DUWO studenthousing Reviews

More than a year ago I terminated my lease, now suddenly bothered with so-called outstanding service costs. Clear example of how a large company is misusing their power at the expense of the individual. Save yourself the misery

Had Duwo put as much effort toward their customer satisfaction as they do on replying to 1-star reviews on Google, they would have got much better reviews.

A disgrace to entrepreneurship in general. Trying to suck its customers dry, without offering the basic. I am strongly advising everyone to search for housing outside DUWO.

High price, low service. Too expensive for the quality of the rooms... And too much bureaucracy, lack of security in the buildings... I hope the company changes soon, so the next wont suffer as we did.

The building is pretty but surrounding areas are still under construction

Beautiful new buildings with mainly foreign students

My experience so far is really nice, the assistance people are really nice and helpful, I didn't have any problem. Just place it here because I see so many negative comments that I feel it needs to be balanced!

Key words: poorly organized, customer service knows nothing and does not keep appointments.
After the date of our house has been moved 4 times, we were neatly at the office on the agreed day to pick up our key. However, this turned out to be lost, so wait, after waiting an hour or so we were told that there was good news, the key was right. However, he was with the construction workers who were still doing odd jobs in our house. We will be told when the key arrived at the office, until then wait quietly while the time is ticking for us, we really have to get into that house quickly. That we already had to sign and pay a contract ?? Yes that is really our problem. Promised was an email about this, never got in of course. It is no problem that Duwo is slow with everything. But you as a tenant must always do everything within 5 days, otherwise you may run away. We had to say yes to our house, before we were sure that the fungus would be removed. Say yes before we knew if the bathroom would fall apart. All in all not the experience you hope for when taking your own place.

The worst service i ever experienced in a organisation. Never rent here.

Good skate spot! Only there is an old guy who just puts ribbon in front of the stairs and whines about candle wax

A very good atmosphere, large rooms and exceptional services.

A lot of negative reviews, however I found the service to be great, and everyone involved is very kind and helpfull

The apartment was not exactly in the cleanest of states and sometimes they take a long time to reply to complaints. I usually have to send about two mails or call before I get a response. But they when they respond, they're usually nice and helpful which takes the sting away

Edit: I can't blame Duwo for not reading the contract thoroughly, lived there happily, 4 stars it is

The agents were really understanding, pleasant and helpful. It wasn't a trip that I looked forward but was glad that I made it.

The stuff at the counter was very helpful. Nice place.

The most uncompetent and useless bunch of people I have ever seen.

The single worst housing office I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Disinterested in customer complaints, and completely unreachable outside of office hours, which is thoroughly disgusting if you happen to lose your key and realise at 17:30. They overcharge and under deliver. I would highly recommend going private instead. I have much more to say regarding the lack of professionalism I have met with, but if you aren't disillusioned by now, there is little hope for you.

My reply to DUWO's reaction:
On top of being ridiculously expensive, the apartment provided does not contain the necessary appurtenances for a self-contained residence, there is no oven, for a start. The fridge is not of an adequate size, and causes massive amounts of condensation, as well as wild fluctuations in food temperature. This is a pretty universal issue in my building, as I understand it.
The kitchenware pack I was provided is less than half of what was stated on your website, and trying to address this led to a complete dismissal of my complaints, simply being told that the website is outdated. I don't care how 'outdated' the website is, the agreed upon furnishings have NOT been provided.
I pay the same rent as people with significantly larger rooms in my building, with more accommodating furnishings.
Any contact I have with DUWO involves me waiting at least two days for a reply from them. Except in the case of me losing my key, where I got a reply in 18 hours time. Had I not found it, I would have been locked outside of my room for just shy of a day, which is unacceptable.
There is construction going on in a chapel that I share a wall with, DUWO made no effort to inform me of the near constant noise (powertools, hammers, etc.) that I would have to put up with, which has finally abated to an infrequent banging.
What disappoints and angers me the most about DUWO is that they are taking advantage of students with no better option - the email I got confirming my accommodation (my third and most expensive/profitable choice, despite providing my housing fee within the first day possible) claimed that I had basically no choice but to accept, or I would not get any housing at all. Everything is priced at the highest level, and delivered at the lowest. It would cost 20 Euros for a replacement key; a magnetised plastic circle, which will (and in my case has) fall off of the keyring within 3 months.

