How UNINEST Japan has Reinvented the Student Experience.
Learn about how Altitude's Student App helped UNINEST Japan centralise their student and staff operations, while moving towards a digital future.
UNINEST Japan, student accommodation providers based in Tokyo, Japan, partnered with Altitude to implement Altitude's white-label Student App.
After launching the app in July 2021, UNINEST have seen significant increases in pre-arrival document completion, in-house communication and departure processes.
Introduction to UNINEST Japan
UNINEST Japan began managing their two large-scale properties in Tokyo in 2018.
UNINEST's focus is to offer students a fulfilling off-campus life, where students are provided with a culturally rich, community-focused and safe living environment while studying in Japan.
The Problem
UNINEST Japan identified pain points throughout their student experience that needed to be addressed in order to streamline and improve the process for both incoming students and their staff.
Firstly, UNINEST established their need for a self-service process to collect pre-arrival information from student such as address, phone number, identification documents and more.
To accompany this, UNINEST also required a way to easily communicate with students for emergency announcements, to share building information and gather feedback originally exchanged via individual emails.
Deciding to look at a white label app also allowed UNINEST to provide an improved brand experience, something that was also a required outcome from the project.
Prior to Altitude’s Student App being implemented, Taku Iwasaki, Head of Operations for UNINEST stated;
“It was basically an email process back and forth between the students and the operations staff.There was a web form for initial booking inquiry and deposit payment from our previous PMS provider, but that was the extent of it.”
After finding Altitude through their market research and existing integration with property management system RMS, UNINEST established that Altitude’s Student App was the most suitable solution to meet their needs. In September 2020 work began on the UNINEST App.
Implementation and Go Live
Working in a phased approach, phase one focused on migrating students from the web-based booking form to the app to view their stay information and complete their pre-arrival documents.
Of the project, Taku commented:
”Altitude was very supportive and willing to make changes and additions to the platform in order to support our needs.Altitude saw this project as an opportunity to enter the student accommodation market.”
The UNINEST app was introduced to students and staff with all base features.Once students and staff were comfortable with the app, UNINEST introduced advanced survey functionality for management of room inventory, advanced feedback, checklists and more.
Upon the successful implementation at Hakusan House, Kamikita was a simple addition to the app, nearly doubling the number of rooms.
Results
After the launch of the UNINEST app in July 2021, Taku commented that “feedback from the staff so far has been positive” and that “feedback from the students has (also) been positive” and that “the platform has certainly saved us time.”
UNINEST now offers students a fully customised multi-property and multi-language app for students to use at either of their two properties in Tokyo, Hakusan House and Kamikita House.
“Students appreciate that we are talking their language. They want the information in their hands and readily available.”
UNINEST now have a platform where they can centralise information collection and sharing.
“Students know where to go to access the information they need. Staff have less need to manage multiple spreadsheets and have better access to the information they need as well.”
Looking to the future, UNINEST is now looking to back of house operational features, as well as enhanced student communication.
Features of UNINEST's app
Pre-Arrival and Arrival
During Stay
Document Submission
Capture Student Information
Identification Upload
Onboarding Questionnaires and more
Departure
Departure Scheduling
Inventory Checklists
Satisfaction and Room Surveys
Billing Management and more
Building Information
Student Handbook
Wellbeing Management
Wifi Connection
Reservation Management
Surveys and Questionnaires
Live Chat
Maintenance
Lost Property and more
Conclusion
As Altitude’s first customer in the Student Accommodation space, both Altitude and UNINEST worked to refine and tailor the mobile solution to best fit the student residence requirements. This has resulted in a successfully implemented complete end-to end, fully branded UNINEST app for students.
Staff no longer need to go back and forth with emails to incoming students, or maintain multiple spreadsheets.Pre-arrival procedures are consolidated and self-completed by the student before their arrival to the property.Back of house work load is reduced and students can access any and all information they need for their stay at their selected UNINEST property.
Altitude’s cloud based platform allows UNINEST staff to update students and receive feedback or live chat in real-time. Due to the ever-evolving nature of Altitude’s platform, UNINEST Japan have been able to digitise their student experience to ensure both students and staff can enjoy the benefits of technology.
“I am proud we have been able to support UNINEST with their goal for a mobile app solution.It has been an excellent project where we have been able to wholeheartedly focus on automation and migrate the student experience into the digital world.”
– Anthony Radich, Solutions Director and Founder of Altitude
If you would like to learn more about our Student App, get in touch with us by completing the form or head to our Student Accommodation page here.
