Interested in learning more about Housing Anywhere? Read on to discover what this new online platform is, its services, and how it can benefit your student recruitment efforts.
Housing Anywhere Connects International Students with University Lodging
The concept of Housing Anywhere was coined in 2009 by a student named Niels van Deuren, who had the idea while embarking to Singapore for an exchange program. During his frustrating search for accommodation, van Deuren realized there was a wide gap in the market for an effective international student housing solution.
What originated as way for students to sublet their rentals has grown into a widely used platform in 53 countries and 484 cities. With 100,708 listings to date, Housing Anywhere has flourished on a global scale with listings in cities like Berlin, Mexico City, and Sydney. Not only does Housing Anywhere serve the needs of students around the world, but it also keeps the recruitment needs of universities top of mind.
As van Deuren says, “The majority of universities we are talking to are keen to grow their international student numbers. Our focus is to help these universities support their current and future international growth ambitions by increasing the amount of rooms available.”
Housing Anywhere makes it easy for students to explore housing options to find a place that suits them
Housing Anywhere’s Services Streamline the Process of Matching Students to Residences
Users can safely search for accommodations using filters that narrow search results by price, type of dwelling, and locations on the Housing Anywhere website. This service is beneficial to not only incoming international students, but also outgoing students. Housing Anywhere lets current students at your university rent out their rooms to incoming international students you have recruited. In addition to student-made listings, listings can be created by residences, locals, and property owners. Once the landlord’s property becomes verified, the listing goes live and students can view it.
Niels van Deuren explains what makes his platform so different from others, “Platforms like Airbnb’s focus on tourism; short stay rentals ranging between 2 days and 2 weeks. We focus on stays of 1 or 2 semesters, and thus provide additional services that are specifically tailored to international students—such as help with rental contracts, live support on the website and a dedicated student care team to answer any questions.”
By partnering with Housing Anywhere you can take advantage of the platform’s University model. With three different plans, Activation, Complete, and Premium, you can choose which is best for your university’s targets. The Activation plan is designed for smaller universities and includes a range of basic features, such as customer care services, online promotion, secure booking services, and more. Universities can choose to upgrade to the Complete or Premium plans to gain access to ambassador programs, university feature pages, coupon codes, and beyond. All plans are designed to benefit your student recruitment efforts.
Benefits of Housing Anywhere For Your International Student Recruitment Department
As global international student recruitment efforts grow more intense, universities need to adapt their strategies. By introducing Housing Anywhere into your recruitment tactics you can take advantage of the platform’s benefits which will help you compete in the global marketplace.
Many university housing departments struggle with finding enough accommodations for students. In addition, university departments often use excessive labour hours finding incoming students appropriate accommodations. Housing Anywhere takes the pressure off of these departments so they can focus on students who may require specialized attention for meeting their housing needs, while giving autonomy to international students to browse the website for themselves.
Housing Anywhere will help bring new international students to your university
If you partner with Housing Anywhere and purchase one of the company’s plans, you will receive promotional space on its website. With over one million student hits on the website per year, this new exposure could bring in substantial amounts of new leads. That’s not the only benefit of partnership van Deuren explains, “The students of our partner universities have priority access to newly listed rooms, plus have a dedicated student care team at their disposal; thereby reducing the workload of the International Office.”
