Western Sydney University Village- Parramatta Campus

The review in August of this place is on the mark. We stayed in a 6 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately it was the hottest day of the year (and there is no air-con). You can't even use the pool (its for students) which is really disappointing as many websites advertise it has a pool. The condition of the room is very poor. Bin's not emptied, room was not clean, there was a hair tie in the shower. It's so poor it takes me back to when i was about 18-19 and you would visit friends that lived out of home that would trash the place. Unless you are < 25, I really would not waste my time on this place. I was suckered in by the price, so in some respects you get what you pay for. Next time, I will just pay extra and stay at the Meriton up the road.

I stayed at the UWS Village in Parramatta for a period of 4 months and boy, did I have a good time! The village is primarily meant for students (I too belonged to that category) and always has a lively atmosphere. There's something for everyone. I shared an 8 bedroom accommodation. Having a room to onself is a big relief, ensuring one's privacy. The rooms were needed to be kept clean and tidy, with regular inspections carried out by the staff to check for any dirty rooms or any wrongdoing. Each room had a bed, a large cupboard and a desk, so one could store large amounts of stuff. The WiFi provided by UWS village was excellent; high speeds guaranteed at day or night with hardly any outages. The only issues we faced was in sharing the 2 bathrooms and common areas, but this was handled with some smart planning by all of us. The campus has a reading room, a laundromat, a basketball court, a swimming pool, pool table and table tennis table. Also, the community regularly organizes events such as Red Frog evenings, movie screenings, pizza parties and even outings to famous Sydney attractions. Well-connected by buses to Parramatta as well as Sydney CBD and in a lovely green area near the Parramatta River, there are plenty of walking or jogging trails nearby for a fitness conscious person. Interacting with a diverse student group from across the world was an additional bonus.

This was a 5 bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, kitchen and lounge in the university campus. Liked that each bedroom was lockable and had heaters in each room. There was so much that was bad about this experience its not fair if I dont share: - Filthy couch you wouldn't sit on without a blanket or towel under you; - Microwave inside and out was filthy, grease and grime over the cupboard doors and walls; - the stench that came out of the rubbish bin in the kitchen was putrid - we lifted the lid for only 5 seconds to place rubbish inside and it took over the room even though the rubbish bin liner was new, if you saw the inside of the lid I'm sure its never been cleaned); - bathroom tiles on floor, walls, ceiling and doors had mould and scum; - toilet had urine from top to bottom on the outside of the bowl - clearly has not been cleaned - disgusting; - walls and doors dirty clearly visible; insects and cobwebs and dirt very clearly evident in all rooms including kitchen and lounge - after witnessing the above we chose to shower with either plastic bags on our feet or our socks incase we picked up something untoward. How they get away with charging anyone money to stay here is beyond belief. I'm still in shock 4-5 days later...

The lady at reception was very friendly and helpful on arrival I stayed for one night as i had a job interview nearby the next morning Great simple accommodation but parking was a little confusing I would defiantly recommend

It's $70 a night so we could expect upper-end hostel. If you have a car, it's another $7 a day for parking. If you are there because of UWS, it is convenient. You get a lockable room in a shared apartment. I prefer a more conventional hostel. The rooms are nice: roomy and comfortable, with a big desk and lots of storage. There were TWO heaters in my room, rather unnecessarily. One was definitely enough! There is a small and rather grubby swimming pool. There are 2 bathrooms and a kitchen/living room with TV. Towels, bedding soap and shampoo are supplied, but not coffee or tea or milk. The kitchen is equipped with a rather random set of cutlery and mugs, which seemed strange when the place is so new. You can get the UWS wifi, but I do not know if this is available to those who are not with UWS. I'd stay there again if I needed to do business at UWS in the evening again, but not otherwise.

You may go hungry because the staff "Remove" your food and the GM doesn't even care!! He tried to have his staff buy me off with $20, and offered a contact email address, DO NOT STAY here the service is shocking! If things going missing, inconvenience and disrespect are your thing then please stay here!!!!

First of all, this place is expensive. As a student you're going to have to pay a lot, and for that your room may not even have a heater which makes it extremely cold during the winter. In addition to this, there is no isolation in the walls making it even colder. For that reason the village finds it perfectly reasonable to not supply you with pillows, bed sheets, blankets and so on. As an international student, which most of the people living there are, you're expected to bring your own things all the way across the planet, unless you're not willing to buy it from the village reception? Speaking of what can be bought from the village reception, heaters! Heaters are not included in the rent, although most rooms are equipped with them. If it doesn't work however, they offer you to buy new ones for $30. On the other hand, if you're a pretty looking girl the genitor might see what he can do for you. This happened to me, where my female friend was given a new heater for free, while as I was told that they were not included in the rent and that I would have to pay for a new one… I don’t want to make all the village workers look bad, because most of them are good people, but things tend to progress slowly and cost money. Regarding the condition of the rooms and common areas, it is fairly low. Don’t be surprised if your apartment is messy and dirty when you move in, even though you as a student have to pay a $100 cleaning fee. The same goes for your room, in which you shouldn’t be surprised to find cockroaches. Although some apartments hosts as much as eight residents, there will only be one stove and one refrigerator in the apartment. You’ll find yourself struggling with fitting your food in there and in the cupboards, but if you’re unlucky your indoor smoking, gun equipped and drug dealing neighbour will help you out with that by stealing your food. This is nothing that can be proven, however, according to the village management and therefore no action can be made other than you having a talk to the neighbour yourself. Hence, if you end up in a room with rude and disrespectful neighbours you’re in for a nightmare. If you as a student end up in an apartment with people you like, however, you can have a really good social experience. Common complaints tend bring people together.

For the price, we found that overall we just received value for money...just! Our double-bed room was comfortable enough and the kitchen facilities nearby, although a hot spot, were very good. Likewise the bathroom was quite adequate. Notwithstanding these general positives there were a number of annoying aspects which detracted from the ease and comfort of our experience. First, we arrived at 5.30pm and found we had to phone for assistance, even though on booking, the information clearly said, that this would only be necessary after 7pm. We had to call a second time when our card would not open the nearest gate to provide entrance to our block. Apparently, after a certain time this gate is unavailable, but no information was provided about this. Second, it is said that, there is "Free Parking", but we found this to be considerably uncertain. We were directed to some limited "staff parking" and informed that payment was required if we parked anywhere else. When we returned from a dinner outing at 9.30pm we found there was no spaces available in the staff parking. Third, there was quite a bit of noise until about 1.30am. The noise was simply that of many young people enjoying a Friday night socializing, but in a village context of this kind it is something to take account of. It certainly impacted the quality of our night. Finally, the building construction is such that noise is easily heard and we felt it was relatively poorly insulated both from the point of view of noise and temperature. The village is clearly established for students living-in for study purposes and it has not, at this point, made the experience of other guests as easy and comfortable as it could be. We're inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt and stay again in the hope that our experience will be easier.

I stayed in one of the 6 bedroom units which had a shared large kitchen, living area and two bathrooms for $75. The unit they used seemed to be tucked well away from the main uni students area to avoid noise. I had no probelms and I guess you have to be lucky with your co-tenants for the night which I was. Was a great position for me as I went to watch footy at Parra stadium on the Saturday then an Open Day at Rosehill racecourse on the Sunday. Some fast food and restaurants close by but no great breakfast spot you can walk to....would cook my own next time.