If you scrambled for a place in a hall of residence some years ago, your recollection of your room will probably be of a pock-marked cell with monastic undertones, communal lavatories and a shower rota on disco nights, followed by a repast of questionable culinary provenance.
You might be unlikely to go out of your way to re-enact the experience 20 years on, other than in the nostalgic hope of reliving the days of mug mountains and Che Guevara posters. But today's universities and colleges are competing with great success on the commercial tourism market and a growing number of travellers have cottoned on to the fact that for less than the price of a standard guest house or hotel room they can get their heads down in relative comfort and wake up in the heart of a historic city to a recognisably English breakfast.
Many of the older universities occupy city centre sites that hotel chains can only dream about. These would be empty for 20 weeks a year were it not for the influx of confer ences and groups and, increasingly, tourists.
The University of Durham has been letting rooms to tourists for more than 25 years, says Dawn Hunter-Ellis, leisure and marketing manager for the university's conference and tourism office. 'It has grown over the past five years with the addition of en suite facilities for students, which makes us more commercially attractive.' Of the university's 4,000 beds, 600 are en suite, as are all 450 at the Stockton-on-Tees site.
For singles the universities offer particularly good deals, primarily geared up as they are to rooming single students. With an en suite room and breakfast costing about £30 at Durham, a night or two at the university is, for many singles, a better proposition than the traditional hotel back bedroom.
Tour operators like Saga, with a high percentage of singles, have patronised campuses such as Durham for years. Others take more persuasion. 'A lot of operators are still not prepared to consider student accommodation,' admits Hunter-Ellis. 'There's still a perception that it's going to be a bit dormitory-like and basic. When they see the rooms they are pleasantly surprised.'
Colleges may ask for full payment in advance, or a deposit, and visitors are checked in as normal. Two organisations promote the facilities nationwide: the British Universities Accommodation Consortium represents 64 universities, of which about 50 take individual bookings and Connect Venues has 96 sites.
On the books of Connect Venues is the College of Ripon and York St John, where bed and breakfast costs £25 per person per night. The consortium has University College, Chichester, where a single en suite room with breakfast costs £32.
Each institution handles its own bookings and presents its own profile, sometimes with refreshing candour. 'Our halls are not hotels,' declares University College, London, but we offer clean and comfortable accommodation at budget prices.' Sounds fine; maybe you have to supply your own posters.
• British Universities Accommodation Consortium, PO Box 1924, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD (0115 950 4571)
e-mail:buac@nottingham.ac.uk
• