q a s i d h o u s i n g

I recalled my own housing memories as a student coming to Qasid years earlier . . . a clean and spacious, but rather spartan, bachelor pad with good housemates, a grocery nearby, under ten minutes to campus on foot, and all at a fair cost.

Most appreciated, though, was the reassuring and responsive interactions I’d had with the institute in getting preparations put in place, and in handling whatever arose after I arrived.

As Qasid grew, however, it became increasingly difficult for the limited admin staff to maintain the same levels of resident service among their many responsibilities. Hosting a few dozen tenants annually back then was much different than hosting a few hundred now. Similarly, the care required to manage relations with just a handful of landlords had multiplied accordingly too.

Recognizing the inherent correlation between comfortable accommodations and better academic performance, and in the renowned custom of Arab generosity, it was time to invest in a dedicated Housing Coordinator and in the resources to ensure the students’ residential well being.

It was my time to enter the hospitality sector.

i n i t i a l a s s e s s m e n t

As with similar, student centered projects, I began with a purview of the student’s point of view, feeling what they felt as I went through the current housing registration process for myself. And administratively, I met with the relevant stakeholders to understand their perspectives on what worked and what did not.

In addition to the prominent need for a consolidated, dormitory apartment facility, the housing audit revealed several other, useful findings. The opportunities included:

• A robust, client relations management (CRM) system to coordinate the rising number of applicant records and communications.

• More definitive housemate compatibility.

• Increased support for daily, on site services such as internet troubleshooting and replenishing natural gas and drinking water supplies.

• Better logistical foresight to properly prepare partner group housing (clients with recurring tuition & housing packages for upwards of 50 students).

• Improved protocols for home stays to optimize relations between students and host families.

• Resolve accounting office concerns regarding housing resident complaints about electricity bills being so high without knowing why.

Infused in these important, explicit issues, I could sense an implicit theme . . . the need to anticipate and appease student, parent, and new partner apprehensions about coming to a country with conventions that seemed so distant from their own.

How to create an ideal, cultural acclimation experience that would set their heads and hearts at ease for a favorable first—and lasting—impression, even above what mine had been?

h o m e s a w a y f r o m h o m e

Amid the audit inquiries, I also joined Qasid’s top management to provide design and operations input in the search to lease a local apartment building that we could call our own. This would be a critical acquisition allowing better control of the overall living experience to meet resident expectations, while also reducing the number of landlord contracts for multiple, operational advantages. It was to represent our premier housing option year round, while we continued to rent up to another 40, private homes in the summer and fall seasons to meet the surplus demand in those months.

Reviewing several properties, I shared my initial thoughts, conducted photo documentation, recorded floor plan measurements, and drafted AutoCAD space plans with furniture layouts to evaluate the potential occupancy, subsequent room pricing, and profitability estimates.

Thankfully, we were able to procure a proprietary residence building of 16 apartments hosting over 50 residents less than a kilometer from Qasid’s campus, and with a shopping center along the way. Forecasting the contemporary comfort standards of the predominantly Euro | American students who would reside there, I then prepared and managed structural remodeling and interior furnishing upgrades.

Arrangements were also made for the building porter, who lived on site, to assist with gas canister and potable water bottle replacements, which were kept in stock at the building. An internal, Housing Care team was also established to provide 24|7 facility maintenance and internet response. And a multi camera, digital surveillance system was installed indoors and out, with 24|7 security guard presence also contracted as added value for the residents’ peace of mind.

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s

Given the commonly held uncertainties about living abroad in the region, attentive, preliminary and tenancy duration communications were a priority, customer service aspect. Developing a comprehensive, Housing Overview website in a conversational tone was at the forefront for initial and ongoing information, while email responsiveness added credibility to expectations.

A seven page, Welcome Home letter was printed and placed on each resident’s bed to greet them upon moving in and help them get their bearings. It relayed a local area overview, safety suggestions, home care tips, critical contacts, and answered frequently asked questions.

Coordinated signage in the residence building corridors then displayed housing policies and procedures for reference throughout their stay.

And a portion of the live, student orientation event was reserved to present housing particulars and answer immediate questions.

An automated, CRM campaign also sent Settling In and Your Home Address letters in the days after moving in, to clarify essential resources for their visit and let them know the best means to receive and ship postal items.

And the Housing Guidelines were reiterated online, in various print formats, and via email to establish resident accountability for communal cooperation among themselves, and for neighborly relations in the customarily conservative and densely populated, urban residential settings.

When housing related conflicts inevitably arose, however, I would mediate resolutions between students, or between residents and the institute. Naturally, our normally reliable, housemate matching process could not account for every factor, and on occasion, unforeseeable, personality misalignments or other issues would need sorted out.

For instance, discrepancies in electricity consumption—when one resident wanted the indoor temperature low in the winter to save money, while their housemates wanted it warmer. Or, in cases of curfew violations or other disruptive behavior in which a reminder or amiable reprimand was given to enforce the policies.

d i g i t a l a s s i s t a n c e

For efficient bookings we utilized the recently developed, student website portal along with the online, CRM software that had already been introduced for admissions processing and the online learning program. This presented an intuitive consistency to the platform interface.

These client data gathering instruments then enabled the adoption of a cloud collaboration database app to facilitate the student profile comparisons used to improve lifestyle matching for optimal housemate harmony. An online, partner group planning process also became possible, empowering partner program representatives and Qasid staff to jointly prearrange accommodation preferences and payment procedures earlier and in more detail.

This data sorting tool was an operational game changer. It eliminated the prior need to print and repeatedly read over a hundred, student profile pages per quarter, while compressing the sizable floor space required to organize those forms, into the space of a single, 27 inch monitor. The advantages of internal, data sharing on demand and mitigating information errors further translated into ease of use for higher admin job satisfaction too.

To then address electricity cost complaints, I created a financial spreadsheet that mimicked the electric company’s sophisticated, tiered, kilowatt hour pricing algorithm. The data fields were populated through a meter reading regimen to periodically record every apartment’s power consumption.

Based on these automated formulas, then, each resident’s monthly, and end of term bill could be accurately predicted to provide them advanced notice if the amount appeared to exceed a specific threshold. The residents could then adjust their usage to lower their actual bill. This informative initiative replaced student and the accounting staff anxieties with ongoing assurance, and gave residents a welcomed degree of personal control.

c o u r t e s y

Practicing the principle of pleasing a patron’s emotional as well as practical interests, and coinciding with the institute’s philosophy of prioritizing relationships over revenues, other aspects of Qasid Housing included:

• Complimentary, airport shuttle service for arrival and departure flights.

• A gift box of bakery fresh, pistachio baklava awaiting each resident’s arrival on their bed.

• Rent reductions granted to students with particular budget constraints.

• Rent free tenancy between academic terms for all continuing residents.

• Unusually high electric bills discounted as circumstances warranted.

• Striving for a 24 hour response time to all incoming emails.

• Select services offered at the residence building, such as supplemental private tutoring.

• A resident feedback process to inform feature improvements.