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#1 Five years, three buildings, and the accommodation threads on here are either 2019 information or from people who have not lived in it. Here is 2026, from someone who has.
What you get
A shared apartment, two or three crew, one bedroom each, shared living area and kitchen, in a company building somewhere in Dubai. The buildings vary a lot: some are near the airport and old, some are further out and newer, some have a pool and a gym, some have a corner shop and a bus stop. You do not choose. You are allocated, and swaps are possible later with effort.
Utilities included. Cleaning of common areas, at some buildings. Transport to the airport by crew bus from the building. Security at the door, 24 hours.
The rules that are enforced
No overnight guests who are not registered, and registering a guest is a form and a limit. This one is checked and it is the one people fall foul of.
No parties, and 'party' means noise after a set hour, and a neighbour will report it, and the neighbour is also crew.
Inspections, announced, for cleanliness and for guests. They happen. They are not aggressive.
The probation period rules, which are stricter for the first months: a curfew in effect, and a stricter guest policy.
The rules that are not really enforced
Day guests, within reason. Friends visiting during the day is normal.
The cooking rules, which technically exist about smells and equipment and which every Filipino and Indian crew member has quietly ignored for a decade. The corned beef rice is universal.
The pool hours, which are posted and which nobody has ever enforced.
After probation
You can apply to move out with a housing allowance instead, after a set period, and a lot of crew do, either alone or in shared flats they choose. The allowance does not cover Dubai rent fully. Do the maths before you leave the free building.
The honest verdict
It is a dorm. A clean, safe, free dorm with a pool and a bus and rules. At 22 it is fine. At 30 it is a lot. Most crew treat it as a two year thing and then move out. The ones who stay are saving hard and have made peace with the rules.
Questions welcome, including which buildings to hope for, which I will answer in general terms only.
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#2 Two years, one building, near the airport, old, fine. The guest rule is the only one I have ever seen enforced and it was enforced on a flatmate and it was a formal conversation. Everything else is quiet. Bella's verdict is exact: a dorm, at 22, is fine.
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#3 Purser, out of the accommodation for years now, and the 'do the maths before you leave' point is the one crew get wrong. The allowance plus a Dubai rent is a loss in year one for most. I stayed in the building four years and my deposit came from that.
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#4 In training, in the training accommodation, and the probation rules are exactly as described and exactly as strict. It is a school residence. Six months. Then, apparently, a dorm. Fine.
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#6 American, and the accommodation was my biggest culture shock at 28, as I said elsewhere, and now, four years on, I miss the bus. I do not miss the guest form. The pool hours were never enforced. Confirmed.
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#7 Reapplying in January and the accommodation was the part I was most nervous about and this thread has made it a known thing rather than a fear. A dorm with a pool and a bus. I lived in worse at university.
