Can College Students Save the Hotel Industry?

With uncertainties regarding leases, online/hybrid schooling, and sanitation, hotels have never been a more attractive alternative

Recently, CNBC reported that more college students are booking hotel rooms as the fall semester for university nears. While the decline in travel and tourism has hurt many hotel operators severely, having college students stay in hotel rooms makes them an unlikely hero.

Hotels are expensive. Instead of charging a monthly fee for staying in the property, they charge by the day. As the math adds up, living in a hotel room can be quite expensive. So why exactly would people pay so much to live in a hotel room when they can book an apartment all to themselves for a cheaper price?

Since hotels provide room service, parents will feel more relaxed knowing that their child’s living place will be sanitized every day. Plus, it’s most likely that their child will be the only one living in the room, reducing the likelihood of the disease spreading. Living in a hotel comes with a lot of perks that can make the difference between healthy and sick in a pandemic.

Interestingly, many wonder whether hotels are being served as a competitor to dorms and apartments. Because college towns and universities are looking to reduce the number of rooms available, the supply for student housing is plunging. Think of hotels as flexible living arrangements since they’re positioned to serve a huge population of students for the time being. Since many aren’t currently considering hotels as a living option, those looking to dwell in a hotel room will have negotiating power with hotel operators as they still desperately need business.

Altogether, college students are looking to be the demographic that saves the hotel industry from the pandemic. Since hotels have room service, the daily sanitation services make staying in a hotel safer than living in a dorm/apartment. As hotel operators remain desperate for business, the bargaining power students have can make staying at a hotel room as cheap as staying at a dorm with more benefits.

In my opinion, I find this phenomenon to be temporary. Once the travel and tourism industry recovers and social distancing measures get taken down, college students will go back to flooding the dorms and tourists will start flooding into hotels.