How to advertise student accommodation

The student accommodation market is highly seasonal, with the peak booking period taking place between October and December for the following academic year. As you enter this busy season, it’s essential to have a clear marketing strategy in place that will help you fill your beds fast.

To help you secure bookings and maximise occupancy, we’re breaking down exactly how to advertise student accommodation and attract the right tenants.

5 ways to advertise student accommodation 

Making your listings stand out in a busy marketplace can be challenging, so we’ve outlined some of the best ways to advertise student accommodation to help you get a headstart. 

Use property listings platforms 

The Internet is the first place most student tenants will look for accommodation, so it’s important that you’ve established a clear presence on the web. Listing your properties on multiple online marketing platforms will help to expand your reach and get your rooms seen by more prospective tenants. 

As you’re specifically listing student lets, it’s important to advertise on the right channels and clearly mark your properties as student accommodation. Not all listings platforms are designed for the student market. As many students are privately renting for the first time, they are likely to look for listings that are clearly marketed towards them and their needs.

With over 750,000 rooms listed and over 3.5 million annual views, StuRents is the UK’s largest marketing platform for student accommodation search. Listing on StuRents, a completely student-targeted marketing platform, will help you get more eyes on the properties, reach the right tenants at the right time, and fill your beds faster.

Optimise your listings 

Now that you know where to list, you need to start thinking about ways to make your listings as informative and relevant as possible. 

Being detailed in your property description will help tenants assess whether your listing is suitable for them before organising a wasted viewing. Including basic information about your property’s location, price, and availability is essential. You should also include a description of what makes your property unique. Don’t be afraid to use positive adjectives and really sell your property in the description. You could include any relevant utilities, facilities or details about the location of your property that make it stand out. 

Of course, photographs are a key element of any listing as they showcase what your property actually looks like. You should include at least four high-quality, wide-lens photographs of your property. Make sure your photos have good lighting and try to showcase the main features of your space. You could also include videos that act as virtual tours of your property to give tenants a real sense of the listing. 

If you’re still stuck for ideas, we’ve put together more essential advice about how to optimise your property listing. 

Highlight key amenities 

When advertising student accommodation, the goal is to attract student tenants. This means you need to think carefully about what students care about and highlight these qualities in your listings. For instance, location is usually very important to students. If you have a property close to a university campus this is a major selling point. If your property is a little further away, you could also highlight the transport links and express how easy it is to get to university. 

Students also tend to want furnished properties as buying furniture is not a good investment as they won’t be staying in the accommodation permanently. As your tenants will be students, providing dedicated study spaces with a desk and desk chair in each room could make your property stand out among other furnished properties. 

On StuRents, students can filter property searches by facilities, making it more important than ever to properly advertise key selling points. You could include facilities such as parking, bike storage, disabled access, central heating, air conditioning, outdoor space, double beds, or gym access. 

Make informed pricing decisions 

Budget is a huge concern for student tenants. Well-priced student accommodation has a major advantage in the market. To make your listings as competitive as possible, you need to make sure that your properties are priced correctly. 

As part of your pricing strategy, you should research your local market, consider average student search budgets, and assess the pricing and performance of key competitors. Ultimately, your pricing will be determined by many different factors including the size and quality of your accommodation, the amenities you offer, the cost of operating your property, and the search budget of your target students. You should consider these factors in direct comparison to competitors in your local market to avoid overpricing your properties. 

You should also assess your performance in previous years. If you not filling your beds then you might be setting your rates too high, whereas if you are selling out very early in the season, it could mean you are setting prices too low in comparison to competitors. 

Leverage email remarketing 

Listing online isn’t the only way to advertise student accommodation. You can also leverage other channels such as email marketing. Sending your listings directly to students’ inboxes is a great way to ensure visibility and increase the likelihood of them booking a viewing. 

If you have a StuRents Pro or Business Marketing package, your listings will be eligible to feature in daily remarketing emails to prospective tenants. When a student has a search criteria that matches your property, it could be shown to them in personalised daily email communications. 

Where to advertise student accommodation 

Now that you understand how to advertise student accommodation, you need to know where to do so. StuRents is the UK’s leading student accommodation search platform, making it the ideal place to list if you want to increase the visibility of your properties in key booking periods. 

Get started today to optimise your student accommodation marketing and fill your beds quickly this lettings cycle.