While laundry has long been known to be a pain point for students in PBSA, the latest GSL Index data suggests that laundry woes are reaching a tipping point. Laundry issues are increasingly impacting perceptions around value for money and potentially, student retention.
In the Autumn wave of the GSL Index, for the first time, we saw laundry top the list of features that students would improve for higher rent, with 18% of those saying they would pay more to improve a feature of their accommodation choosing laundry. This is significant, given that for the three years prior, bathrooms topped the list.
Last Autumn, for the first time, we also saw laundry enter the list of key drivers when it comes to student perceptions around value for money, and the data suggests that this may be influencing student retention. Last Autumn, 12% of students said that laundry was worse than they expected, with this figure climbing to 24% for students who said that they were not planning on staying on in their accommodation next year. Students who said laundry is worse than expected are also more likely to be Net Promoter Score (NPS) Detractors.
The GSL Index also asks students about the one thing they would change about their accommodation if they could, and last Autumn, 857 students chose laundry as the number one thing they would change and to share their laundry woes with us.
Key student bugbears when it comes to laundry include:
- Costs: The cost of doing laundry is frequently mentioned by students, with laundry costs seen as too high, and many suggesting that poorly functioning washers and dryers are adding to the cost of doing laundry.
“It costs nearly £8 for an effective wash and dry each time (eco barely cleans your clothes but is cheaper). £8 doesn’t seem like a fair price when you also have to pay £10-20 a month for laundry pods on top of that just to get a decent wash out of it.”
“Laundry is expensive and never works, it takes 3 loads of drying before they’re not damp which is costly and bad for the environment”
For those students who consider that their rent costs are already high, it is clear that laundry factors highly when making value for money assessments about their accommodation:
“The rents are too high, that’s why I think [accommodation operator] could do better or just reduce the rate of laundry.”
“There are other private accommodations for students which cost less and have spacious rooms. With such high cost, the laundry service should be free. Most of the times, the clothes don’t completely dry in dryer, so it’s just waste of money.”
“It’s very expensive and awful quality, and the clothes are never particularly clean. Some of my flatmates have taken to saving their laundry up and taking it home over midterm breaks, as it’s just not worth the money. As I am an international student, this is not a feasible option for me, and I have been forced to spend a lot of money on a very poor service.”
For a large number of students, the solution is to have laundry included in their rent, or at least have laundry partly subsidised:
“Managing finances can be challenging as a student, and the additional burden of expensive laundry facilities adds to this stress. I would suggest that the university consider introducing a more affordable pricing structure for these amenities. Perhaps a system with discounted rates or a set number of free washes per semester could be implemented.”
“Maybe the costs to do laundry should be included within the accommodation price as it adds extra costs to an already high-end priced accommodation.”
- Insufficient Number of Machines: Students frequently mention that the number of washing machines and dryers in their building is inadequate for the number of residents. This leads to long waiting times and inconvenience and adds to the mental load for students.
“There are only 2 machines thus only 2 people can wash their laundry at a time.”
“6 washers and 6 dryers for 400+ residents is a bit subpar.”
“Only one of the tumble dryers works. Given that it is against our contract to dry clothes in our rooms, this has made life very challenging, in an area I didn’t think would be a concern when coming to university.”
- Maintenance Issues: A large number of students said that their washing machines and dryers are often broken or not functioning properly. This adds to students’ frustration as it reduces the number of available machines even further.
“The laundry machines and their maintenance are appalling; I don’t think I’ve ever seen them all working and it takes forever for repairs to be made.”
“The laundry situation is horrible. Our washers and dryers have been broken more often than not. There’s only 2 of each for the entire building and it’s extremely expensive.”
- Convenience and Accessibility: Many students complain that laundry facilities in their accommodation are located a considerable distance from their building, making it inconvenient to carry laundry back and forth. Others express frustration that their laundry room has limited opening hours.
“Easier laundry access so that we don’t have to go to a different building to do laundry.”
“There should be washers and dryers within each block, as doing the laundry can become quite disruptive because of distances from blocks, especially when it rains.”
“Keeping the laundry open during weekends”
Many students said they would like to see a washing machine in their flat, or at a minimum, in every building:
“They could provide a separate laundry machine for each flat, as we thought the bill included laundry, but we have to pay extra.”
“In an ideal world, we’d have laundry facilities in the building or even flat.”
- Cleanliness: The cleanliness of the laundry rooms is a concern for many students who report that the laundry rooms are often dirty and not well-maintained.
“The laundry rooms make me want to vomit. Which is so ironic, as it is where I CLEAN my clothes.”
“The laundry room is always dirty, and the washing machine drums have dirt stuck there for more than a year.”
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The GSL Index is the world’s leading student insight platform and performance improvement tool for both university and private student accommodation providers. Throughout the year, the GSL Index surveys hundreds of thousands of students across 15 countries and in 15 different languages, on all aspects of their student accommodation experience.
The Index brings together a range of standardised local, regional and global KPIs alongside bespoke insights from custom questions developed to meet the specific needs of accommodation providers. With responses from over one million students since its inception, and more than 250 million data points, data from the GSL Index provides rich insight into what students expect from their accommodation and the factors that drive student satisfaction.
To get involved in the GSL Index, go to the GSL website: https://gslglobal.com/index/ to register.
