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Higher education

Not every student
wants or needs a full-year contract.

Some students only need 3-6 weeks on campus each semester, not a full academic year. The same rooms are also expected to earn their keep across the summer too. That is one piece of work, not two. Lavanda gives your accommodation and conferencing teams a single platform for managing academic tenancies, nominations, summer programmes and flexible, short stays.

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Students working at tables in a bright university library, with bookshelves and large windows overlooking the city.

Trusted by universities and PBSA operators across the UK

The challenge

Summer lettings have always happened. But the toolkit has not kept pace.

Two university accommodation staff coordinating room bookings by phone, laptop and printed schedules at a shared desk.

Accommodation and conferencing teams have been letting rooms to language schools, conference groups and visiting researchers for years. Bookings often happen through a combination of phone calls, email chains and a spreadsheet that only a handful of people actually understand. So the entire operation depends on those people being present.

Demand has changed as well. Students who live at home and travel in for a module block, a placement or an exam period need somewhere to stay for three weeks, not three terms. The standard accommodation offer has no length that suits them. Serving these students better and optimising how the estate is deployed across the year point in the same direction.

Solutions

Built for the way a university estate actually runs

A room in a hall of residence is not one product. Across a single year it can hold a full-year student, a semester let, a commuter student staying three weeks and a conference or language school guest in August. Lavanda manages all of it in one platform, alongside a Short Stays solution for the weeks the estate would otherwise sit empty.

OpenPMS

One system for every way a room is occupied

Why OpenPMS for higher education

University accommodation carries obligations that no hotel system is designed for, and a tenure mix that no residential system is designed for. OpenPMS handles academic tenancies, nomination agreements, flexible stays and commercial bookings in a single platform - so occupancy, revenue and compliance can be managed to one set of numbers rather than reconciled across three.

Capabilities

Nominations and group agreements

Set up commercial agreements with language schools, conference groups and corporate partners - preferential pricing, controlled access and compliant allocation - and manage each relationship as one product with a booking history that you can remarket to year after year. Nominate students into partner accommodation, or take on nominated placements from another institution, and the tenancy sits in the same record as your own halls - so a placement's occupancy, and its student's experience, stay visible to you.

Academic tenancies and semester lets

A full-year tenancy, a semester let and a few weeks during a placement block are the same kind of record in the same system, with contract templates, instalment plans and booking prerequisites set per product. Extensions, early terminations and room moves run through structured approval workflows rather than around them.

Summer and conference inventory

Summer programmes, conference groups and visiting researchers draw on the same availability as term-time occupancy, so a room is never committed twice. Availability windows control when inventory becomes bookable, tentative holds release themselves, and what the conferencing team can see is what actually exists.

Finance, invoicing and instalment plans

Instalment plans are set per accommodation product and automatically update when a booking changes. Invoicing, collections and refunds are automated, payments reconcile against bookings without manual matching, and students reach their own statements and documents through a portal carrying the university's brand.

Reporting across every stay type

Occupancy, rent roll, forward bookings and revenue read across academic tenancies, semester lets and commercial stays in one set of reports rather than three. Weekly performance summaries arrive without anyone compiling them, and occupancy can be analysed by site, building or tag as your directorate requires.

OpenPMS for your team

Accommodation team

One view of every room and every occupancy type, from the September intake through to the end of your summer programme. Allocation, move-ins, maintenance and renewals run through automated workflows, so the team spends the start of term welcoming students rather than reconciling records.

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Conferencing team

Group bookings, allocations and client relationships are held in the same system as the accommodation they draw on, so availability is real and the same room is never sold twice. You keep control of who is on campus and what they can reach. The language school that has booked every summer for a decade finally becomes a recognised account with a full booking history behind it.

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Finance team

Rent roll, instalment plans, deposits and commercial income in one ledger, with invoicing and collections automated. Income from every stay type reconciles in the same place, making the directorate's contribution to the university's financial position easy to track and evidence.

