Preparing Your College Campus Laundry Rooms for the Future
From getting good grades to juggling hectic schedules, college students have multiple worries — and laundry is one of them. Fortunately, more colleges are moving to on-site laundry rooms on campus or in dorm buildings. But even then, students still deal with long wait times, payment issues or malfunctions that limit machine availability. With assignments piling up and a busy social calendar to attend to, students have better things to do than wait around a laundry room all day.
What can you do to prepare your college campus for the future of laundry and create a hassle-free experience for students and campus staff? Let’s look at what you can expect to implement.
An Overview of Campus Laundry
University leaders put a lot of effort into the college experience, providing students with comfortable and safe dorm rooms, nutritious meal options and fun extracurricular activities. Students can easily wash three to four loads of laundry every week. And since it costs about $1.50 to wash one load and another $1.50 to dry, students need to budget between $9 and $12 per week for laundry.
Laundry takes a lot of energy and time to accomplish. These concerns can add to students’ frustration levels.
Broken or faulty machines: Some machines do not wash or dry effectively, while others might be completely out of order. Students often have to pay extra for another cycle due to overloading the machines or faulty, outdated equipment.
Improper laundry room planning: Another common complaint is the lack of laundry facilities on campus. Dorms may not have enough space, forcing some students to walk to another building to do their laundry or drive to a nearby laundromat.
Lack of payment options: Students pay for almost everything through apps or debit cards, and they may not carry cash. If your campus still has old, coin-operated machines, it’s inconvenient for students who don’t have enough small change.
Lost revenue: Students must spend more money to wash or dry their laundrywhen dorms fail to upgrade to new, energy-efficient machines. Plus, any revenue your campus might earn from the laundry room goes into the expense of running it.
Long waiting times: Students can experience long wait times due to faulty or broken machines. Some forget to pick up their laundry on time, while others grow impatient and remove someone else’s clothes before the cycle finishes, causing headaches for everyone involved.
Long repair turnover: Vendors take too long to repair or replace broken machines, leaving laundry rooms with limited capacity for months.
It’s Time to Upgrade University Laundry Rooms
Providing reliable laundry equipment and solutions on campus will lead to fewer headaches for your staff and students. Instead of adding maintenance to your to-do list, you can partner with a laundry management service provider that stays ahead of the latest industry technology. When you upgrade university laundry rooms, you receive the necessary resources, tools and convenience that will encourage students to use them.
Smart commercial laundry machines: Students no longer have to worry about overloading the washer or dryer. New technologically advanced machines can handle high volumes that exceed 15,000 cycles of commercial use.
Innovative laundry systems: Dorm and campus managers can monitor machines’ performance data, allowing them to make operational adjustments for their individual laundry room spaces.
Flexible payment options: With the newest laundry models, students choose how they pay, whether they prefer using smartphone apps, bank cards or a jar full of quarters.
Additional attraction and revenue: Modern washers and dryers have more settings, are more energy-efficient and use less water than conventional machines, which means more students can use the laundry room every day and you save money over the long run.
Connected laundry appliances: With laundry apps, students can get real-time updates about machine availability and alerts of complete cycles, eliminating long waiting periods and bottlenecking.
Service report notifications: Smart laundry machines and apps can notify you and a dedicated tech team when a faulty machine needs service, saving you the effort of contacting vendors while minimizing downtime.
Future of Laundry Technology – Trends to Watch
Contrary to misconceptions, leasing equipment and technology from a laundry management company can lower your capital expense and offer more support. These lease agreements often come with laundry programs that provide quality, high-efficiency equipment.
There are many other benefits to creating an on-site laundry room and partnering with a laundry management company to fill it with technologically advanced equipment.
Convenience: Students can access washing machines and dryers in the comfort of their dorms without driving to an off-campus laundromat.
Cost savings: You spend less on operations and upgradesby leasing your laundry equipment, while students save on out-of-pocket costs with faulty machines or using external laundry services.
Sustainability: Younger generations care about their environmental impact. Students would rather support energy-efficient on-campus laundry rooms than waste gas driving to and from the laundromat.
Student experience: A well-laid-out laundry room can build camaraderie among students as they mingle and socialize while doing chores together.
Safety: Students can do laundry in the safety of their dorm buildings where there are other students, security and resident assistants around instead of traveling to and waiting at off-campus laundromats.
Customer service: When leasing laundry equipment, you get the latest technology, informational resources for students and staff and industry-leading customer service.
Streamlined maintenance: Though your leased equipment undergoes routine preventive maintenance, staff and students can send a service request anytime they encounter an issue with the touch of a button on an app.
Recruitment: Technologically advanced laundry rooms can be an excellent selling point for students looking for campus amenities.
Prepare for the Future With Caldwell & Gregory
The future of campus laundry is exciting and filled with many technological capabilities, from smart washing machines to laundry apps as the dominant and preferred payment option for college campuses. Caldwell & Gregory offers laundry services for administrators, students and resident assistants, providing resources you need to stay ahead of laundry tech trends.
Learn more about our higher education programs by getting in touch with us. One of our laundry experts will follow up with you.
