In December 2018, we conducted a survey among the tenants of all the Seezeit residences to determine how satisfied you are with what we offer and our service. Regular tenant surveys help us to identify needs early on and to adapt our services accordingly. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to answer our questions. While 873 tenants already participated in the survey in 2017, this time it was 1,130 and thus more than a third of our tenants. We were very pleased to see this level of participation.
1. Residence, rooms and furnishings
More than 70% of the respondents are satisfied with the rooms. This is a clear improvement compared to 2017, especially in terms of amenities and the Internet connection. We will take a closer look at the points of criticism and make changes where appropriate and feasible.
Some of the amenities in the shared residences were criticised. We are attempting to improve the situation gradually in all of the residences. In the Europahaus, we have already renovated all of the common areas in the past year. We are particularly pleased about the new kitchens, the new furniture in the common rooms and the new easy-care floors. 79% of the tenants were satisfied with the work that was carried out in the Europahaus.
The test phase to offer WLAN in the form of eduroam was successfully completed in 2018. In the future, the plan is to equip all residences which meet the technical requirements with eduroam. This will ensure a good and fast Internet connection everywhere. This year, eduroam is already being installed in some residences; the remaining residences will be gradually integrated in the coming years. If you have any problems with the Internet, please contact our IT support directly: <link helpdesk@seezeit.com - mail "Öffnet internen Link im aktuellen Fenster">helpdesk@seezeit.com.
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60% of respondents are satisfied with the living situation in their shared residence. In particular, cleanliness in the shared residences is often criticised. Many tenants would like to see more support from Seezeit in this context, as tenants often have very different ideas of hygiene and this regularly leads to internal conflicts. We have therefore been carrying out several shared residence inspections for some time now and are trying to provide helpful tips and information. Once again, this year will see a check of the common rooms be carried out at the end of lectures. Our goal is to maintain a reasonable standard of cleanliness and to facilitate peaceful coexistence in your shared residence.
With respect to the care and cleanliness of the outer areas (which are criticised in some residences) we see ourselves as primarily being in charge of this. Unfortunately, there have been some problems with the performance of the hired cleaning company in the past. In this regard, the caretakers conduct regular inspections to improve the quality of the cleaning work and to keep it at a reasonable standard.
The location of all residences scored high with a satisfaction level of 91%. The washing machines and dryers (number of them, price and technical reliability) was rated negatively in many residences. We strive to achieve a good service standard everywhere so that long downtime is avoided. Here, however, we are often dependent on the availability of external companies. Unfortunately, we cannot lower the costs for washing and drying. The prices include acquisition, maintenance and repair costs, as well as energy, water and room costs. They are calculated so that their costs can be covered.
The problem regarding bicycle parking is known. We regularly conduct bicycle sweeps to remove old ones that are not in use anymore. The construction of covered bicycle parking spaces is difficult to implement in terms of building law. In selected residences, however, new outdoor bicycle racks will be installed this year.
We are pleased about the level of participation in the “What can we improve?” category. We can promise you that in the future, we will offer common areas outside of your shared residence. We are working on a suitable concept for this. Also regarding the desired beverage and vending machines, we are pleased to inform you that the possibility is currently being looked into. As soon as we have worked out a solution, we will of course let you know.
On the subject of “term of stay”, we would like to explain our regulation: Before the end of the fourth semester, all tenants have the option to apply to renew their lease for up to two additional semesters. You will find the forms required for this purpose on our website at <link 298 - internal-link "Öffnet internen Link im aktuellen Fenster">www.seezeit.com/wohnen</link>. The relatively short term of stay should make it easier for new students to find a residence. Anyone who has been living in Konstanz for some time is generally well connected and thus has better opportunities to find accommodation on the open market.
We are particularly pleased that 83% of the survey participants move back into a Seezeit residence and that 79% would recommend us.
2. Service
We are pleased that most of the tenants are satisfied with the service and the availability of our staff. 70% of the tenants consider the staff to be friendly. This is a good number, but we would be happy to see it increase. After all, 15 to 20% of the tenants regretfully have experienced otherwise. We aim to provide good service and hope to make a positive impression on even more tenants in the future.
Regarding the services (contract, appointment, damage repair), there is little criticism. Only with respect to the damage repair, there is a 20% increase in dissatisfied tenants. Sometimes it takes a long time until a necessary repair is carried out. The causes of this are often incomprehensible to tenants. Often it is due to factors that we cannot influence ourselves. With some residences, we are only tenants ourselves. In such cases, we can only exert limited influence on claim settlement. For larger repairs, we sometimes need specialists and depend on their availability. The accessibility to tenant services and caretakers, which has been criticised by some tenants, contributes to delays in damage repair and other procedures. We are aware that it is often difficult to reach an employee by phone or in person, as the tenant service and especially the caretakers have a lot to take care of outside of their offices.
In the tenant service offices, we have therefore introduced mandatory office hours which will ensure that you can meet someone in person:
Mon - Fri: 7:30 - 8:30
Mon - Thu: 15:30 - 16:30
Of course, outside of these hours, you can also contact every employee at any time. Additionally, in the fall of last year, we developed and set up an online claims notifier to make the claims process more effective and transparent:
<link 592 - internal-link "Öffnet internen Link im aktuellen Fenster">www.seezeit.com/schadensmeldung</link>
With the online claims notifier, we want to help make repairs faster and more reliable in the future. Of course, we will also continue to be available by phone and in person.
