Hotel Carlton

Okay so I walked in thinking it was too good to be true, cheap housing right at the foot of campus. Should’ve gone with my gut instinct.
1. It’s open to the public not just for students. This means you will get all kinds of randos and creepers, and I did have a personal encounter with a creeper. So this guy was hella creepy like going onto the floor that I lived on to walk past my room, clogging the toilets multiple times with god knows what so that the whole floor would flood and smell like death, and not to mention he had psychiatric issues and would scream at ungodly hours in the stairways. After multiple complaints he eventually got taken to court but it took like six months me writing a letter of specific incidences to actually get vacated out of there.
2. Vermin. Cockroaches everywhere, I can’t even begin to tell you how disgusting it is, they are literally everywhere. I don’t know how else put how gross this was… right after I signed the lease and was moving in and I pressed the elevator button and one came out.
3. No private bathroom or kitchen. Imagine a huge dorm for random people where rooms were rented out with no background check, no formal info required, no questions asked. (This is how all kinds of weirdos got in). There is never any toilet paper in the public restrooms they’re often dirty and me to bring your own hand soap and forget about any kind of paper towels for your hands.
4. No lock at front door. Someone is always at the front door but half the time they don’t’ care who walks in. Basically anyone can use the elevator to walking I don’t want any floor use any toilet so yeah a homeless person probably just walking in there and use the Bathroom.
5. Overcrowding. It’s supposed to be one person in the room for a reason because there is just not enough space and toilet paper to accommodate huge families. This one family who lived across for me said they had been living there for 10+ years and there were three of them. It wasn’t like they were young kids, it was the mother and older father and what I suspect to be the son who looked like he was in his mid 30’s. That got me thinking why are they living so close to campus? Because it would be cheaper to live anywhere else, but that’s none of my business.
6. This one is a bit irrelevant now but I still want to rant about it because I think it reflects how long for anything to be accomplished in this apartment. so I lived on this additional floor the fifth floor and it seems that it wasn’t built the best because there were always electrical problems and we have to basically compete for Power and if one person you can microwave the whole floors like to go out and this happens at least 12 to 20 times a day. The Wi-​Fi is still really bad in this area though. Oh yeah and if you live on the fifth is no elevator that goes a very have to clean up the streets latest steps so if you have a lot any furniture that’s going to be a problem this also took months of complaining and it didn’t actually happen until about one month after I was about to leave. Just what I don’t understand why other families living there for years, there’s no way I could live like that.
I do have to say though that the new manager order system that works there is very nice and she does her best even though she has a shitty apartment to deal with and cracked out residents. And there are some students that was there more normal for the most part and most of the weirdos are harmless.
My advice to you if you have to live here and have made the fatal mistake of signing the lease, and have sold your soul to this place to this place for a year
1. invest in at least four cans of bug spray per month that’s basically going to be part of your rent now.
2. only share Wi-​Fi with one other person. The wi-​Fi is already crappy on its own.
3. Don’t bring a lot of stuff. Get rid of as much stuff you can, just have the essentials, these rooms are tiny.
4. Get the manager’s number and don’t be afraid to complain, it’s you’re right and it’s the only way that things will improve
5. Just come here to sleep. Live on campus, you’re close enough already.

It ain’t the Ritz. But management was always nice to me and I got my deposit back. People are pigs in the bathroom though. Mainly 18 year old boys who have never had to clean up before.

I have been living here since February and I have to say that this place is better than it used to be. I guess it’s because the maintenance guy was fired (which was a good thing). The building manager is really rude but you just have to stand your ground with him.
I gave this place 4 stars because of the major change that this place went through with the staff. The bathrooms are cleaned every 2 or 3 days a week, the front desk is really friendly, the people on my floor are very nice (most of them are from the Cal football team) and the rent is affordable for me (I don’t have to pay for utilities expect for internet).
Plus it’s on Telegraph right across the street from the UC Berkeley campus, restaurants, and the RSF. What more can you ask for.

Do you enjoy being abused? Does the thought of living in a utter cesspool infested with rats, roaches, and mentally unstable management get you wet? Do you love seeing your security deposit disappear into the pitch darkness of nothingness, only explained by utter lies and deceits?
LOOK NO FURTHER! The Hotel Fucking Carlton is the right place for YOU my masochistic friend. Named after the prestigious Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-​Air, this ghetto of a hotel possesses many traits from its namesake such as a pretentious temperament and an incapability to perform like anything but a cripple.
Do not let the low rents, free utilities, and close proximity to campus deceive you: it is but mere trickery to lure unsuspecting students into this den of AIDS and cancer. The rooms are literally stained with urine and filth. Roaches rule supreme throughout most of the halls. The bathrooms, though cleaned daily, are frequently used by the homeless who somehow always manage to slip in past the front desk.
You will never see any of your money again. The management will snatch away every penny of your deposit as they lose so much money from disgruntled tenants destroying the building. You will constantly be insulted and berated via e-​mails for any requests for return of a deposit or any services. Fighting them through the rent board is a waste of time and seriously not worth the trouble as they will lie like the filthy butt sniffing boars residing deep within their hearts.
If you’re currently stuck here, refuse to pay your last month of rent and leave: you will lose your deposit anyway so this is technically just keeping them honest. It’s not worth the time and effort for them to sue you since all their invoices are forged and fake. When my deposit was taken from me, I was given a handwritten bullshit carpet cleaning invoice from a nonexistent company.
TL;DR: Seriously, fuck this place.

A great big warning to all who are considering this place. I’ve had a family member (first year college student who lived there for over a year), and a friend who also lived there just under a year… This is an awful place, there are huge habitability issues, dirty scummy water backing up into your sink (in your room), you cannot control the temperature, so in the winter you will bake. Management is abusive to tenants, uses manipulation and intimidation as tools of problem solving. They will steal your mail; they will lie to the Rent Board, lie to police… Unless you are absolutely desperate, do yourself a favor and skip this place. I wish we had! If you have to live there, do not get your mail delivered there, do not trust these people! Trust your instinct.