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Student experience team

An online booking journey that students complete themselves, a student portal for documents and requests, and stay lengths that better fit the evolving needs of students. Students placed into nominated beds sit in the same record as those in your own halls, so the cohort you are responsible for can be easily tracked in one place.

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Short Stays

Summer weeks are inventory, not downtime

Why Short Stays for higher education

Between June and September a university estate holds rooms that are already built, already staffed and already paid for. Lavanda markets them, prices them against real demand and runs the guest operation, so the income arrives without the accommodation team taking on a second job. Getting started is a set of dates and a service agreement, not an IT project.

Capabilities

Summer programme management

Listings, pricing, bookings and guest communications handled end to end across the summer. Rates move with real demand rather than sitting at last year's flat seasonal figure, and the team manages the relationships it already has with language schools and conference groups alongside the new demand.

Student-only booking and guest vetting

Every booking is verified before it is confirmed - an identity document checked against a live photo, student status evidenced, house rules accepted by signature, and any accompanying guests recorded the same way. All backed up with an auditable record of who stayed and on what evidence in order to prove compliance with safeguarding and pastoral obligations.

Distribution across 450+ OTAs and direct booking

Beds are marketed across channels where students already search, alongside a direct booking site under the university's own brand and domain. Group clients - language schools, corporate partners, academic groups - sit in the same CRM as individual guests, so a high-value relationship built over a decade is properly marketed to and commercialised each season rather than rebuilt from a phone number and an email thread.

Term-time stays for commuter and placement students

A placement block, a module intensive or an exam period brings students onto campus for two to four weeks in the middle of the year, and the standard accommodation offer rarely has a length that fits. Term-time short stays make that a bookable product at a price students can afford, on the same vetting and operational protocols as underpins the summer programme.

Ring-fenced units and access separation

Guest units are grouped into designated clusters with their own access, separate from the floors and entrances students use. Housekeeping, arrivals and guest movement stay inside that boundary, which is what makes a programme workable during term time and not only across the summer.

Short Stays for your team

Accommodation team

Rooms are released to the programme cluster by cluster, on the dates your accommodation calendar allows, so guest stays fit around turnaround and planned maintenance rather than competing with them. Lavanda can run the listings, the guest communications and the turnarounds; your team keeps its attention on the estate.

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Conferencing team

Group bookings and individual stays draw on the same availability, so a summer school and a visiting academic are never competing for a room that has already gone. Accommodation demand arrives through channels the conference calendar does not reach, and the client relationships stay yours.

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Finance team

Bookings, payouts, channel fees and net income reconcile into one view. The programme is costed before it starts, reported while it runs, and accounted for as a revenue line rather than an exception the finance team discovers at year end.

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Student experience team

The programme is designed so student life carries on unchanged - guests are verified before they arrive and stay within their own clusters, and residence life is not asked to absorb them. For halls that may only be occupied by students, student status is evidenced in advance of every booking rather than checked by hand at the desk.

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Customer stories

Trusted by operators across Europe.

See how leading organisations are using Lavanda to unlock value, modernise operations and improve resident experiences.

A student study bedroom with a desk, posters and storage.

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Unlocking value beyond term time

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Lavanda’s leading technology will help us deliver a best-in-class student experience, and reflects our dedication to raising the bar for student accommodation.
Tom EllisGroup Strategy & Technology Director, Unite Students
Lavanda gives us the operational platform and the AI capabilities to better handle renewals and upsells without adding complexity or cost.
Leyth HampshireGroup Head of Sales and Marketing, AndSoul
We are delighted to partner with Lavanda to enhance our clients’ summer short stay offerings.
Matt BurtonExecutive Director Partnerships, UPP
We selected Lavanda to be our preferred short-stay partner across our whole 39,000-bed student portfolio due to their excellence in technology and deep knowledge of the short stay industry.
Kate ForesterManaging Director, Homes for Students

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