George Brown College Student Residence

Sadly the only GOOD thing about this residence is the location. I moved off campus and live in Scarborough now with my boyfriend and for a total of $1000 a month, I get everything the res has (with more privacy) for a better price, just a slightly longer commute. Not worth the money even if you are a first year. Also there are only about 3 useful and nice staff members currently sooooo. Just don't waste your time or money.

Clean and affordable. The building is loud (i.e., the heating and cooling air system has a modern and persistent drone) and the window shades block 75% of light (i.e. they are not blackout shades). We purchased ear plugs and slept well. If you wake at first sign of morning light like me you will want to sleep with a mask. Beds are comfortable. Kitchen has a small table, microwave, and refrigerator--you need to bring your own microwaveable containers and cutlery. We love walking 5 plus miles a day when visiting a city. Thus, the location being east of all the attractions we came to see was no problem for us. Public transportation is close by for those who prefer to put in fewer miles walking.

Overall, my stay here was complicated. Let’s start with the pros: -Design: The building is brand new, looks nice and modern, and is kept mostly clean. Living in a brand new building is really a luxury especially in the city. -Location: It's close to the college (10-15 minute walk) and there's streetcars right nearby (less than 1 minute walk). -Safety: The building is very safe (for those who are paranoid; it's a bit over-the-top). -Staff: The staff, for the most part (read below), is friendly and tries to help. -Amenities: The system used for laundry is pretty convenient. You load up a card and tap it on the machines to activate them, and you can reload on the spot with a debit card. There’s also a feature to text you when the load is done, although it never worked for me. There are also a couple of communal kitchens throughout the building, although they aren’t on every floor and I would recommend having a hot-plate in your suite. A balcony on the second floor can be used for BBQing and there’s a game room in there. -The room itself: While the dining area and kitchen are fairly small, they are still sizeable enough with a good sized fridge. The best feature by far though is the bed. They are high quality beds and very comfortable. I haven’t been able to find such a good mattress in my price range since. There is also a TV in your room which you can hook up whatever you want to it which is nice. -Community: The staff arranges a lot of activities and different things to keep people engaged. There’s been pizza days, pancake days, fresh markets with cheap vegetables for sale, events, etc. Personally not my thing but it’s nice to see for people who are into all that stuff. But... I've experienced many troubles here. Here are the cons: -By far the most frustrating aspect of my time there was the noise. The walls were so thin that I could hear, and even FEEL banging/hitting on the walls from several floors down right by my bed, which stopped me from sleeping. Some of the gyms are also positioned in a way where the walls are adjacent to someone’s bedroom. You can imagine how frustrating that can be if someone in the gym is throwing the exercise ball around. Honestly I wish they would have restricted gym access during the night, as I hardly think people throwing stuff around the gym at 2 AM is appropriate. -The shades on our windows are almost transparent. A lot of light is let in and the room gets very hot in the summer, and it’s sometimes hard to sleep or watch a movie when there’s so much light seeping in. Not a HUGE deal, but just something to keep in mind. -The doors are VERY loud. -The roommate selection process, while well-intentioned and designed in theory, isn't great because people just lie on their profiles and pretend to be clean and quiet when they are not. -Elevators are OFTEN out of service (At least once a week one elevator is out of order. This went on for my full 2 years there, and it never seemed to get better). -Some staff will just come in whenever they want in your place or room if you asked for something or they need to come in (had a guy on staff unlock my suite door, knock on my room's door, which I didn't hear because I was watching a movie, and then he just came into my room AS I WAS IN BED and got mad at me for not hearing the knocking). -Multiple washing machines in laundry room are always out of order. -For the first YEAR the vending machines on ground and 2nd floor didn't work at all. Overall, I have to say that the biggest advantage I had living here was the location. Do however keep in mind these points of concern. Do not expect to come here and get a relaxing experience; you will be in a nice building downtown, but you will also have to deal with screaming lunatics at 3 AM and walking down 8 flight of stairs because the elevators are down. Weigh your options and choose accordingly.

Wow, talk about money being taken. Paying about $1200 a month for a place like this seems to be a rip off. Firstly look at the accommodations or lack there of, the kitchens on every floor look disgusting and look to be poorly taken care of. Common room on the second floor is pretty boring with one TV in one room, and two smaller TVs along with a few games like pool and ping pong on there. Staff is rather uncaring about what is going on. Shades in the room do nothing, and it is very bright very early in your room, can't sleep without something covering the window or a blind fold. Boilers are broken during a cold winter, it keeps fluctuating between 17 C° and 25 C° which is unacceptable, not to mention the AC sounds like a constant humm, and if you have wind outside, it gets even louder. Amount of space, or lack there of is also pretty bad, even when you take just the minimum required utilities you will need to buy an extra table or a kitchen island to make it livable. For now this is all, everything else is just a minor inconvenience, but it adds up. Would not recommend even for first year students.

