CRM Students Review

In this blog, what I want to do is review CRM Students. I don’t want to review each one of their locations because they might add or take some away, however, they will all be a reflection of their brand and company that sits behind the student accommodation.

If there is something you want to know and I haven’t included it, please let me know and then I can add it into this review and future ones!

The Company: CRM Students

CRM students are a big brand within the student accommodation industry and they are a managerial company again. What does that mean for students? Nothing really, it just means that they manage the building on behalf of the owners or investors. A lot of the time it can be their own investment company.

The company has been around for a good 10 years and have shown that they can manage buildings well, however, there are more and more people becoming interested in the sector which might impact on their growth. They have adapted over the years to become more lifestyle orientated as the newer management companies started to do this.

They mainly work closely with universities to achieve their occupancy rates I believe.

CRM’s Accommodation Locations

Currently they have accommodations in:

• Bath
• Birmingham
• Bournemouth
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Canterbury
• Cardiff
• Coventry
• Derby
• Dundee
• Edinburgh
• Egham
• Exeter
• Falmouth & Penryn
• Guildford
• Hatfield
• Kingston upon Thames
• Lancaster
• Leicester
• Liverpool
• London
• Loughborough
• Manchester
• Newcastle upon Tyne
• Norwich
• Nottingham
• Oxford
• Plymouth
• Portsmouth
• Preston
• Reading
• Sheffield
• Southampton
• Stirling
• Swansea
• York

CRM are in quite a few cities and they have a good portfolio of properties, in many cities they have more than one property and that means that they can really build and scale what they want to achieve.

Accommodation Review

For their service they stick to the basics and doing that well. Which is a good ideology in many ways. All their buildings will be designed but they don’t have that

Like many other student accommodations focus on the social side of the student accommodation and running events where students can get involved and meet new people.

Their rooms and accommodations are of good quality, they look like they put time into the design process and have some good storage. I don’t think they try and be the ‘fun’ and ‘exciting’ student accommodation with all the added extras but focus on doing the basic bits well.

When looking at one property, they did have the classic ‘private gym’ which was just a box room with 2 machines and 2 benches in and could get no more than 4 people in at any time! This for me puts a bad mark on the site because it’s not really a gym!

There was only one example I found when having a look through some of their properties.

See why you choose CRM in their own words: Why CRM

Processes and Systems

This probably the less exciting part of the review, however, it is one that should hold a big weighting in your decision.

Cancellation – If the cancellation is genuine, then the policy is really quite flexible, especially if you give enough time to re-book the room. For example, if you didn’t get the grades, a visa or had to drop out for an extenuating circumstance then they are really helpful. For a genuine cancellation it could cost you nothing, however, if you have decided not to attend or switch to another provider then you would be held to your signed contract. If they can fill your room or you have someone else to move in, it could mean a full take over of the contract and no money lost. However, unless it’s for a genuine reason I think that is completely fair.

Please make sure that you read this before you book!

Booking – You can book on their website or portal if you are already a resident and it will give you their latest price for the room and contract length. You can reserve the room in minutes and. After you’ve initially processed the booking via their website, you just need to follow a few simple steps to confirm your identity, University details, choose what rent payment term you want and then sign your contract.

Communications with students – They do this via their accommodation managers and portal mostly. Other than that, I haven’t any experience of how they communicate with students.

Events – They do put on events for their students and they focus on creating a home away from home sort of vibe for students so that they can get involved with lots of activities. I imagine they have a wide variety of events because they can use all their own facilities.

Summary

Overall, I do like CRM students because they keep it simple, make students feel at home and build good partnerships with the universities. Their rooms look good quality, however, they do let themselves down ever so slightly when they say private gyms and it’s a little box room. However, if your main reason for booking was the gym, you wouldn’t have been there, it is nice to have and CRM focus on making a homely vibe for students.

Many students do like staying with CRM and their rooms do go quickly and this says a lot more about them doing it right.

Discover. Trust. Review.