Ventana Student Housing - Orem, Utah

Hailey S.

Updated review- really annoyed about a recent late fee. We’ve been tenants for a year and never been late on paying rent, then ventana chooses to give us a notice on Friday @5pm (talk about being late) and refused to waiver the late fee. Great to know my year of being on time holds no meaning.

Old review-
it really is a great place to live. I’ve lived here for almost a year, and I love the location. It’s right next to the freeway, and the bus stop, and Walmart. The management is pretty on top of things and generally easy to work with.
Having your own room is very nice and the couches in the living room are a great size. I honestly feel like it’s a great deal for the apartment.
Parking is great. There is underground parking for the winter which is super convenient. The parking police are very on top of booting, so make sure any visitors leave before 1:30 am.
It’s also very nice to have a washer and dryer in the apartment, and a dishwasher and multiple hall closets. The pool and hot tub are great and not usually crowded.
All around, I would definitely highly recommend!

John L.

Beware. You have been warned. Management has an overzealous nit-picking relentless drive to fine, penalizing anything and everything they can. You may think, “O’ it won’t happen to me, I follow the rules.” A hungry tiger in the jungle stalking its prey pounces any moment it can. Management at this location is preying upon tenants and neighbors as if they are enemies to be destroyed. I would have given zero stars if I could.

Abby R.

I lived at Ventana for 2 years and it was… aggressively average. Not awful, but definitely not amazing.

Pros:
-Area: Close to UVU, BYU, shopping areas, and the freeway.
-Size: Living room and kitchen were big, and the private bedrooms were decently sized. Reasonable space for a college student. The buildings aren’t too old so things weren’t falling apart (at least in our unit).
-Maintenance: Maintenance was chill and responded to things quick, and they always knocked before entering.
-Cleaning checks: Cleaning checks weren’t too bad for us. Management was inconsistent with what they decided to be picky about, and we did have to redo a few checks, but we never failed to the point of getting charged. It’s not that hard to pass as long as you follow the list. (And, unpopular opinion, I’m glad cleaning checks exist to keep people accountable.)
-Good view - We were on the fourth floor (out of five) and while we didn’t get a view of the mountains or the lake, you could still see across the complex. It’s very entertaining watching people try and park in the narrow spots.

Cons:
-Parking: They do not give warnings and will boot you. One of the reserved spots moved while I was there, and I didn’t notice because I backed in and the new sign was 3 feet off the curb. Got booted and had to pay $70 to get it off. 100% my fault, but I was peeved that management didn’t tell us about the change. At least 5 people got booted after me in that same spot, too.
-Rent: I think the facilities are decent for what you pay, but they kept raising it each year with no explanation. $485 my first year, $505 the second, and if I had re-signed the third year it would have been $565. Did anything improve to warrant that? No, of course not.
-Bugs: The gnats/mosquitoes get super bad at the entry doors in the summer. I do believe they have pest people come spray, but it doesn’t do enough. You basically have to duck and run and hope none fly in your mouth. They also don’t clean the dead bugs so it’s just a beautiful mural of bug carcasses to greet you.
-Neighbors: This is more of a PSA. Yes, the people below you can hear every stomp and every chair drag. Yes, the people above you can feel your bass-boosted music. Please be courteous, you are in an apartment.

Management: they get their own section.
-I set off my building’s smoke alarms once, and management immediately threatened to charge everyone in my unit a fee if no one fessed up. They didn’t even ask first, just went straight to threats. (Yes, I did claim responsibility and did pay the $50 fee.) (Also tip, do NOT open your door to filter out the smoke, the hallway alarms are sensitive. Learned that the hard way.)
-Me and my roommate both had ESA cats. I got mine after my roommate, and gave management all the paperwork. No issues there. However, a week after I got everything finished, they sent a nastygram to my roommate, saying if she didn’t give them the paperwork for her cat in one week, they were going to evict her. My roommate had told them up front when she was moving in that she was bringing her cat, and they hadn’t asked for any of the paperwork. But now suddenly it’s a big enough issue to threaten eviction over.
-Security deposit: I did not hear back from management about my deposit for 4 months after moving out. I finally called and asked what was up, and apparently I owed them $400 for new couches (it was actually $800 but they split it between me and my roommate). I did expect to lose my deposit, but I didn’t receive any email, phone call, or letter to notify me about my balance. They had to resend their “supposed email” which said if they didn’t hear anything by September (it was October) they would threaten legal action. You’d think before screwing someone over they would at least try calling you with the phone number on your file or sending you a letter to the address on your deposit return.

Overall: Management is annoying, but if you keep your head down you’ll live.

PS: I knew a person who hid a cat in their room for 8 months and management had no idea 😂

Jack K.

