Student Housing Events

When school begins in August, student renters often have to face the stress of both moving into their apartment and then immediately starting classes only a few days after. Oftentimes, these students are freshmen or first-time renters who haven’t experienced living on their own or even taken a college class before. If you are a property manager of an apartment community for student renters, help new residents feel at home and ease the stress of starting school by giving them special treatment on the first day of class! Send out an email or put a notice on residents’ doors letting them know they can stop by the office all day for a first-day pick-me-up. Have coffee, bagels and fresh fruit available for a grab-and-go snack in the morning, and then wraps for lunch. On their way out, hand them a goody-bag with first-day essentials. ...

Last week, we were brainstorming our latest event idea, a balcony decorating contest. And as we were thinking about creating a giant armada of pirate ships floating on the walls of our communities, we realized that pirate ships need one more vital element: Cannons! So our imagination went wild thinking of these new pirate ships engaging in a giant balcony against balcony battle with water balloons flung against other buildings, or even traitorously attacking their own. Of course, a community wide balloon fight doesn't need to be tied in with the balcony decorating contest, so it is an event all its own. Some things to keep in mind: Provide plenty of warnings to the community about the upcoming balloon war. It would be quite bad if someone did not hear about the battle and got drenched as they...

I believe we have talked about decorating balconies before for different holidays, such as Christmas or Halloween, but we ran across a picture that made us realize there was opportunities throughout the year! We put this into the "student housing events" category because for some reason, the pirate ship screamed student housing. But it does show a fun opportunity! You can run with this idea in one of two ways: Leave it up to their imagination to think up any type of decorating idea they like. For example, one apartment could decorate like the pirate ship, while another could decorate theirs like the inside of the bottle on I Dream of Jeannie. (Wow, that was an obscure reference...) Give a theme to the decorating contest. Wouldn't be great if you gave a pirate theme and suddenly there...

A while back we talked about publishing high scores for popular games in your game station in your clubhouse, but we realized that there was another event idea in there. Why not do an old-school arcade trip? Arcades are a dying breed, and even for areas that still have one, the average person probably hasn’t been to one in ages. But as a unique community trip, this is a great opportunity to go old school! Add in some trivia about early arcade games and you have a great night of fun! A fun side activity would be a contest for 4 or 5 selected games to see who can get the highest score during the evening. You might need a "judge" at each game to record the scores, and each person has one opportunity per game.

Arcade games have long been famous for their high scores, where there was local infamy in having the high score for a popular game. Obviously, arcades are not popular anymore, but people still boast about having the high score on today’s games. Since many communities have gaming stations in their community clubhouse, this is a great way to inspire some good-natured competition! Have a place where you publish the current high scores on popular games, both within the clubhouse and online. If someone breaks a high score, take a picture of them next to the TV showing it off! As a side note, retro games are IN! Tons of communities have a Wii station or Xbox, but giving your clubhouse a retro feel with old-school arcade games would be a hit! In fact, there are at least two places...