5 Things To Look For When Choosing Student Housing Software

Selecting the right student housing software is a crucial decision that significantly impacts your institution's facilities management and student life operations. As you evaluate options for managing student renters across your student housing properties based on the latest data, preferences, and insights, keep these five critical factors in mind. It'll ensure you choose a platform that meets your needs today and scales seamlessly as your housing program grows.

1. Seamless User Experience

An intuitive user experience significantly reduces training time for new housing staff and temporary help. You need a solution where your student housing operators and facilities management team can perform their tasks efficiently without constantly referring to manuals. A well-designed system should have everything logically organized so your team can quickly and easily find what they need.

When choosing student housing software, prioritize an interface that is clean and simple to navigate. Key functions such as managing room assignments, handling maintenance requests, and processing billing should be accessible from a central dashboard. The system should guide users through workflows with wizards and offer helpful tooltips for added support. Additionally, ensure the software allows for easy lookup of student housing facility information whenever needed.

With the right student housing management software, you will save both time and money in training and operations.

2. Stability And Reliability

Many student housing software options on the market still crash or crawl to a halt under even a slight load. Avoid the horror stories of housing software freezing during peak periods like room selection or move-in.

Look for truly cloud-hosted software that provides scalable processing power as needed. This ensures the system can gracefully handle your busiest times without crashing or slowing down. When evaluating options, ask vendors about the reliability of their SaaS platform and how they architect scalability.

A solution like Housing.Cloud leverages cloud infrastructure that dynamically adjusts resources based on demand. This keeps the software running smoothly for thousands of concurrent users across your student housing properties. With Housing.Cloud, you won’t have to worry about performance degradation during critical functions like housing signups, roommate matching, and room assignments.

3. Intuitive Navigation And Modern Design

Today's student renters know what an excellent digital experience looks and feels like since they live online all the time. Your housing portal and resident apps should deliver a modern design that students understand intuitively.

Look for a clean, contemporary design that makes essential functions easy to find. Students should be able to access and manage the entire process related to their housing — from signing up to making rent payments in one seamless portal.

The portal should guide students through any required steps using wizards and clear "to-do" lists. Well-designed search functionality also makes it easy for students to find information quickly about their student housing facility and community.

Mobile optimization is also a must-have in today's digital landscape. Many processes like signing contracts, logging maintenance requests, contacting staff, and more should be doable on smartphones. Going mobile-first improves student adoption of your housing platform.

4. Comprehensive Functionality

Managing university and college housing requires specialized functionality not found in typical property management software. As you evaluate options, drill into the details to ensure the system handles the entire student housing lifecycle — from intake to move-out and everything in between.

For example, look for robust waitlist management and automated room assignment capabilities. Ensure the software offers flexible billing models to support different housing contracts and student rent payments.

Verify the solution provides key features like mobile maintenance requests and student housing community news. It should integrate seamlessly with your student information systems and other communication platforms for real-time unified data access.

5. Streamlined Onboarding

Implementing new student housing management software takes time and resources. Look for a provider that makes deployment smooth and quick. They should offer services to migrate your existing data quickly into the new system.

Ongoing support is also crucial. You need timely responses when you have questions or need assistance with maintenance issues. Ensure the provider has different communication tools and support channels, including phone, email, chat, and a knowledge base.

Ideally, a customer-centric company regularly solicits customer feedback to improve their solution. Look for providers with an established track record of releasing frequent product enhancements based on university housing department needs.

Choose the Most Advanced Student Housing Software In The Market

Selecting a student housing software is a significant investment, and finding the right technology partner is critical to positioning on-campus housing for long-term success. 

Partnering with an experienced provider like Housing.Cloud provides a robust, reliable platform that simplifies operations, boosts staff productivity, and enhances resident management and satisfaction.

Request a demo today to see how Housing.Cloud's solutions can transform your student housing operations.