Demand for PBSA beds may still outstrip supply in many locations, but that doesn’t mean operators can afford to be complacent. It’s no longer enough to rely on scarcity to drive occupancy – today’s students are savvier, more price-sensitive and have higher expectations than ever. Couple this with changing booking behaviours and new schemes entering the market, often with standout amenities, and it adds up to a highly competitive market where operators must do all they can to convert interest and secure bookings.
This means enhancing timing, targeting and pricing to make marginal gains at every stage of a student’s journey. Guided by accurate, real-time data, these small, strategic adjustments combine to make a big difference, improving occupancy rates overall.
Let’s look at how these marginal gains can be made.
Key to managing occupancy levels is a thorough understanding of the market. This is a complex topic and getting a full picture involves drilling into the details. While student numbers and bed availability play a significant part, factors such as where students are living currently, how the intake is changing and which new developments are planned also need considering to see all the potential pressure points and opportunities.
For example, the expansion of a specific faculty may increase demand for a particular accommodation type, and shifts in the domestic-to-international student ratio can influence booking cycles and timelines. Micro-level changes to course format or a location’s desirability won’t necessarily affect an entire city’s demand-supply balance, but they can impact preferences at a postcode level. Recognising this enables you to anticipate changes in demand and react accordingly.
As well as analysing demand, it’s essential to track future supply. Regular monitoring of planning applications and construction timescales identifies new developments and their potential impact early, enabling proactive decisions about pricing and positioning.
Being aware of market dynamics is only part of the process. Understanding exactly how schemes compare on factors including location, pricing and amenities allows you to assess your positioning and how it might affect bookings.
This requires detailed competitor tracking on a weekly basis, focused on:
It’s important to remember that competitors aren’t necessarily those in closest proximity, so spread the net wide. A development on the other side of the city might still appeal to the same students if it has similar facilities, price point and lifestyle appeal. Conversely, a new scheme next door may look like a direct competitor on paper, but be targeting a completely different audience with its branding, incentives or lease terms.
The real value of competitor analysis lies in interpreting the data. A sudden rent drop could indicate genuinely reduced demand or simply poor forecasting – only by combining external data with your own internal statistics can you begin to understand what the changes mean and decide how to react.
Confident pricing isn’t about pushing up headline rents or keeping them steady. It’s about using market insights, internal data and pricing trends to keep rents steady.
Combining internal statistics on performance, such as booking patterns, rebooking rates and conversion ratios, with market intelligence gives you a greater understanding of pricing pressures and opportunities. This allows you to respond in a smarter, more measured way, helping to avoid last-minute rent reductions and identify where increases are possible.
If you can see that bookings for a certain room type are lagging while competitor pricing is stable, it suggests the issue may lie in messaging, not value – and knee-jerk discounting isn’t the answer. If bookings accelerate and local rents are rising, there could be the opportunity for a rent increase.
Market and pricing trends also reveal patterns of activity such as repeat visits without action, more demand for lower-priced room types and changing enquiry levels, all factors that can be early signs of booking fatigue.
Again, having these insights allows you to make small, targeted adjustments to keep pricing stable and demand consistent.
Once the fundamentals of regular monitoring and analysis are in place, it’s time to consider your marketing activity. How are you presenting yourself and what else could you be doing to stay ahead of the competition?
Particularly significant is peer influence. Our research shows that 14% of students rely on peer reviews to make booking decisions and these trusted sentiments count for more than any marketing messages. This makes gathering regular, real-time feedback essential. If you don’t already have a review strategy in place, consider implementing one: conducting surveys, focus groups or even engaging in casual conversations all give you visibility into what students are really thinking – and allow you to make improvements proactively rather than reactively.
Sometimes, the smallest changes, such as making repairs faster or improving cleanliness, can have a big impact on student satisfaction, enhancing conversion, retention and reviews virtually overnight. You don’t need a new, shiny scheme to achieve this, just consistent service and attention to detail.
As with market insight, micro-location is important here – different locations will be affected by different things and students will have different views as a result.
To be effective, marketing campaigns should never be one-size-fits-all. Instead, tailor them to a particular audience, location or channel and make adjustments based on the end objectives.
While national campaigns are good for building brand awareness, conversions happen at a local level, and hyper-specific campaigns aligned to specific buildings, audiences and booking stages resonate best with students on the ground.
That’s why segmentation is so important. By splitting audiences into key groups (new bookers, rebookers, short term lets, summer lets, etc) you can tailor your messaging to address different priorities and booking windows, targeting students more efficiently and effectively.
The same applies to the unique character of each site – creative, messaging and channels should all be shaped by a property’s style and features and the demographic it’s appealing to. An architecturally-significant boutique building on the outskirts of town requires a different tone and media mix to a large, modern scheme in the centre.
Adopting advanced tactics can help to ensure the message is getting through:
Refine the details
Maximising bookings is about refining the details at every stage, from tracking pricing to personalising emails, building a cumulative effect that delivers improvements overall.
The key is combining strategic planning with day-to-day responsiveness, using high-quality data to not only plan ahead but make regular adjustments to keep everything on track.
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