And all you need are appropriate overnight accommodations.
By: Corey Salem | Director of Sales, Unique Venues and Intern Housing Hub
You walk through an abandoned residence hall that was once bursting with life. You hear a distant creak and notice the dust accumulating and intricately designed cobwebs in the corner, a sign that your building has taken on a new tenant. No, this is isn’t the introduction to our annual spooky venue tour, instead, it is the all too familiar sights and sounds of unused student housing due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. During normal times, these communal spaces flow with laughter, energy, and the warmth that you’ve come to appreciate, expect, and want more than ever. Now, though, the spaces stand empty, begging to be used again. And they can be; just because this summer has been a wash doesn’t mean it needs to stay that way. Allow me to introduce you to the campus intern housing model.
Converting your unused residence space into short- and long-term housing
Each year, tens of thousands of interns worldwide flock to North America to gain valuable work experience with small companies, large corporations, associations, government agencies, historic and cultural centers, the healthcare industry, and more. The experience isn’t only work related though. This process also gives interns one of their first looks into apartment shopping. Relocation is a major piece for almost all interns, and it can be one of the most challenging, but also most exciting, aspects of an internship program. Annually, the peak searching and booking season is late-January through late-April. In some cases, the organizations hiring and hosting the interns handle the bookings, but in most cases these interns are booking their own accommodations. According to NACE’s 2019 Internship and Co-Op Survey, interns are doing so with an accommodations “lump sum” averaging $2,892.
For colleges and universities, unused student housing in slower seasons, like the summer months, prove to be ideal accommodations at affordable pricing. For these interns, campus housing provides the security and communal living that interns are accustomed to on their own campuses, as well as limitless amenities provided through auxiliary and ancillary services, like conveniently located coffee shops, on-site parking, high-speed Wi-Fi, and gym access to name a few. In the words of summer-bound interns, campuses also have the competitive advantage that realtors won’t be needed in booking accommodations (less fees for the intern!) and the ease of starting and stopping their stay with a week-to-week payment and reservation model.
This isn’t a substitution to mitigate the risks of low revenue – it’s a long term, proven revenue model
For many college and university conference and event teams, the summer of 2020 taught us that large group events might be one of the final pieces to rebuild once a COVID treatment or vaccine is announced. An intern housing model, however, might be exactly what your campus needs in the meantime to weather the financial storm. With limited face-to-face interactions, control of room layout and accommodation availability, and the aforementioned advantages of flexibility, affordability, and location, every campus should implement this supplemental revenue model for not only summer 2021, but for many summers thereafter.
For nearly 5 years, Unique Venues has been consulting and building business plans for campus internship housing programs. Now, we have launched our very own site to provide a competitive platform for all campus intern housing programs – InternHousingHub.com. Join us this fall to hear more about intern housing programs, revenue models, and discover the features, advantages, and benefits of listing your accommodations on InternHousingHub.com through industry experts and campus professionals at established and successful programs.
Engage with InternHousingHub.com and learn the benefits of a strong marketing and sales strategy
You can learn more about Intern Housing Hub by meeting with an established member of the Unique Venues team. Now is the time to start planning for the rebuild - submit your inquiries through this link, or schedule a meeting to speak with a Marketing Advisor and we can advise you on the next steps to take toward creating an intern housing program OR listing your event properties on UniqueVenues.com.