Accommodation for Students (AFS), the student accommodation online property portal, has seen a boost in enquires for student property. They believe this is due to the recent complete revamp of their website.
AFS have stated that the upgrades, delivered by digital agency Code Computerlove, have made the newly re-launched website easier and faster for students and landlords to navigate, view properties and make enquiries.
Simon Thompson, Director of AFS, set up Accommodation for Students after personally experiencing how difficult it could be to find suitable student accommodation. Today, the site is visited by over three million students each year and advertises properties for 32,000 UK private landlords, 1,200 letting agents and over 500 private halls of residence.
Thompson comments: “This re-launch has been a long-time in planning. We have considered every aspect of the website and its functionality to make it as appealing for landlords and letting agents, and as simple for students, as possible.
“In terms of new features, students can now see blended search results. Previously students had to visit different areas of the website to see different types of properties. Now they can search and compare the options like for like.
“For landlords and agents, the key benefit is better visual representation of their properties leading to more enquiries, which is clearly working given the boost of activity. Coming soon will also be automated property feeds for letting agents and optional rent collection services for landlords.”
Rob Jones from Code Computerlove added: “The site has been transformed taking an iterative approach, focusing on key user journeys and interactions – areas delivering the most value and testing every release so that we were confident that the site was delivering exceptional results from the start of the roll out process. In addition to the hugely impressive increase in enquiries, bounce rate has also dropped by almost half and conversion is up.”