Accommodation direct through management company or via university?

[EinsteinaGogo]

Hi there,

Sorry if this is silly question.

My DS has accepted an unconditional offer.

The ballot for accommodation is now open and closes mid June.

He has been looking at accommodation options via the university website. There are about 9 options in total.

Quite a few of the site details say something like "we have a small number of units available at this site, the rest are let via the student accommodation managers, XXX'., with a link to the same accommodation via that company.

It looks like you can book the same accommodation direct with the company now, rather than waiting to see what you're allocated in the ballot.

Has anyone done this?

I guess my questions are,

1: are there additional benefits of going via the university ballot and booking system?
2: is accommodation that is ONLY managed by the uni better for first years?
3: if cost is not too different, is worth doing direct to get DSs first choice?

Or are all universities different and i should ask questions direct to them?

Thank you!!!

Sorry if my question is naive, DS is our eldest so have not done this before.

I suspect it depends on uni and provider. For Edinburgh:

1. Going via uni is cheaper. Maybe uni subsidise or get a better rate.

2.Not necessarily. DD has found Unite to be better managed than uni managed. 3.Possibly but check makeup of halls (how many first years etc and whether first years are all housed together in same flats).

Thanks @SandyIrvine, that's good advice.

Yes, I don't think it would be great if DS wasn't with first year students.

Thanks for the thoughts.

I would say that uni managed tends to be cheaper and probably more popular for 1st years.

DD2 lived in uni accommodation in her 1st year, a shared flat. She had her own bedroom then there for 4/5 toilets and showers plus a large dining kitchen shared between 10 of them. She enjoyed it until Covid happened. Then she was in a shared private house, rather Covid disrupted but she was able to be there for all 3 terms. This year she is meant to be abroad but had to start online. Her UK uni offered her a room back where she was in year 1. It was fine for a while but she was sharing with 1st years and although lovely people, it didn't work so well as she was having to get up for lectures at 2am as they were reeling home drunk. She stuck it until Christmas and has been at home since then, but is heading off this week finally!

Before Christmas, she signed up for a room offered by a private company but which is apparently owned by the university for next year. I wasn't over-keen but she wanted to get it sorted and it seems to be in a decent location. It's not UNITE - from what I have seen of them in other places, they are very expensive and not great at dealing with issues. However, this is anecdotal from colleagues.