PIRATE.COM - Rehearsal Studios Avis 

I want to say a huge thank you to Dom and Abdal who got my laptop back for me late on Saturday night. I foolishly forgot it in the studio on Friday night and they went out of their way to get it back for me when I really needed it. Very nice human experience. Studio is also great.

Rooms are nothing like their advertised photos, so run down and dirty.

Absolutely disgusting service and set up

My previous booking had me spend half the time replacing a snare drum in the kit and now redemption for the time lost

Today - access codes didn’t even work in the studio - slow response from WhatsApp so called support and then wanted videos of the four rather than just reset the code

When asked for the refund they make you jump through hoops and horns and I doubt I’ll receive anything back for wasted time, money and travel

Avoid this place

This business has sadly been automated to death.

I have been a customer of these studios for years but my last couple of visits to their branch in Croydon confirmed that it has turned into a very shoddy operation. Reliability has gotten so bad that it simply isn't an option for anyone even slightly professional.

On my last visit I booked a 4 hour session. The sound interface wasn't working - wasted about 45-60 mins with customer services on WhatsApp before being moved to another room. In the second studio, the midi keyboard wasn't functional, again wasted the best part of an hour trying to work that out with customer service. Got moved to a third room, now the monitor and interface were not working. Overall got nothing done in 4 hours, with slow WhatApp support that simply isn't practical in many cases. Nobody on site to assist, poorly maintained equipment, and customer service that isn't suited to time sensitivity. Every enquiry is approached from the perspective that there's something you're not doing right, a complete idiot, or that your computer is the problem, instead of the fact that the equipment is faulty so you are taken through an arduous process for every enquiry instead of being hastily moved to a fully functional studio so you can undertake your session with minimal inconvenience and delay.

It is extremely unlikely that in ALL THREE of these studios, I was the first to discover and report these faults. I can only come to the conclusion that there is no longer a maintenance system in place and they continue taking bookings for studios in full knowledge that there is faulty equipment.

If they don't get their act together, the next thing to break will be their business model.

Used the studio several times, some days it’s perfect and sometimes there are issues but all in all an okay experience

Dom was great, very quick and helpful at 2am lol

Title: 6 years of credit damage for a loyal customer - Claim N3KF278Y

"I have been a loyal customer at Pirate Studios since before 2022, but I am now being treated with total disregard. Due to a failure in their car park registration system from a session in February 2022, I have been hit with an unjust parking fine that has now escalated to a County Court Judgment (CCJ) and a £335.33 legal debt.

Despite reaching out in March and providing clear WhatsApp proof of the claim details, the support team failed to act. Now, they are closing my support chats and hiding behind automated bots while my credit rating is at risk.

It is disgraceful that a long-term customer is being left to pay for the company’s administrative negligence regarding their parking facilities. I am still waiting for a senior manager to take accountability and reimburse me for this debt."Update to my review:

"I am frustrated by the claim that there is ‘no record’ of this. I have maintained a clear paper trail, having submitted your official online parking form and sent all details via both Email and WhatsApp multiple times.

The necessary details—Booking ID 10427582, vehicle YC59ZHW, and the Leeds Kirkstall site—are all within your systems. The reference number is the legal case number (711200692495PEL) because this was allowed to escalate to a CCJ despite my repeated attempts to resolve it with you.

With the May 8th deadline approaching to have this judgment removed, I am asking for this to be escalated to someone who will actually check your email and form records. I have done my part as a customer; I now need you to do yours and settle this with DCB Legal immediatelyUPDATE 30/04/2026:
The management team has officially refused to take responsibility. I followed all correct procedures back in 2022 and was led to believe the matter was resolved. I was shocked to find out years later it was still active because the company failed to handle my original appeal correctly. When I looked into this in March, I was told it was "too late" to help because they claimed they hadn't received a reply to an email they sent on the 13th.

This is false. A reply was sent to them on the 14th of March, and I reasonably presumed the issue was being resolved. Instead, they ignored the response and allowed the court process to continue. The court judgment wasn't even entered until 8th April, so they had plenty of time to intervene but chose not to. As a result, I have been forced to pay £335.33 today to protect my credit rating. I have now served the company with a formal Letter Before Action to recover my financial loss through the Small Claims Court.

