How to calculate PBSA occupancy rate

For purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) operators, ensuring maximum occupancy is a priority. Securing bookings is a crucial part of the PBSA business model, ensuring that revenue is as high as possible, voids are minimised, and relevant stakeholders are satisfied. 

To maximise occupancy, you need to understand how to calculate occupancy rate and the measures you can take to improve it. In this guide, we break down everything you need to know. 

What is PBSA occupancy rate?

PBSA occupancy rate refers to the ratio of occupied rooms to to the total number of available rooms within a student accommodation building or block. This determines how booked your PBSA is at any given time.  

How to calculate occupancy rate

To calculate occupancy rate, divide the total number of rooms occupied by the total number of rooms available in a PBSA building and multiply the figure by 100 to give a percentage. The higher the percentage, the better your occupancy rate. 

• Occupancy rate = number of rooms occupied/number of rooms available x100

You can look at this figure by month, academic term, academic year, or any period that is relevant for your business model. The rate will be different depending on the length of time you consider and where you are in the student booking cycle. As you get later into the booking season, you should see a higher occupancy rate. 

Why is occupancy rate important? 

Occupancy rate is a key performance indicator for PBSA operators. A low occupancy rate indicates that your property isn’t attractive to students. This may be because room prices are set too high, local market competition may be strong, or your property’s online visibility is not strong. On the other hand, an extremely high occupancy rate very early in the student booking season might indicate that your prices are set too low. If you’re facing either of these challenges, it might be a sign that you need to adjust your marketing or pricing strategies. 

By the end of the booking season, the majority of PBSA are aiming for close to 100% occupancy rate to maximise revenue and avoid the losses associated with voids. To achieve this high figure, you need to have a clear understanding of the steps you can take to increase your PBSA occupancy rate. 

How to improve your PBSA occupancy rate

Taking these five steps could help you to improve your PBSA occupancy rate. 

1. Conduct competitor analysis 

Maintaining a comprehensive understanding of your local market and how your competitors are performing is essential. If you’re pricing far above local market rates, it’s likely that your occupancy rate will be lower. 

StuRents Occupancy Survey is designed to help you benchmark your performance against the local market. Every month, StuRents aggregates and reports on anonymised occupancy data from our members with a combined portfolio of 150,000+ PBSA beds to provide insights into student accommodation demand in university cities across the UK.

StuRents can also help you gain a deeper understanding of student search behaviour, average search budgets, supply, and demand. Downloading our StuRents National Quarterly Report will help you guide your pricing and marketing strategies. 

2. Adjust your rates 

Setting your rates correctly is very important as a PBSA operator as budget is a huge concern for most students, particularly as student accommodation becomes more expensive. If you’re experiencing very high occupancy rates early in the season then your prices might be set too low. On the other hand, if your booking velocity is very slow and your occupancy rates are low then you might need to lower your prices. Adjusting your prices appropriately could help bring things back in line. 

3. Invest in more marketing channels 

One of the potential reasons for a low occupancy rate is that your properties simply aren’t getting views. To enhance the visibility of your student accommodation, you should create a comprehensive property marketing strategy. Evaluate the success of each of the marketing channels you are currently using and think about investing in additional channels to expand your reach. If you identify any marketing channels that aren’t providing results, you could consider spending that budget elsewhere. 

When marketing PBSA, it’s important to list on channels where students are actually looking. Listing on StuRents, the UK’s leading student accommodation platform with over 3.5 million annual views, could help you get your PBSA in front of students at the right time in the booking cycle. 

You can also make simple changes to your listings such as updating your property images, or tailoring the wording on your listings. As well as listing online, you could explore other avenues that could boost visibility such as email remarketing, reaching out to local letting agents, and promoting properties on social media.

4. Take bookings directly from your listings

Students are typically new to renting and may not be familiar with the process. If you can make the booking journey as seamless and pain-free as possible for tenants then you could increase your occupancy rate. With Concurrent’s Book Now feature, you can take bookings directly from your listings without any pre-application admin. Tenants can then enter the contract signing flow directly. 

5. Offer packages, offers, or discounts 

Price is a very important consideration for students. If you’re experiencing a low occupancy rate, you could consider offering discounts, offers, or packages to students. For example, you could offer a discount to students who renew their tenancy with you for another year. Or you could offer rent with bundled bills included at a slightly discounted rate. These offers will incentivise students to book your property. 

Maximise your occupancy rate with StuRents

StuRents can help you increase your occupancy rate and get one step ahead of the competition by providing crucial data into PBSA supply, demand, and pricing data as well as student search behaviour and budgets. You can use this information to make more informed, data-driven choices when adjusting your pricing and marketing strategies. 

Find out more today about how our Quarterly Reports could help you.