CommonReviews of common.com

Good place for a transition.

I have lived in one of the NYC buildings for several months now. Pros: - BEAUTIFUL apartment, fully furnished and clearly custom designed - Shared spaces are well designed too (game room, backyard, etc) - Events are varied, fun, and usually free. Common even expensed an event I hosted in my building. Also with the current COVID pandemic, they moved the events online which has been awesome - I like my roomies, but it's always a gamble when you're moving in with people you don't know. I got lucky, we all get along and everyone is neat (for the most part haha) - The included weekly cleanings are a game changer Cons: - Expensive. But, you are paying for convenience and piece of mind so there's that - My biggest qualm with Common is that the quality of their response to issues has been SEVERELY lacking in my experience. When I first moved in, my shower only produced cool or cold water. I immediately raised the issue but the site maintenance team could not fix it, even though they came to look at it multiple times. One time they tracked mud into the apartment that I had to clean up. I had to keep following up on the ticket and would get a generic "we're working on it" response. All the while unable to take a hot shower, thank goodness it was the summer. After a few weeks, I was LIVID and was close to reporting the issue to 311. Instead I went directly to the Experience Managers, who quickly hopped on a call with me and were able to send a plumber. This entire process took almost a month. Common (to their credit I guess) provided a small discount to that month's rent, about 20% off. I expressed that I was not sure that this was a fair exchange for the frustration I experienced, but they let me know that that was all they could do - On my move-in day, none of the lights in my room worked. I panicked and called the emergency support line and spoke to a representative that took down all the information, and then said "Ok we'll get back to you in 3-5 business days." I was like what. this is kind of urgent. But after I got off the phone with her, I realized I should have checked the fuse box first and voila, that was the issue lol. But if that hadn't been the issue, I guess I would have had no lights for a few days - 4/5 bedrooms in my unit have had small to severe leaks, often reoccurring even after maintenance fixed them - The maintenance team has entered my bedroom without my consent, to install flaps on the backs of each door. Apparently this was due to one of my roomies requesting it, but they did not request it in every room and I would have liked to know that someone was entering my private space while I was at work. Though it seems that this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore, as Common seems to send out notices when they need to enter the suites. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that after all this, Common got a new maintenance team for our building, and they have been good so far. My overall experience with Common has been mixed to say the least, and I'm still pretty salty about the whole shower thing. But it seems like they learned and are trying to do better.