After a chat with Gemini Ai, I was recommended to record my vocals, not far from where im based, for a small amount, hiring a rehearsal studio for an hour. Everything from the company itself has been very good. The codes worked a treat, however, if I knew the rooms had zero sound padding, I wouldn't have agreed to buy. I was in Studio 5 and Studio 8, they had drum and bass louder than a nightclub speaker. It was incredibly loud. So much so, mine and anyone else's booking was pointless. A WhatsApp chat with Chloe was pleasant but didn't help the situation. She said she messaged the customer and offered me credits to come again, but as nice as she was, I was never going back again. I've simply gave 4 out of 5 due to pleasant service, 1 out of 5 for the setup. Who makes a rehearsal studio with boards of wood and no soundproofing? Pirates I guess!

Equipment fehlerhaft 4 mal die räume gewechselt
1. Raum Interface futsch
2.raum ohne Strom
3.mic Schrot
4 USB Port fehlerhaft

Very very difficult to set up an account. mediocre equipment and more expensive than most of the (better) competitors

I’ve used PIRATE recording studios a number of times now, and can honestly say it’s a dream for aspiring musicians. It has everything you need to get real work done, and the rooms are consistently solid and reliable. I’ve never had any issues with noise leaking in from other studios, and I’ve always found the equipment to be reliable.

Andy at the Manchester location is always incredibly kind and great to talk to. For the price point, I genuinely have nothing bad to say about the place. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for affordable studio space across the UK.

Customer service was amazing! I forgot to cancel my booking (got sick and couldn’t go) and I realized too late and wasn’t able to get a refund on my own. Sara helped me out and gave me a one time credit to make up for the mistake on my end! Super cool and just made the whole experience so much better.

Avoid Pirate Studios in Edinburgh. Crap Gear, always a problem with the drum kit. Disgusting toilets.

They also cancelled a booking even though I had already booked it and paid. Told me it was for maintenance. Lo and behold on the day we were meant to rehearse the room was available.

Very badly run company. Company service is crap.

Seamless booking experience, clean and well maintained studios, customer service is actually exceptional even though it's remote. Feels like a safe environment too (Bristol Studios) - love coming here to blow off steam and blast the tines

Turned up to a DJ studio where one of the CDJs was faulty and kept freezing. I messaged the helpline and they told me to turn the CDJ on and off again... problem recurred during trying to mix which made the session very difficult as had to keep restarting the CDJ. I messaged again after I left letting them know the problem with the CDJ, but rather than offer an apology and say they would fix issue they said it was my fault for not messaging them again during the session in a series of quite passive aggressive messages. Terrible first experience using them won't go again.

Been coming to Pirate Leeds for years. The rooms are good with a decent sound for rehearsal, the equipment is generally decent and I’ve found their customer service via WhatsApp to be excellent. Don’t always go by the bad reviews, people are far more likely to review if they’ve had a bad experience!

Als Subunternehmer habe ich über 5 Monate auf unsere Rechnungszahlung gewartet, erst mit Androhung Inkasso hat es funktioniert. Sie spielen hier mit Geld von den Kunden! Geht gar nicht, absolut unseriös!! Nicht Empfehlenswert

They took away my 500£ credit without even sending an email. Although to they sending spam. that's illegal. Don't buy big amount of credit . That's my advice..

Used Pirate DJ studios a few times 18 months 2 years ago whilst I was waiting for my decks to come into stock. A really great concept but when I first used them the place was a S**T hole especially when you have to clean drugs off the decks in a Tuesday morning is not great since then I have had a few emails to say they had improved the place so thought I would give it a go. Was really pleased to say the studio wan immaculate. Everything was working and will deffo use again to film content even though I have the same setup at home

Keep up the good work

The AC in our room was broken on a sunny 24 degree day. Room was dangerously hot and the only thing they offered us was a 20% off our next booking. They didn't change our booking or even send someone out on site to inspect the unit, bare minimum we should get for having to practice in a genuinely unsafe environment is a refund.

Equipment is generally dodgy, toilets are grim and there's no real upkeep on site.