Very sorry that I have to give at least 1 star to these slum landlords. If you can't rent from Duwo, do it. They act unlawfully, only use their position of power and exploit students. Customer service only keeps up stories and then doesn't settle anything. My lease was almost complete and I was removed at the last moment without any contact (I had to hear it from my future roommate). I couldn't get on my pusho and then I had to call myself to hear how, while I followed ALL their rules, I should not rent the room. I am fully in my right, but sadly, Duwo has no respect for a student, so I have to look higher up. Please save all this effort and just rent elsewhere.

Terrible organisation! Unhelpful, unfriendly and very expensive. If you have the choice do not use these services.

Only live in a DUWO building if you really must.

Very bad quality buildings, that look great on a picture but are absolutely rubbish in real life. The buildings are made in the cheapest possible way. Problems include: really tough heat in the summer, leaking when it rains, sound insulation, heat insulation, no ventilation in the hallways among others problems.

A plus point is the relatively cheap rent.

DUWO also really doesn't encourage people meeting up together because there are no common rooms in many buildings... People often just sit alone in their own room and listen through their loudspeakers which can be clearly heard by the neighbors. So you wont be together with your neighbors but will be annoyed by the bad insulation.

I was happy to move out.

Having had the experience of living in a DUWO accomadate room for one year now, I have to say that the step that comes after renting a duwo room is living on the street. Duwo is a Company tries to suck out everything out of the housing shortage in The Netherlands. I can t believe that such an organization is allowed to call themselves a foundation of public utility. First of all they force international students into a kind of adhesion contract - you must rent the room for an entire year, there is no possibility to quit the renting agreement before the predetermined end date. In my case that meant I had to obligate myself to pay them more than 4000 rent over the year for a room that I haven t even seen before - you are forced to buy a pig in a poke. But of course, if you are coming from abroad and you know that finding a house, especially in Amsterdam can be quite tricky, you think that this is the best option. Now, I clearly know why this is the case: Nobody wants to stay in their shitholes for one year, but in order to make profit, they just make this somehow mandatory. Isn t it great how they suck out money out of international students? Also, Duwo is not cheap, for a 12 squaremeter rooom in a shared apartment far away from the city center you still pay around 400 per month - this is more than I know pay for my independent apartment (incl rent allowance, which is another thing they do not mention at all - if you rent an independent apartment you might be eligible for rent allowance from the tax administration)
If the rooms would at least be of good quality I would not even be so upset about this.
But their customer service is a catastrophe. As I entered my room for the first time I got hit by the smell of cold cigarette smoke immediately. There were red-brown spots on the wall and there was an old sofa standing on my balcony. The tiles of the shower room were covered with disgusting dirt, and every attempt to clean it failed - I think that nobody cleaned this apartment for the last 10 years. As I called them, they said to me at the phone that this are just minor things - keep in mind that you have to live there for ONE ENTIRE YEAR! I don t know how you should call it but you definitely cannot call it living, it s more counting the the days until you finally can move out.
Since the beginning my mailbox was very hard to open, and after one month the lock in ther broke completely so it was not possible anymore to close it. I called them several times because of this - nothing happened. Everybody could have grabbed my post during the year; credit cards, pincodes, official letters, private mails EVERYTHING. And it s still broken - and I m not going to pay for this - that s for sure! And the biggest joke that made me laugh and cry at the same time was the email with the cleaning instructions they sent me a few weeks ago - I just thought: NOBODY EVER DID THIS IN THIS ROOM! So don t expect me to do so. I m done with DUWO, I started renting an apartment with DeKey, it was dirty as I moved in, I called them and they cleaned it up within one week and refunded me the rent for this week - I don t expect this but this is good customer service, this is how you create customer loyalty. But hey, DUWO does not need this because they will continue forcing international students who sometimes travelled over oceans to come here to sign adhesion contracts, without any chance to withdraw them. I m really sad that this is your business model, to take advantage out of the fear of not finding a shelter.
My suggestion: as soon as you are planning to study in The Netherlands sign up at studentenwoningweb.nl, so you can accumulate some waiting time, and try to find an apartment there or try to find one at kamernet, everything is better than DUWO.

The most worthless organization that I and several with me have ever done business with. Personally, I would strongly recommend everyone to do business with this company in any way.

NO WAY I CAN SUGGEST YOU TO RENT WITH DUWO
I couldn't see my room until the day I move in because i was in my home country, but i trusted in the contract that says "the property is in good conditions". Well DON'T TRUST. It was an horrible experience: dust, sticky oil/food on the walls, mold, smell of pee in the bathroom, mouses poo and pee on the kitchen table.. HYGIENIC CONDITION LEVEL ZERO, only a group of young dutch students can accept it.

