College students' housing experiences start long before they get to campus. They receive their long-awaited acceptance letters and soon hear from their school's housing and residence life department, inviting them to fill out request forms.

What happens next is critical. Either the student will have a smooth experience on an easy-to-navigate site or struggle with an outdated platform. 

Unfortunately, a school's resident portal often falls into the second category, and not for lack of trying. Resident portals must change to accommodate today's college students, who expect seamless and intuitive experiences with every online interaction. 

What's Wrong With Student Housing Online Experiences Today?

Student online housing portals aren't new, and that's part of the problem. Some colleges haven't updated their housing interfaces since they created them years ago — a lifetime ago, from the perspective of today's teenagers.

Too many of these interfaces are clunky and uncomfortable. Menus are confusing to navigate, and the portal doesn't work smoothly.

That's a big problem because students and their parents know how online tools should work. Most have used platforms such as Google Classroom and Google Forms for years. They book hotel rooms and make dinner reservations online. 

If a housing platform feels outdated, students see it right away. That recognition will color the student's entire experience with the housing portal, which is usually the student's first direct impression of college residence life.

Colleges and universities need to improve their student housing experience starting with that first touchpoint — before students decide it would be easier to rent from Apartments.com.

How To Improve Student Housing Portals

To get buy-in from college students, today's housing portals must be contemporary and user-centric. Choosing a room and roommate should be as easy as requesting a stay on Airbnb or reserving a Marriott suite. 

Use Familiar Layouts

Today's college students have an innate sense of how online forms should look and function. At Housing Cloud, we've created our forms to work like tools such as Google Forms, Airbnb registrations, and other platforms students already use.

Our room finder works like your typical apartment search site — in other words, the competition for college housing departments. Housing Cloud client schools can add photos, video tours, and 3D models so students can visualize living in a particular space. 

Let Them Do It All

Students and families appreciate being able to handle everything housing-related in one place. With Housing Cloud, colleges and universities can send important messages and documents through the portal. 

There's a support request tab for everything from roommate issues to repair requests. Students know they can communicate anything through the portal and don't have to call a support phone. That alone makes the portal seem more relevant to a "phone-phobic" generation.

For a housing portal to feel student-centric, everything needs to be digital. (Did you know that only 28% of 18- to 24-year-olds use home printers?!)  Housing Cloud is the only housing system with embedded digital signatures.. Students or parents can review and digitally sign housing contracts or other PDFs within the resident portal. No need to send separate e-signature emails or link out to third-party websites.

Optimize For Mobile

College students come from a mobile-first generation. In a 2022 survey, 95% of teenagers reported owning a smartphone, while just 90% have access to desktop or laptop computers. Housing Cloud resizes and reformats automatically for phones and tablets, allowing students to manage their entire housing experience on their smartphone, if they like – even the housing application. 

Update Availability In Real Time

Choosing college housing can be like buying concert tickets. Students find the perfect location that fits them and their friends, only to click and find someone just took it. When housing portals update too slowly, a student experiences that frustration repeatedly.

Housing Cloud includes real-time updating for room and roommate selection. Students won't struggle with finding the perfect living space, only to click and find that someone else has just chosen it. Housing Cloud's selection tools update by the second, so students always know what's available.

Why Do You Need the Best Student Housing Portal?

Contemporary college students are professional comparison shoppers. They know and appreciate when a website is user-centric and personalized to their needs. The best housing portal makes it easier for a student to choose to live on campus than to seek our private accommodations. Check out Housing.Cloud to keep more students on campus and reduce attrition to off-campus housing. Contact us today to schedule a demo and see for yourself.