on the contract. As a result I needed to buy extra heating myself. Moreover no way you can sleep at that residence during day or night since people are doing lots of noise. The residence desk people asked me to spy the other residents and take videos on finding the people who make noise so they could charge them extra, while they should hire someone as a security since there are a lot of complaints. There is also a monoprix wharehouse under the residence that makes noise during hours that is silence hours (like 3-4 morning and goes until 7 afternoon) and the residence knows but does nothing and asked us to tell the municipal and that it is not their responsibility, but it is, since its the residence that I pay and the noise comes from under their building. There was a smell of weed all the months j was staying there, of other residents getting into my apartment and even if i was trying to block the door as much as possible the smell could still get into my apartment and as a result i always had headaches and in winter had to sleep with open window WITHOUT heating provided (saying this again). When you have a problem it is extremely hard to find someone to communicate even at the office hours, either at the office either on phone, as there are days that even office hours and days its no one there in the office. Moreover they keep changing every while (they are firing) the person at rhe desk so the next person that comes you have to explain everything again. When i left they tried with many ways to find reasons to charge me extra and not to give me fully the deposit but ofcourse I knew from others this tactic, so i was mindful and ofcourse I did not accept it. My mental health, and mg physical health, were literally destroyed the months I was staying there. It is a good option if you are an erasmus student and you come for 2-3 months in Paris and just want to party and be somewhere in the centre, but if you are serious about your studies and you need to sleep at night, as it was my case, this is the worst possible option. Could say even more... One time i left my keys for just a moment out of my door to get into the house for a second to take something abd leave, and the cleaner was passing from there, came to my door and locked me inside my apartment and I started screaming, my neighboor noticed and she opened to me and started laughing handing back the keys to me. The curtains do not close fully. As a result, we had a creep of the other building spying on us and masturbating. Videos were taken. He kept coming. Even if the case went to police, I believe they had to hire a security at least for a period to secure the safety of the females students living in the residence since he tried one time to get inside the residence with the delivery man. The residence on the outside is full of rats but its Paris so I guess thats not something rare. Not to mention that when you leave, you have to clear yourself the apartment and give it to the next person with all the stuff looking as they are brand new, the kitchen stuff etc and they make you clear even walls. If there are broken things inside the apartment be sure you take photos, because they tried to charge me as well but i ensisted on looking at the photos. And even with all these… I could say even more…

I lived in this place for 6 months. I am very pleased, silence, peace. Very professional help, especially Mr. Dalil. Always smiling, willing to help :)

I would give zero stars if possible. Take the warnings here seriously because they are entirely true and can completely ruin your stay in Paris which is not worth it because the city itself is stunning. 1. Poor heating: the heater is set to the legal standard of 19 degrees but is cold to the touch. I’ve brought this up with the manager who came in with a forehead thermometer to measure the heater itself; when it was 19 degrees she said there was nothing she could do. This is completely unacceptable, given that we all pay high rent for such tiny spaces. Management will not do anything about it so long as they are covered by the law. I cannot stress how poorly heated it was, the tenants were perpetually freezing and always asking on the group chat if the heating was working. 2. Broken front door: access into the residence is via a badge that you tap in with. The first of such doors was broken for weeks, with no updates by management. When we emailed them about it they simply said they were taking care of it. In the meantime, strangers could enter the residence. I think safety should not be compromised and it is evident this residence could not care less about it. 3. Hot water cut off: we were informed that the hot water in the building was cut off at around 2pm. By the time I came home at night, the water was still not fixed. In the end I had to warm up water on the stovetop to shower, and the water was suddenly fixed at 2-3am in the morning only after tenants in the building rallied together and mass emailed management. I think I need not say more on this. 4. Extortion: when I moved in, the first manager checked me in and did the inventory check with me. I noted that the pans and utensils were already dirty and never touched them; I went down to ikea immediately to get new sets for my stay. However during my check out, the new manager, unaware that these items were already dirty to begin with, told me I was responsible for washing them. When I told her they were already dirty and even showed her the new forks I bought, she said it did not prove anything because the pictures taken by the prior manager could not be located. In the end they charged me 90€ to clean a few utensils. Rent is not cheap in this residence, and there is a lot of bureaucratic inefficiencies I can tolerate. But if you are already planning to pay a certain amount in rent, please choose another accommodation; I’ve heard nothing but complaints from other tenants who are currently planning to move out as soon as they can.

Youfirst was an extremely negative experience for me as a renter. Not only are the prices ridiculous for what you get (because it requires a guarantor as well as the rent), but the people that work there (the Youfirst managers) are some of the most unprofessional people I have ever met! When my application was approved to move in about a month before my move in date, I emailed the Youfirst Manager to ask if I could move in on a specific date and have my 'move in appointment' with them on that day. They then did not respond to that email (or my emails chasing them up) for weeks. So I was forced to book my travel to Paris without knowing what was going to happen or if I could move in. I booked my travel for a Saturday and then found out no one was working there on the weekend. Thankfully a kind lady called Melodie working in the Ivry residence helped me out and gave my keys to my friend that happened to be in Paris, but if that had not happened I would have not been able to access the apartment I had paid for! The living space itself in the shared apartments is inadequate. The kitchen has no oven and only a very small stove. The bedrooms are fine, but the mattress is terrible. However, the really trouble started when I decided to move out. I first had one of the managers come to my flat for a ‘move-out appointment’. He found that everything was fine except when he turned on the microwave, it sparked. This had never happened before and I assume it’s because the microwave was super old! He then took the microwave away and I asked him if Youfirst would replace it. He said “yes, of course, it’s our responsibility”. Two days later (I assume after he talked to his boss), I received an email saying unless I replaced the microwave with a new one, they would take 90 euros out of my deposit. This was straight up extortion after I was told the opposite. I deliberated but felt as they held 850 euros of my money in the form of the deposit, I was basically powerless and just had to suck it up and buy a new microwave for them (which of course I did not use once as I moved out the next day). Then, I was informed that Youfirst residents need to pay the building for a cleaning service at the end of their tenancy. Ok, this is fair enough and pretty standard. So I asked how much it would cost and the building manager replied “50 euros”. Ok, great, that’s a reasonable price I felt. However, yet again I assume once this person had spoken to their manager and they felt that day was a great day to extort international students for a bit of extra money, I received another email saying that in fact it was 150 euros for the cleaning service! So I had a look at the lease, and in fact it clearly stated that for shared apartments it was 90 euros. Again, I felt powerless as they held my deposit and extorted more money from me, not only immorally but illegally as their lease stated. Throughout this process of argument with the managers, I would often not receive answers to my emails for days or even weeks. The only way to get any answers was to catch them in their office for the few hours a day they are actually working and ask them in person. Finally, and this was the biggest sham… I was told once I had moved out that I would receive back my 850 euro deposit within a month of moving out. After a month and a half I had received nothing and so got back in contact with the company and demanded my money back (or at least an explanation for why I didn’t have it yet). They said “oops our mistake, you should get it back this week”. Yet that week passed and still nothing. I had to get in contact again two weeks later to ask for it again, and finally I received the money over two months after moving out! I guess after extorting money from me twice before, if I had not chased them up twice they would have just kept my money and that would have been that! Overall, this was not a good experience. Oh and also they didn't turn the heating on for a month after they promised it would be on due to a "technical issue" (yeah right!)