Generally very satisfied. Sometimes things go wrong administratively due to the size (and complexity) of the foundation. But they really do their best for the tenants and many things are well arranged (which you only find out when you rent somewhere else where that is not the case)

The rooms were quite okay. Spent a month at TU Delft, and the hostels were in my opinion located right between the campus and the shopping centre. The facility was safe, and a cool place to stay. It might have helped that I shared an apartment with my friends, but overall good quality in my opinion

Chairs are not that comfortable but a nice building

Went there for nothing for a home I didn't get it took a week of calling

Worthless customer service. First time I was put on hold for 11 minutes, okay maybe it's just as good friends. A scandalous 17 minutes was on hold for the second time and no one answers. More than 2 hours between the bubbles. Otherwise, stop eating at the office and pick up ....

As former tenant I have positive and very negative experiences with Duwo.

Generally I have the feeling Duwo takes care of its housing stock the first two years after construction and values the comments of its inhabitants. After two years duwo increasingly neglects the apartments up till the point that some issues aren't resolved for more than a year, while it has been mentioned at least six times. Response and responsibility are indeed often just horrible.

As former member of the committee of inhabitants, I was flabbergasted multiple times about all sneaky, filthy ways the company tries to maximize profit within legal boundaries.

New rooms are spacious though and very well isolated, but the buildings lack crucial social facilities, promoting isolation and decreasing social control.

Duwo has completely renovated this old TU building with respect for the old industrial and the building can look into the future again for 100 years. The old photos from before the renovation are very impressive. If you get the chance, request a tour. It is an office building so not public but staff are very friendly so you can always ask.

The student housing monopoly company. As a new student you will not get any other option from the university.

Very good environment and just 5 min walk from the campus of TU Delft.

I am really disappointed in way that DUWO treats costumers. I can understand monopoly that they have on housing market. However their reasoning is really disappointing. I have been renting short-stay apartment from DUWO from 01.03.2017. Now, I need to move to long-stay apartment as my short-term contract due to TU Delft regulation can last only for 1 year. I went to DUWO with request for long-stay apartment and they provided me opportunity to rent apartment in another building (this was fast, thanks for that). However, as tenant that is living in that apartment (apartment that DUWO offered to me) is leaving apartment on 15.02.2018, they requested me to start renting that apartment from 16.02.2018. I did not have problem with that, in case they would refund me half month renting fee that I payed for my current apartment (which is ~450Euros) (I already paid it until 28.02.2018). Initially, they refused to do so, because for some reason for them it is impossible to make refund. At the end they gave option in which I would leave my current apartment on 15.02.2018 and they would provide me keys of new apartment on 16.02.2018 (so I would need to sleep on street for one night), and then they would still not provide me refund form my current place (as half month fee is ~450Euros), however I would not pay first half month at my new apartment (~350 Euros). I would not have problem to sleep on street (hotel), rather then pay 450 Euros for one night, if I would not have many personal things with me, which I need to move. I can understand that DUWO can treat costumers in which ever way they want, because there is monopoly on the market, there is huge demand. However, playing with 12 hours, and putting costumer in position to pay 450 Euros extra for one night is quite disrespectful. I am honestly disappointed.

Neither their customer service, nor their services explains their price
In my opinion they try to exploit students on every opportunity they can grab

edit after communicating for 2 weeks: Their first line customer service is absolute incompetent

If you ever happen to need anything from them be sure they will do everything it takes to avoid doing anything, to the extent of not even answering emails.In spite of having to delay all my plans due to the fact that they "prepare and clean your room before your arrival", when I arrived my room was gross,stank of bleach and there were several broken eggs in the fridge. I emailed them daily for 1 month, until I realised that they were not going to answer or do anything for me. Seen that, I reached one of the employees of DUWO in person. Amazing! She basically told me that my room had indeed been cleaned before my arrival and that I should not complain, since I was one of the "lucky ones" with their own fridge and if they "cleaned" the fridge they would just put it away. False as I used to live in Leeghwaterstraat, which included your own fridge, and after 6 months I could see myself that all my neighbours also had a fridge)

Bad experiences with the administration and customer service. Do not expect too much. Help is not their thing.

The caretaker in Deventer a great man.
However, the appearance of the apartments is terrible.
Towel and box in front of the window.
Instead of decent curtains.
Too bad the management is blind to this.
And leave local residents in the cold.

The pusho customer service number does not work? Do you have a telephone number where I can reach you?

Good place to smoke weed, do drugs and get high af.

If you write an email, they will probably read it the same day, but they will wait at least a week before answering. Then called and they said that they had indeed received my email, on the phone they could answer right away. I had some remaining questions, but the operator was very reluctant to listen, stupid woman.

