Student accommodation
Occupancy rate
The occupancy rate is the share of a residence's beds that are occupied or committed at a given moment or over a period. It is the first figure anyone looks at in a student building, because income depends on it, and so does almost everything calculated afterwards.
Also known asoccupancy · occupancy level · let rate · tasa de ocupación
How it is measured
What is occupied is divided by what is available, and the argument is over what counts as each. Beds are counted one by one, because the bed is the sector's unit, and the period changes the figure: the occupancy of a whole academic year is not the same as that of one night in December. In the United Kingdom, where contracts in a private residence are usually signed for the academic year or for a set number of weeks, the sector follows occupancy almost like a calendar: how many beds were signed by January, how many by April, how many are left for September. In Spain it is watched the same way, with one nuance: students who stay for a single semester, such as many on exchange programmes, mean that occupancy in February is not always the same as in October. Three measures are used:
- Academic-year occupancy: beds under contract for the whole year over the total number of beds.
- Night occupancy: nights occupied over nights available, as in a hotel. It is the one that matters for summer stays.
- Bookings to date: how many beds for next year are signed on a given day, compared with the previous year on the same date. It includes rebooking by people who already live there.
Worth knowing
Occupied does not mean lived in. Contractual occupancy says how many beds are paid for; it does not say who is sleeping in the building tonight. For that you need the room rack and the absence log, and it is that second figure that matters to the kitchen, to the porters and in a fire drill.
Sources
Related terms
- PBSA operatorA PBSA operator is the company that runs a private student residence day to day: it markets the beds, signs up the residents, manages reception, maintenance and cleaning and organises life in the building. It answers for the building's results to its owner, which is often a different company.
- Bed (PBSA)In student accommodation, the bed is the unit a building is measured in: "a 400-bed residence" means it houses 400 residents, whether in singles, doubles, studios or shared flats. Supply, occupancy, income and costs are all counted in beds.
- RebookingRebooking is a resident renewing their place for the next academic year, usually in a campaign that opens months before the current year ends. It is the part of occupancy that does not have to be found from outside, and the clearest sign of whether the people living in the building want to stay.