This is a pretty nice place, but just a warning, whoever they have as the lady receptionist or manager there is so rude. The other manager is Matt, he is amazing, always willing to help, always having a great attitude, will do anything in his power to help you have a good experience here. I would go to the front desk for my parking pass, need to take care of some thing with not great roommates. One time I went to the front desk asking for helping getting my car registered for the parking pass, my car was registered under my dads name, and the lady at the front desk refused to help me saying it HAS to be under my name. I go back later going to try again, and Matt is there, he got my parking pass and sticker for me with no problems. Also went over the contract with Matt in detail about why I have to move out on the 30th and the end of the month is 31st, I’m paying for a whole month you should give me 30 bucks for the day I’m not there, he said it would be fine for me to move out on the 31st. I paid my whole lease the day before I moved in on a side note. I get back from very late on the 29th and I come home to a notice being on my door for me to move out on the 30th. I called and guess who answered, if you guessed the lady manager/receptionist, you’d be right. I talked to her and she said I would be charged the 30 bucks for staying, when I went over the contract of me leaving the 31st, she said I’m gonna get charged anyway. My roommate/bestfriend has a broken arm, was waiting for me to get back from work so we could move his TV. While he’s waiting, she comes in and is like you needa leave, you needa get your stuff out of here right now. And he goes I have a broken arm I’m waiting for someone to come help me. She goes no, you needa get it out of here right now and you needa be out of here. Mans literally has a broken arm and had to carry it all by himself, and made his arm worse. Just a word of warning when moving in here, no one there cares except Matt, such a kind helpful soul who wants to actually help you. So if you do move here always make sure you can talk to Matt

Jake W.

Cleaning checks are a nightmare. They charge you for every little thing. Anytime they need to do maintenance around the facility, they threaten you with a fee if you don't move your car for example. The security deposit is 300 but they only give you 150 back because they are greedy and love to take poor college students money. I hated this place and I will never recommend them.

alyssa M.

i love living here. (would give more like 4.5/5 stars if i could)
big private rooms with huge closets. washer/dryer in unit. quick maintenance. fast wifi. hot tub/pool. gym/clubhouse. etc.
the cleaning checks aren’t always the funnest but it keeps the place nice & especially keeps your roommates in check.

Samantha H.

The scammiest apartment in Provo/Orem- and that’s saying something. Squeezes every last dollar out of you and then management has the nerve to act annoyed whenever you need anything. Non refundable deposits (literally not what deposit means). Does everything to fail you on your cleaning check to charge you more hidden rent. Seriously, expect it to cost way more than you’re expecting to live here. Maintenance are the only people who I don’t regret giving my money to, but I doubt they get much of it. The Orem housing racket is a mess, but I have a list of places I would recommend before here. What a joke.

Emily P.

I lived here for 6 months and hated every second of it. I was in a privately owned unit (unit 420) which meant that I didn’t have to deal with the Ventana management, however the owner was neglectful and all around awful.

When I moved in, the door was locked and I couldn’t get inside for about 45 minutes while I waited for one of the roommates to come home. The unit was disgusting. When I got inside and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months, despite a cleaning fee held from the deposit. My parents and I spent hours cleaning the unit. The fridge was absolutely disgusting and full of expired and rotting food that previous tenants had left behind. The seal on the fridge is broken and when I asked the landlord about it, he disregarded me and said it still sealed closed when the door closed. This is not true and not how a fridge seal works. There were many times when the door would float open because it wasn’t closing all the way, but the landlord ignored me. It is still broken. There was also black and pink mold in the shower grout.

The sink valves under my sink were also faulty. They were the push to open plastic valves and would often pop closed and not stay open. When I asked the landlord about it, he was rude and degrading, and instead of addressing the problem, accused me of breaking them because “he has never had that problem with any other tenant.” He refused to fix them and I decided it wasn’t worth the fight.

Not only is he neglectful, he has weird rules and doesn’t seem to care about anything but making money. It was stated in my contract that no boys were allowed in my room and he made it clear that this was his most important rule. This is not LDS housing, and it is invading privacy to tell your tenant who can or cannot go into certain rooms in your home.

The Ventana walls are also paper thin and you can hear EVERYTHING going on around you. I could hear my roommate across the whole apartment clearly through closed doors, I could hear the guy on the other side of the wall in the other apartment clear as day even when he was just talking. I slept with earplugs every night, white noise, and sometimes I could still hear people being noisy at night. Also, this place has horrible ventilation so whenever someone cooks the smell stays in the apartment for hours which constantly made me feel sick and gross. And the internet here just sucks. I had my own router and the internet was just plain slow. It could have been a me thing, but I have seen other reviews say the same thing.

There was a good few weeks where the elevator in building A did not seem safe. when you would ride it it would shake at the top for a good 1.5 minutes before the doors would open. They said they fixed the problem, but it didn’t help. Eventually it was fixed, but it took a long time.

This place is NOT for you. Even if it seems cheap and you feel like you can handle it, just save yourself the trouble and don’t live here.