What is Experiential Housing?
The Demand for Experiential Learning
Nowadays, it seems impossible to get a job straight out of college without a laundry-list resume full of internships, volunteer positions and semesters abroad. Driven by the demand for hires with real-world experience, employers expect students to wrack up “experiential learning” opportunities before entering the workforce — no easy feat while pursuing a full-time degree! Yet the difficulty of landing an internship or semester abroad is too often compounded by the lack of flexible, affordable housing in popular urban destinations.
Enter “Experiential Housing”
As demand for experiential learning rises among college students and recent graduates, so too has the demand for experiential housing. More than just a place to lay your head at night, experiential housing captures the needs of the modern young traveler: a flexible, affordable, move-in ready stay shared with other like-minded students and young adults; a place that fosters personal growth away from campus, while providing a supporting community in otherwise unfamiliar surroundings.
Simply put, experiential housing complements the demand for experiential learning, particularly among interns and traveling students, who might otherwise be unable to travel to increasingly popular off-campus destinations from Washington, DC to Sydney, Australia.
What is Experiential Housing?
Experiential housing goes beyond traditional shared living spaces, incorporating aspects of experiential learning directly into everything from the home’s design to the leasing process. Unlike traditional rentals, experiential housing is:
Flexible enough to meet the varying stay lengths of traveling students & interns; anything from one month to one year.
Affordable enough for price-constrained students, unlike other flexible but expensive options like hotels or vacation rentals.
Move-in ready with all of the furnishings, cookware and WFH supplies (like high-speed WiFi) needed for a quick transition to a new locale.
Centrally located in popular urban centers, often near public transportation, grocery stores and gyms.
Guest-centered in a way that traditional rentals are not. Experiential housing needs to take guest safety, comfort and well-being into account throughout the guest’s stay, with features like regular cleanings, electronic locks and partnerships with local businesses.
A New Frontier in Urban Living and Learning
This burgeoning market presents a wealth of opportunities for developers and investors looking to capitalize on the experiential housing movement. As more people prioritize experience-driven lifestyles and education outside of the classroom, the demand for flexible, move-in ready housing will continue to grow. By catering to the evolving needs of the increasingly mobile and globally minded experiential learner, experiential housing providers like Cortado are set to become an integral component of urban living, reshaping the way we think about and experience our homes and enriching the lives of students and young professionals through experiential learning opportunities worldwide.
Written with the help of generative AI
