7 Ways To Improve Resident Experience In Student Housing

College provides unique opportunities for academic exploration, career expansion, and personal development. However, satisfying on-campus living experiences can further improve college life, allowing students independence, make long-lasting relationships, and access lecture halls and other educational spaces. 

Here are seven ways your team can make things easier for potential residents and some benefits of student housing platforms.   

1. Create a Welcoming Environment

Some students, especially first-year students, might be nervous about moving into your accommodation. It's easy to see why. Young adults might be living independently for the first time, perhaps thousands of miles away from home. That can bring unique stressors, such as managing money, finding new friends, and being far from family and community. 

Creating a welcoming environment for students can help alleviate their fears. There are various ways you can do this, such as asking volunteers to carry students' bags and suitcases on move-in day and show them to their accommodation. 

Alternatively, you can leave welcome packs in living spaces that help residents navigate their surroundings. These documents can include information about nearby amenities like grocery stores, banks, and healthcare centers, which will familiarize students with their new area. 

You can also provide details about payment dates, cleaning expectations, and trash collection schedules, helping residents understand their responsibilities when living in your accommodation. 

2. Ensure Communication And Student Support

It's important residents know about college resources that help them adapt to student life and manage their academic and non-academic needs. Support services might include counseling, first-year advising, career development, and financial hardship. 

One of the best ways to communicate these services is by emailing students before they move to your campus and then sending regular follow-up messages during their stay in your accommodation. For example, you can remind residents to book an appointment with a counselor if they experience mental health challenges and want to discuss their issues with a professional.  

3. Create a Sense of Community

Students who feel part of a community might get more enjoyment from their resident experience. Advertising for organizations, sports teams, and recreational events on campus through emails, social media posts, and welcome packs help students develop new friendships, explore their interests, and pursue new hobbies. 

Another way to create a sense of community is through peer mentors — typically older students who introduce younger students to college life. Mentors can share news about events and organizations, answer questions about the student experience, and generally offer guidance and support.

4. Ensure Safety And Security

Helping students stay safe when living on campus can also enhance their campus experience. Your university housing team should provide information about campus safety, such as avoiding dark routes and how to contact college police. Improving awareness about the dangers of drugs and alcohol is also a good idea and could save lives. 

You can also ensure safe housing by ensuring spaces around your residence halls and other accommodation types are well lighted. Violent crimes are most likely to occur at night, so improved lighting can deter offender behavior and protect your residents from worst-case scenarios. 

5. Provide Comfortable And Well-Maintained Living Spaces

Before students move into your accommodation, deep clean all rooms and check that appliances work properly. Always respond to maintenance requests after tenants move in. Failing to achieve these goals can result in a bad reputation that might influence future students' housing decisions and current resident retention. 

Residents deserve well-maintained campus living spaces where they can study and socialize. 

Comfortable spaces will almost always result in happy residents. You can make your accommodation more livable by hanging up picture boards, investing in good-quality furniture, and adding a few decorative pieces, such as artificial plants and cushions. 

6. Offer a Variety of Amenities And Services

Students have more accommodation choices than ever before, with a booming private housing sector in many college cities. Offering a wide range of extras can increase the number of residents who stay in your buildings and improve their living experience. Some amenities you can provide inside rooms include:

• High-speed internet 

• Smart technology 

• Doorbell cameras

• Additional storage spaces

• USB charging ports

Amenities you can provide elsewhere in your campus accommodation building include:

• TV/movie rooms

• Study rooms/co-working spaces

• Security cameras

• Socialization areas

• Landscaped gardens

While implementing some of the luxuries above can work out expensive, you could make money back by increasing rental costs for future students.

7. Gather Feedback For Continuous Improvement

Consider collecting opinions about accommodation from students throughout their leases. Doing so will help you improve your services and enhance the resident experience. 

You could send students a survey around a month after they have moved into your building and ask them for initial feedback. Find out what aspects of your accommodation they enjoy the most and what you could improve. 

Also, you might want to send out a second questionnaire around a month before students are due to move out of your residence. Then, compare all responses to improve future residency requirements. 

Leverage The Most Advanced Student Housing Platform To Expedite Operations

The best digital platforms make it easier to carry out day-to-day student housing management operations, reducing work for your team. The right student housing solutions, for example, let you control various applicant, resident, and room inventory processes in a centralized system. This removes the need for several pieces of software. You can also improve roommate matches and room assignments, ensuring students have a more successful resident experience. 

Housing Cloud is the student platform that attracts more students to live on campus and streamlines operations. Software features include:

• Ruleset creation for roommate requests

• Organizing housing types and preferences

• The ability to create and control housing application forms

• A modern user interface that helps you train new staff

This cloud-based platform, which is purpose-built with today's technology, can enhance resident satisfaction and create a more positive and thriving living environment for all your students, including international students. 

Need a platform that elevates the student housing experience? Contact Housing Cloud now for a demo and sample this software for yourself.