The Cottages of Durham

"I moved into a dirty room and apartment and on top of that I was given predatory charges (about $200) during move out even though I left the apartment cleaner than I found it. Such a Shame for a place targeting college students with such predatory bogus move out fees. Will never be coming back and I'll make sure to tell everyone I know with internships in New Hampshire to not even consider living here. Their lease take over system is such a scam. If you're planning on taking over someone's lease here for an internship, don't. You'd be better served living on the UNH campus or somewhere else."

"This place has no redeeming qualities. The only reason it has 3 stars because they make their employees and visitors give good ratings. Staff are rude and unhelpful. Everything is just another way for them to charge you money. The bus comes very infrequently. And “the year round hot tub” that happens to be their biggest selling point hasn’t been operational at all since I moved here, which was 5 months ago. Consider living at the lodges, or literally anywhere else…."

"The maintenance service at the Cottages Club House is nothing short of exceptional, and Lela is the welcoming face that truly makes a difference! From the moment you step inside, Lela's warm and friendly greeting sets the tone for a wonderful experience. I rely on the free coffee to get through the school year and the coffee area is always fully stocked. Bathrooms are always spotless, making the Cottages Club House a top-notch place to enjoy."

"Charged an unreasonable amount of money up on move out. Charged for paint even though there was nothing wrong with the paint. Charged for new toilet seat and there was nothing wrong with that either I took a video on move out for proof. Cannot get a hold of anyone at the office since they changed their voicemail box to not allow calls directly to office. I would stay far away from this place. Unless you want to be charged over 300 dollars after move out for no reason."

"I normally do not leave reviews, but I had to for this one. My son needed to stay on campus for the summer to do a summer research project. We are out of state, so needed to find a place to stay for him at and arranged to sublet a room at the cottages from a student who was out for the summer. First, the Cottages charged a $300 fee from the other student and $250 from my son, just to do the sublet arrangement. This did not include the cleaning fee, as the students had to agree to rent "as is". Then they told them that these fees and the lease covers only till August 1st (so June-July) and to stay there for the August, they need to redo all the sublet lease and pay the fees again. Also, not including cleaning fee before move-in, the students had to do this themselves. Let's just ponder on this: $1100 in requested fees for 2.5 month stay for a student, on top of $900 monthly rent for an apartment room for a student apartment for the summer... In addition, my son told me that he felt unsafe because there were maintenance or cleaning people showing up to do work in other rooms in the apartment without any ahead notice or warning, just opening up the door with their key - opens right into the living room and kitchen of the common area. I was very disappointed. UNH housing told me that the Cottages is a private company and they have no oversight of them. They therefore make their own rules and have no incentive to make it easy for the students. For comparison, my other son did a sublet for a private studio in Manhattan - and also was subletting a studio at WashU in St. Louis - both were much easier and with substantially less fees involved."