Historically, student housing has maintained a no-pets allowed policy. But with the popularity of pets and the rise of housing options available to students, more and more housing providers are welcoming students with pets into their off-campus communities.
While student housing providers are enjoying the benefits of being pet-friendly, they’re also facing new challenges. Which, if any, breeds should be restricted? Are all of the pets living within the community authorized to be on-site? How can the community create a pet-responsible environment while welcoming all residents, with and without pets?
Student Housing Insight (SHI), a leading resource for student housing operators, helps find answers to housing related problems — like those stated above — that are facing universities, their surrounding communities, and students. At their Southwest Regional Summit in Waco, TX, SHI shared collected knowledge through various informative sessions that covered a range of topics impacting the student housing industry.
"In a day and age where everyone is looking for a competitive advantage, it was a pleasure to watch student housing leaders participate in open collaboration on how they can utilize technology and processes to give their residents an enhanced experience." said J. Rettinger, CEO of PooPrints and featured speaker at the Summit.
In the session Pets & Students — It’s a Real Animal House!, Rettinger was joined by PetScreening CEO John Bradford in a discussion about solutions to help property managers overcome the obstacles pets can create in student housing.
Here is a look at the services PetScreening and PooPrints offer property managers:
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PetScreening is a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to assess the risk of pet applicants and manage the assistance animal (service/ESA/companion/etc.) validation process. PetScreening is a no-charge ($0) service to housing providers.
The service helps create consistency and standardization for pet policies and reasonable accommodation review procedures within pet-friendly student housing communities. It also helps mitigate liability for the student housing provider, saving them time and preventing unnecessary lost pet revenue.
PetScreening's in-house legal team reviews each and every reasonable accommodation request to ensure it meets the FHAct guidelines. This limits the number of bad actors trying to commit animal fraud which impacts a housing provider’s ability to collect pet revenue.
The platform tracks animal-related incidents that property managers record while a pet is living at their community. Examples include bites, property damage and owner issues, like noise complaints, off-leash offenders or failure to pick up pet waste. Recorded incidents follow the pet/animal and its owner in perpetuity so future property managers can review and use at their discretion.
For housing providers, PetScreening is a no-cost, no-contract, no-software to download platform.
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PooPrints is the first and largest commercial DNA Waste Management Program that helps property managers ensure a clean community while improving the bottom line and increasing satisfaction for all residents.
PooPrints helps housing providers create a genetic database of dogs with DNA collected from cheek swabs. Then, when DNA is collected from any unscooped pet waste through a safe and nontoxic collections process, PooPrints compares it to the database to identify who hasn’t picked up after their pet.
The company offers this solution throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with a patented DNA World Pet Registry that is easy to use, secure, and is designed to allow housing providers the ability to transfer residents among their portfolio of properties.
As an organization, PooPrints advocates for increasing responsible pet ownership through education, expanding pet access and decreasing the environmental impact of dog waste.
From increasing accountability to mitigating housing-related risks to ancillary income, it’s clear that the services from both of these companies provide value for student-housing management. And as the demand for pet-friendly housing continues to grow, so will the necessity for student-housing managers to turn to innovative pet-thinking for solutions that get impactful results.
