Community is the key - TSH experience
Last month, I stayed at The Student Hotel in Vienna — the biggest hotel in Austria (with over 800 rooms) that welcomes students, entrepreneurs, nomads and tourists into its funky, colourful and artistic environment.
Is a hospitality concept with a blended offering for Students (PBSA) , short term guests as well as coliving and coworking.
My background is in art and fashion, so I could immediately tell that all the soft furnishings, artwork on the walls and accessories were carefully chosen — and the result is fantastic! The Student Hotel is an all-in-one solution, providing coworking offices, meeting and auditorium rooms, communal spaces — with fun activities including table football, pool and board games, an outdoor roof terrace, food and beverage facilities — at a lovely restaurant with delicious food and awesome coffee, leisure amenities including a gym, and a laundry room.
I spent some time with their Community Manager Intern, Henry, who gave me a full tour of the hotel. I fell in love with it all but in particular with the play rooms on the top floors, which I would highly recommend — they look like tons of fun and the design is spectacular as it focuses on very unique details.
I felt super welcome during my stay at the Student Hotel, and to top it, my penthouse room on the tenth floor had stunning views of Vienna!
The Student Hotel is a “buzzing hub”, and I truly loved how community-oriented they are. For example, their coworking spaces and auditorium encourages people from outside (non residents) and from the local communities to come in and mingle with guests and residents. They also have a wide range of events for people to connect and get to know each other (in line with COVID restrictions still of course).
Everything they do has a strong focus on fostering communities.
For example… if you know me, you know that I couldn’t visit a city without riding a bike around! The Student Hotel provides a rental bike service via their app, which is free for long stay residents. During my visit, I took a three-hour bike tour on the Sunday, which was organised by Henry together with one of the long term residents, to explore the new part of town, the university area and the Danube riverside. I was with a group of 10 long-term residents. When the tour finished we all gathered for a coffee and a chat, back at the communal hall to plan our next activity together — it was a great bonding experience and new friendship were immediately formed.
I experienced a real sense of community at The Student Hotel, which aligns with my passion for fostering community and with the Community Mastermind Series that I recently co-facilitated with Co-Liv, in cooperation with Sowebuild.
The mastermind is for global community managers, coliving and coworking experts to connect, share opinions and discuss important topics related to all things co and community building. The mastermind sessions would not have been possible without the right technology to facilitate the event, and this reinforced my strong belief that technology is a key component for building communities. This is also why Co-Liv have launched the Tech Community — to help operators chose and scale with the right technology.
The Student Hotel is an example of a hospitality concept that uses a wide range of technological devices, to help build a green building whilst staying customer centric. They’ve installed SALTO digital key for smart access control that ensures guest safety and security whilst also improving management systems. The keycard even says “Love is the key” — which I thought was a great touch and very in line with my passion for Co-Lov! The Student Hotel have also installed SALTO energy saving devices — which target water and energy conservation — and they’ve also created their own LAB TSG Collab.
This is not only important for the sustainability of the building itself but also meets the needs of their resident community of Millenials and Gen Z, who’re very much aware and attracted by sustainable environments.
This is what I call listening to your community!
A huge thank you to The Student Hotel for having me, upgrading my room and contributing in making my stay in Vienna awesome!
No doubt, I’ll be exploring more of their 10+ locations in the near future!
Do you wish to find out more about Co-Liv, the Tech Community and all we do?Please get in touch here
Intrigued about SALTO products and solutions? Drop me an email or schedule a virtual coffee
*special thanks to Lucy for her help, always.
