ViBe Student Living, kingston-upon-thames

Due to the constant noise, unrepaired amenities, and accessibility issues, I strongly advise anyone considering this accommodation to look elsewhere. The living conditions fall far short of acceptable standards, especially considering the rent paid. Avoid this property if you value peace, comfort, and basic functionality in your student accommodation.

Excellent social scene and everyone was very friendly with lots of helpful advice. It made settling in to somewhere new - where I didn't know ow anybody to begin with - an enjoyable experience- rather than the terrifying nightmare that I had feared!

So first I’ll start off with the good points; Vibe offers good facilities including a cinema, gym & dance studio, cleaners come to clean the communal areas, there are lots of events throughout the year and the staff are friendly. However, the events can cause a lot of noise & no one seems to respect the noise curfew. Also, yes the staff are friendly but that’s not the reason why I would choose a place to live personally. In my opinion, these pros do not constitute the price of Vibe, I feel that it is not worth it at all, the modern look doesn’t reflect the actual state of everything. It feels more like a hotel than a home to be honest; there’s always staff coming into rooms & kitchens and you can only have a certain no. of guests round. Yes they notify you when they are entering but they give like a few days that they need to check rooms so it leaves you waiting for them to arrive which is not ideal if you have plans to shower or have guests round. Although, the 24hr staff does ensure that it is a safe & secure place. I think the main thing that puts me off is the smell & state of the place. It looks modern as you enter but the carpets in the hallways are dirty & the halls stink & the lights don’t even work! The bin store is absolutely disgusting; there’s either not enough bins or they’re not collected or something, but everyone leaves their rubbish in the corridor & it reeks! Sometimes the bin store door is locked so a pile of smelly rubbish bags just accumulates in front of the door. Vibe mentioned that anyone leaving rubbish outside of designated bins would be fined but I guess this idea is no longer in action. The appliances in the kitchen are useless, the oven is always smoking & sometimes everything will just turn off. The internet is also terrible & if you have problems Vibe makes you contact the internet provider (surely that should be a problem for Vibe staff to sort out when the whole building has bad WiFi!). The showers become blocked if you’re in there for more than 2 mins & the hot water doesn’t work unless the pressure is really low. Laundry is so expensive! We’re already paying extortionate amounts & they can’t even provide own washing machines. When the fire alarm tests are carried out it shows that they don’t even work as sometimes they won’t turn off then you have to leave the building early in the morning & wait until it turns off. Anyone considering Vibe, only take this as a last resort, look around for house shares as you will save a lot of money!

Good luck if you are living on the 6th floors. The rooms are essentially a heat box amplifying any heat outside. My thermometer said the room temperature reached 35 degrees in peak summer. The reception are not supportive at all of this and say arranging cooling options are on you. They even make moving out the most stressful experience ever. Super rude and unhelpful at times, would not recommend.

Very good living experience, suitable for Kingston surrounding students choose to live. Have a free gym and free breakfast on wednesdays. The festival has special activities and is very social, which is not found in other apartments.