The Lodge at Allendale — Local services in Allendale Charter Township

The Lodge at Allendale, at first I thought this was going to be a nice apartment for an albeit relatively expensive place. Unfortunately I don't have too many positives to list about the place.

Pros: The amenities are nice, while I didn't use any of them other than the fitness center the pool and clubhouse in particular seem like nice places to be. The rooms are decently sized with a nice large bathroom and large closet. Utilities are flat rate which is more of a money saver than you't expect, especially with the included washer and drier in unit. Lastly, the kitchen has beautiful counter tops and decent appliances though they will break down and there will be no one to repair them.

Cons: The biggest con is the maintenance man, it doesn't matter how small or large the repair is, the job will be subpar and if you want to live at least a little decently you will have to do it properly yourself. I've had to fix both shower and sink drains, and create my own makeshift screen and water catcher for leaky temporary A/C more below about the A/C. Most frustrating though is that no matter how good I tried to care for the apartment, spending a large sum of money on cleaning supplies and constantly making sure I maintained appliances almost every single one broke. From the garbage disposal failing, sink drain plug failing, fridge sealant peeling off, both A/Cs failing, lights sucking energy and going out constantly, failing doors in the bathroom, suspension rods breaking on the washing machine, and dead switches in rooms. You'll find that bugs are also a very large problem. Every door that leads outside bugs can get through. I had to fight a centipede infestation, constant spiders, maggot infestation and fruit flies coming from the drains. It got so bad that I had to buy industrial insect killer for the inside of the apartment. The hallways are never clean at one point having dog poop and pee on the stairs for multiple days. Even after inquiring about cleaning the hallways it was never done and centipedes are still littering the hallways and entering rooms. Walls are super thin, the noise that came from neighboring apartments and the stairs were exponentially louder than they should be. Often times it sounded like stampedes were rolling up and down the stairs at night. Lastly when I first moved in I walked into the cleaning guy standing in my room doing nothing but being on his phone, he left multiple dirty rags in the apartment and did not clean much if anything. I had to do the rest myself.

Here's some more detail about the A/C. When you move in you are told that you can not turn down the A/C to below 68 degrees or it will damage the unit and it will fail. Unfortunately mine failed anyways even though it was never set below 68. When we put in the maintenance request they never fixed the A/C instead opted to put in a rather small temporary unit pictured below. This unit leaked unbeknownst to me, leaving me with constant multiple foot wide puddles under the unit on the hardwood floor. When we put in a request to repair the leak, the maintenance guy put a hose off of the leak point and routed it out the window. He simply took out the screen and left the window open leaving us with even more bug problems while simultaneously not fixing the leak as it continued to leak. I had to make shift a 5 gal bucket with some duct tape to capture the water. It's been more than a month and still no...

Absolutely awful. The quality of the apartment is terrible for the 680 dollars I pay every month. I have marks and scratches all over my wall from the most minuscule things. Command strips literally pull the paint off the wall. The complex took 3 months to deliver an incentive card (after bugging them about 5+ times and being told they'd "look into it") and on top of it tried to cheat my girlfriend out of hers. When we discussed this with a manager she was extremely rude until we pulled out emails that obviously showed that she was wrong and she magically turned into a very nice and concerned manager. She also went on to say she would take care of the problem with the girl who sent my girlfriend the email because she wasn't supposed to even though when we signed we were promised we could get the refer a friend bonus. The manager attempted to get out of it by saying "theres no proof of it" since it had happened in April. So now a girl just trying to make a living and doing her job is going to pay the price of management trying to get out of giving a 100$ gift card that they had promised in the first place. It is not a "closed community" considering that they have a gate in the back wide open literally 24/7. I had to submit THREE maintenance requests within the first month in BRAND NEW apartments. That doesn't sound right does it? The Lodge is a joke. They are extremely good at advertising but once you are locked in they could care less about you or your experience. They use very shady tactics to get the sale and abuse the ignorance of college students first getting into renting apartments. Don't fall for it, in three years this place is going to be a dump from how low quality everything is in it except for their token granite counter tops.

Edit: Just to build upon another review I have read, we (me and my girlfriend) were assured that out electricity bill would be less than 30$ every month unless we used an obnoxious amount of electricity. I have not paid less than 55$ dollars and my girlfriend has not paid less than 35$ and she is literally hardly ever at hers. They are straight up lying to people to get sales.

Edit #2: This past month I paid 120$ for my electricity bill, that means a two bedroom apt got a 240$ electricity bill and I know for a fact we do not use a ton of electricity. The walls are thin and the windows are not well insulated, I can literally feel drafts coming from my closed window.

DO NOT LET THESE REVIEWS FROM BEFORE OR JUST AFTER THE FIRST MOVE IN SWAY YOU (First move in was August...

Ok here goes! I really enjoyed living at the Lodge. I’ve been involved with some of the activities at the Lodge and I spend a good chunk of my time lounging inside the clubhouse so I have a pretty good grasp of what it’s like to be in this community. 1) They have events once a month I believe. And they are usually very fun. I went to the culture trivia one and the candle making event. They were both super fun! The candle making event was my favorite. More residents should think about going there. You can talk with people, listen to music, relax, and just concentrate on making beautiful or creative candles.

Culture trivia night was a blast also. My team lost but the managers know why and they promised to fix the rules for next time.

The Lodge, I believe, is run by students but they are super professional!!! They know exactly what they’re doing and how to conduct themselves with potential residents et cetera.

I called sometimes for help with move out issues, as I never had any other issues, and they helped me through it. They called me back promptly and always spoke kindly.

If they’re not all friends, I would be deceived. Because the vibe is always one of peace and calm. I’m not even exaggerating. That’s where the professionalism comes in.

The club house is always clean. They come even ahead of their schedules to get everything together. There’s always coffee and yeah for like a little time there was no hot chocolate. That was only a little annoying. But they got it fixed and have been having hot chocolate ever since.

What else? I never saw dog poop even though they were talking about it because apparently it was a little problem. Oh yeah and they have a great selection on food day. (Once a month)

There’s more of course but I will just stop here.

For the cons: please fix the printers. That was my only issue. But I’m sure it will be fixed before the semester starts. Also, emails were sent on the day the fire alarm went off. Please send an email earlier.

I just want to thank everyone at the Lodge. Was truly a great...