Managing Student Housing: 5 Tips For Success

Student housing is the heart of campuses across the country. It plays a major role in shaping students' college experiences and is often a significant source of income for universities.

But let’s face it: managing student housing can be challenging. Your management team will need to implement the right strategies to keep students happy and units off the rental market.

This guide will help you do that. Keep reading to learn more about the challenges you'll need to overcome and to find five practical tips for improved student housing property management.

The Dynamics of Student Housing Management

If you work in the student housing industry, then you already know student housing presents unique challenges in the property management business. These can include:

• High turnover rates

• Challenging student behavior and resulting property damage

• Parental involvement

• Compliance with student housing regulations

• Extreme changes in seasonal demand

The key to becoming a more effective property manager in the student housing market is learning how to overcome difficulties while also hitting your vacancy goals, fostering a sense of community, and keeping your stakeholders happy. You’ll find strategies to help with that in the next section.

Tips For Successful Student Housing Management

Here are five tactics you can use to keep your housing facilities full and your student renters happy.

1. Emphasize Clear Communication

Many of the problems that arise in campus housing come from poor communication. 

For example, poorly communicated property rules can lead to students breaking them more often. Similarly, your staff may struggle to get the full value of your student housing management software if you don’t effectively communicate how to use it.

The solution to problems like these can be as simple as making more of an effort to emphasize clear communication, not just between you and your staff but also between your office and the students.

Your student housing management system should be able to help with this. Many features integrate tools for communication, which help keep everyone on the same page to enhance your school’s housing environment.

2. Implement Efficient Room Assignment Systems

Improving your room-assigning process can boost your office’s efficiency in several ways. When you make better roommate matches, you should have less conflict in your units and more satisfied student residents overall.

Room assignments also play a key role in resource allocation. An efficient room assignment plan and process can reduce demands on cleaning and maintenance, so you get more value out of them and keep wait times low for student residents.

The key to developing a more efficient room assignment system is to use data analysis in your planning. Room data around vacancy rates, roommate swap requests, and other key metrics can inform your strategy moving forward and reduce work for your team.

Student housing property management software makes this much easier to do. Good software can track the right data for you and perform in-software analysis to get you the answers you need without all the extra work.

3. Prioritize Safety And Security

Safety and security are crucial elements in ensuring a great student housing environment. Students need to feel safe in their homes. Otherwise, your vacancy rates are bound to go up. Various liability and legal concerns can also come up when colleges don’t take housing security seriously.

Here are a few strategies you may want to consider as part of your efforts to enhance safety and security at your school:

• Install CCTVs, access control, alarm systems, and other security tools in and around your residences

• Perform regular safety inspections to check for hazards, broken locks, and faulty equipment

• Give residents clear communication channels for their security-related questions and concerns

• Engage your resident community by surveying their security concerns regularly

4. Foster Community And Inclusivity

Although student housing assignments are temporary, you want to foster a community that lasts. This means taking proactive steps to help your residents get to know one another, including:

• Hosting community events around special occasions like big college sports games or holidays

• Diverse programming to promote inclusivity, such as cultural awareness nights

• Creating common spaces that encourage student interaction

You may also want to set up a student-to-student support network, such as mentorships and buddy programs for new residents. This can help new students get involved in your housing community more than they might without any support.

5. Leverage Technology For Streamlined Operations

Finally, make sure that you’re leveraging the power of technology as you work to improve your student housing environment. New student housing management software can automate your repetitive tasks, help with data analysis, and give you code-free ways to build customized databases and tools. They also come with key features to simplify lease agreements, keep furnished units in better shape, and more.

When adding all of these features, it's easy to see why technology is so important in the housing industry. Finding the right software can streamline your housing operations. Many of these programs even come with integrated platforms for communication between your office and the students, maintenance teams, cleaning services, and other key stakeholders.

The bottom line is that upgrading your student housing technology can be one of the most straightforward strategies you can implement to reach your goals.

Choose The Right Student Housing Management Platform

Whether you want to ensure a safe and comfortable living situation for your students or streamline your billing operations, choosing the right student housing management platform can have a significant impact. 

Housing.Cloud's innovative housing platform comes with all the tools your property managers need to achieve their student housing goals, offering support in:

• Occupancy management

• Rent payments

• Mail and package handling

• Student housing staff management

• Communication 

• No-code customization

But don’t take our word for it. Sign up for a demo of Housing.Cloud today to see how it can transform your university’s housing operations.