I feel like I am obligated to write a review for this place, and I will preface this with my final verdict for people who do not want to read my whole review. DO NO MOVE HERE. You spend around $1200 a month to live here and you can get a place that is infinitely better for that price that is not The George. I have lived here for coming on one year now, for me that is 3 semesters and my entire stay has been like ripping the hair out of my head and I honestly feel obligated to try and stop people from moving here and save them the troubles that I have experienced. Covid-19. I have lived here through Covid-19 and the mishandling of Covid-19 precautions is insane. Firstly instead of having people in the building receive Covid-19 tests, they set up a table in the lobby that you are forced to stop at and be asked if you've travelled outside the country, come in contact, show symptoms etc. which normally would be okay but this is literally every single time you enter the building and this process takes over 5 minutes sometimes, and it is EVERYTIME you exit the building and come back in no matter the amount of time between your exit and entrance. Another thing is that they are not allowing anyone to have guests for any reason and it has been like this for over a year. I don't think the management realizes how mentally damaging it is for you to not be able to see family or friends for over a year in a house that you pay just as much as half of the other places in Toronto. I can't see how this doesn't violate human rights code and I can't see how it isn't illegal. To restate this, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED GUESTS NO MATTER WHAT. Another thing is that, due to Covid-19 you will not have a roommate so you may be thinking to yourself "awesome I have the Suite to myself" but no, you only have YOUR room, you don't get the other room and you can technically get in trouble for opening it though no one listens to that and finds a way to open it. Another thing that will ruin your stay because of Covid-19 is that all the common rooms are closed and you can not get into them, even the built in gym. You have to book the kitchens days in advance and you are not allowed to use the barbeque that is on the patios of the kitchen, and when you book the kitchen you are the only person that is allowed in the kitchen and you aren't even allowed to take your mask off. Laundry. So there is laundry in the building that was outsourced to a second company. To do laundry you have a "sparkle express" card that you fill with money and are able to pay to use the inhouse laundry machines. That's right the $14000 you pay to live here for 8 months does not include free use of the laundry machines, and the cost of laundry? $5 for a wash and dry. An insanely high price. Heating. This building has CONSTANT heating problems. CONSTANT. as of Wednesday April 14, 2021 for the past 4 weeks the building has been insanely hot, mine and many others rooms are averaging 28-30 degrees Celsius and the front desk knows about this issue but has been doing seemingly nothing about this. When I first moved here in August there was the same heating issues where my room averaged 32 and they didn't do anything about it for WEEKS. Now I and many others are having the same issue and they aren't doing anything about it with repeated complaints. I don't think they understand the mental strain that your only living space that you can't have other people in being over 30 degrees constantly for over a month is. You can't sleep because of the temperature, nothing fixes it and its crazy. Front desk. The front desk has some awesome people Porfy was really amazing and so was Jessica but more often than not someone who doesn't care about anything or any concern you have is working and so any complaint or maintenance request you have just falls on deaf ears. Verdict. My final verdict would be find a place that is similar or a little bit more than the $1200 monthly that is living at The George, because I promise you it will be worth it and you will be happier in the long run.

The is my first time at The George. The front booking area is not at all what I expected. It was a cold, industrial looking and not very warm and inviting; unlike many hotels I’ve been at. Free wifi. No parking associated with The George but GreenP is adjacent to it. Has morning coffee available in the lobby but the Dark Horse coffee is better. I was given room 927, which is right next to the elevator and a very noisy large event that whistled; the whistle was prevalent inside the room therefore I went back down to the lobby to change rooms and they gave me room 917 after waiting about 10 minutes. Room 917 had vomit directly outside the door and the passcard didn’t work to get inside the room. Not wanting to go back downstairs again I called from my cell phone and the front desk gentleman said it takes approximate 10 minutes to register but wld security to unlock the door. While I waited I noticed it was obvious the carpet on the 9th floor hadn’t been vacuumed in a long time. Room 917 was clean. There was no hot water from the sink, lukewarm at best and the sink clogged; it Eventually drained. The Shower is 3’ x 3 1/2‘ box shower stall which did have hot water thankfully but the shower curtain isn't wide enough to cover the shower entrance; water will splash onto the floor. Leaving the room requires the passcard to lock it, which did not work as was expected because it was well beyond the 10 minute wait. I called the front desks again to let them know; at the same time maintenance came up to clean up the vomit outside my front door which was really good response time. Front desk gentleman came up and try to fix the door card problem but was unable to do it and said he would have it fixed After I returned from dinner, which was done The new passcard worked! I’m 6’3” and can tell you these beds are too short if you sleep on your stomach. The mattress is ok but the pillows are even less quality. No room service attended to look after my room after the first night. There are no darkening blinds in the rooms; they only have pull down blinds that don’t and did not block out the light that came from the adjacent building’s lights; I did not sleep well. I don’t recommend The George if you can afford a better hotel about 22 minute walk from here and only about $35 more per night but if you’re on a tight budget this is an ok place to stay.

Beautiful building, clean, security on-site. Key secured, Each floor has a different name. Parking is OK, gotta pay for parking on the street.

Like some, it was not what we expected. Although it has a 'kitchenette' there are no dishes, utensils or even a coffee maker. Not well suited for the short term traveller. Although there were numerous signs that said masks are mandatory, the person checking us in, who seemed very unfamiliar with her job, was not wearing one. It is clean and quiet but that does not make up for its shortcomings. Not good value for money.