They scam student for money. Stay away and do not use

Duwo is a nonprofit organization, however it act like a bloody private company. And people in duwo are not friendly at all

Probably the worst housing provider I have ever experienced. Expensive, rude customer service and never reply to emails. Well done!

Been through five different landlords in two countries. Haven't even moved in yet and these guys are already definitively the worst. Terrible customer service (I believe their main philosophy revolves around shooting fish in the overcrowded barrel of Delft), flatly refuse to work with you if you're in a bind (again, they play to a captive audience, so why bother), and exploitive as hell with some of the clauses of their standard contract (Thou shalt be liable for a 10,000 euro fine if thou so much as sneeze wrong).
Not to mention the canned copy and paste responses to all of these reviews. What a Joke. Look up Dale Carnegie DUWO. Seriously.

Didn't provide a freezer in any way or form: 1/5

Edit: in addition I've heard others purchased the ovens that are in the kitchen. I wouldn't call this fully furnished.

I have moved recently with my family to one of the houses in Delft by Duwo. It s messed up. There are things that they are really awful in the house such as the stairs makes a lot of noise and feels to fall down and I called to ask them fix it and there was a woman picked up and she seemed she hates me was arguing about my complaints, though it s my right. I have signed the contract and I can t cancel it due to privet conditions. Anyway this is the system how they make money. Just fix my place DUWO that s the most important thing you have to do for the tenants.

I would prefer to give a 0/5. Most crappy customer service I've ever come into contact with. They hardly ever answer emails, they promise things they don't keep and they do everything they can to steal money from their customers. I advise everyone not to start a contract with Duwo, it only causes problems!

DUWO relies on a near monopoly and charges a LOT (100+ a month) for services, also those that 99% of students don't use, like cable TV. This also impacts the rent allowance advantages, that are calculated on the bare rent. Thanks to the enormous market demand DUWO fill most houses regardless of the service. So don't expect help from them!

It took a long time to have new keys made, they need a lot of time for administration

We were offered a room and an email to make a decision within 4 days. When we wanted to get the key for a viewing, it turned out that the house had already been rented out to someone else through another website. Since it is difficult enough to find something, it is really bad. And the best part was that we weren't even first in line. The three people in front of us probably had the exact same story. This is not the first time that I hear / experience this story, but it is not as if I have many alternatives because DUWO almost has a monopoly, so I will simply register again.

Processing: Van Hasseltlaan 580 in Delft

It is that as a student you do not really have other options, otherwise I would rent somewhere else for a long time. Poor customer service; they often do not comply with agreements and do not respond to questions / complaints.

I don't know how anyone gets offered a room, everytime I apply I end up being either last in the list or 2nd to last despite being a much lower number when I apply, the number you are when you apply should be the number you stay as or else how am I actually supposed to even get a room?

I got told my position can change depending on priority, I'm an international student who's coming to study here and my course starts in a week, how am I on the lowest priority possible?

Horrible. The rooms themselves are quite okay and often at competitive prices. However, DUWO on more than one occassion has shown zero respect to their costumer and does not try to create understanding. Will not try to meet you halfway but rather makes their decisions in a dictatorial manner. If you try to reach them on costumer service, they'll tell you to just submit a complaint if you disagree with their decisions, rather than working with you towards a solution. Stay away, stay away, stay away.

Nice places for students! Especially good for making new connections during the study period!

Renting for 5+ years. Sometimes it feels like DUWO is managed by students on a budget. Poor communication.

Excellent customer service. Fast and reliable replies. Friendly stuff is always ready to help/assist.

Their washing machines are literally down every day.
They won't pick up calls in the weekend. If you have problems, you can probably only call the police.
Even if your whole room is flooded in sewage, they won't help.
They just don't care.
For example, their way of handling corona.
No large scale disinfection arranged, no notice issued even when they know there are cases in the student housing. Slow response. Very low transparency.

Low quality, poor customer service, constant problems with heating and hot water in their rooms. Once they get your money they don't care anymore. They treat students with very low respect. The pictures on the housing platform were not of the real room (which was way worse). Do not rent with DUWO.

My grandfather smoked his whole life. I was about 10 years old when my mother said to him, 'If you ever want to see your grandchildren graduate, you have to stop immediately.'. Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake. He gave it up immediately. Three years later he died of lung cancer. It was really sad and destroyed me. My mother said to me- 'Don't ever smoke. Please don't put your family through what your grandfather put us through." I agreed. At 22, I have never touched a cigarette. I must say, I feel a very slight sense of regret for never having done it, because the incompetency, bad customer support, misleading statements, lies in the press, plain disregard for laws and lack of human decency at DUWO gave me cancer anyway.

