19 Apr

The Importance Of Cleaning Student Accommodation Communal Areas

It has always been important to keep student accommodation clean and tidy. This is why the team at Clean & Tidy take such pride in the work we do offering professional cleaning services to university campuses and independent schools where accommodation is provided. Of course, for many students, entering halls of residence will be their first time living away from home and some of the home truths associated with cleanliness will only start to become apparent after a few weeks have passed. Although students may be responsible for their own rooms, they will not always be for the accommodation’s communal areas.

In most cases, modern halls of residence will have private, lockable bedrooms while kitchens and bathrooms tend to be shared – even if that is with a limited number of people in the same hall. Furthermore, shared communal areas will often include the corridor that links the bedrooms that share such facilities, as well as the access points to the halls themselves, entrance areas, receptions, stairwells and, in some cases, lifts. With no student body being directly responsible for the upkeep of such locations, it is important to make sure that cleaning is maintained throughout term times. Why?

To begin with, many universities will monetise their student accommodation in the holiday period. Lots of halls are let out to group accommodation websites or as individual holiday lets in some cases. There again, you might need your halls of residence to be in good condition after the students who usually live there have left because your facilities will be used by other academic visitors, perhaps attending a symposium or for a summer school. Leaving the cleaning of communal areas until the last minute – as opposed to implementing a frequent cleaning schedule throughout the whole of the academic year – will mean your accommodation becomes sub-standard and unwelcoming.

Of course, halls of residence take a great deal of capital investment to build or refurbish, so maintaining what you have makes economic sense, too. With a proper cleaning programme in place delivered by professional cleaning operatives, like those Clean & Tidy will supply, you can better ensure the longevity of carpets, kitchen installations and other fixtures and fittings. Why leave it to the students themselves or casual, part-time cleaners who do not have an interest in keeping your accommodation spick and span?

In the end, however, cleanliness in halls, stairwells and other communal areas is about maintaining a professional appearance. If these places are not cleaned thoroughly, then students may well ask why they should bother to be respectful of their wider accommodation and what they are paying their fees and rent for. Of course, cleanliness has a basic hygiene function, too. In an age when the outbreaks of contagion are only too well understood, providing clean communal areas is also something of a duty of care for universities and boarding schools alike. In this sense, you cannot really afford not to have a professional cleaning regime in place.

For more information contact Clean & Tidy on: 0207 739 4194