Terrible service of both duwo and the vastgoed service. Nothing they say is guaranteed and entirely true...

Please fix this Google, I can't give negative stars. These people definitely need some lessons on customer service and quality-to-price ratio's.

Very poor service and security, constantly failing to respond to tenant complaints and actively antagonizing tenants that dont "fall in line" with strict conservative dutch cultural values. I was made to feel constantly uncomfortable in my own home, and for the exorbitant prices they charge I received little to no assistance from either this private organization or the university financial department behind it. Furthermore, the caretaker might as well be non-existent and some of the cleaning staff actively hate most of the tenants. I have had garbage dumped in front of my room on more than one occasion because I once complained about duwo staff throwing out my personal items in the kitchen because they were left to dry in a drying rack. Furthermore they took no responsibility or deigned to add new safety measures after numerous robberies and cases of sexual harassment that occurred on the premisses

These people are only out for your (international students) money. They are the least helpful organisation. They only care about getting new students to sign on a contract with them, while completely ignoring the students who are already with them.

An organization to distribute its available housing at seemingly reasonable price to students. I lived in Delft and for my entire stay of three years I lived in their houses. It was well organized and helped students as much as it was possible. I would say they gave good facilities as well such as free high speed internet and well priced self laundry service at the common area. I think they could improve students life style by accommodating some small restaurants inside the buildings because the two difficult thing for a busy student is washing cloths and cooking food. One has already been addressed so the healthy food at a reasonable price is what's left. In many other countries a minimal but steady every day food available at university housing is standardized and is included in the monthly or yearly price, so I guess that could also be facilitated here. The other thing that comes to mind is for master students being forced to live in a single room in Roland Holstlan housing. They are a few rooms with more space but they are reserved for PhD students. I would suggest it should be that if a master student decides to pay more and get a bigger room, the facility must have such space available and willing to provide it on request.

Having spent 3 years in private rent market, I must say that DUWO is really not that bad, regardless of all the horrific comments. The selection system is at least transparent, even though it did take the same 3 years to get a place. Moreover, if your rental is self-sustained (especially if it is for 2 people), the rental-allowance puts it way above the average room you might find in Delft for that price (in terms of size and quality).
Must agree, that their response to forms and emails is really poor, but if you give them a quick call or just visit the office, most stuff gets fixed really quick. Being polite and not too pushy does go far in there!

Nice office! It keeps all covid security measures. They're very kind and informative.

Moving into a newly built house just to notice that it is nowhere near finished. We have to share 4 washing machines with 300 people, the courtyard is just wasteland and we didn't have hot water for 1 week (!). They are terrible at responding and slow at solving problems.

I lived in this student housing rented by DUWO...I met so many warm internationals and everyday was a new opportunity to meet with new people and learn something about their culture. It is amazing!!! Especially the BBQ's

Despite the many bad reviews here, I am quite satisfied with DUWO. I think you can do much worse with a private landlord. Indoor maintenance could be a little better (No extractor hood that makes the kitchen grease very quickly, bathroom painting, because the paint is peeling off the walls, etc.) Therefore not 5 stars but 4 stars

One of solution for student housing in Delft.
Mostly when you post an email through their system (My DUWO) It was replied after 2 days.

Really a bad place to live in a group apartment provided by DUWO because of the terrible sound isolation. Really unresponsible to the international students, I feel cheated. The only feeling that I have is anger.

Probably the worst housing provider I have ever experienced. Expensive, rude customer service and never reply to emails. Well done!

When google will enable possibility to give negative stars? DUWO is such an strange organisation in every aspects. Rent from them only if you really need to.

During the past few days I've been trying to seek help through Duwo. I've never seen anything like this before from any customer service, it makes me so frustrated talking to them. Apart from the fact that they've shown no effort of helping me finding a solution to my problem at all, the responses I get from them literally said - "That's really something you have to arrange yourself." and "This is something you should have known before..." Expecting all requests to be answered is a little less realistic but at the very least an effort to try to work around the problem to come up with a solution that can satisfy the customer to a certain degree should be there, but the lack of this requirement, not to mention how they respond to me, just shows how unprofessional Duwo is.

VERY unprofessional housing unit company. Definitely would not recommend living here, terrible service, and a very disorganized group of employees.

We had a one week course at Delft.It was all arranged through Delft!We had a lovely room!Everything was arranged and explained well prior to our arrival.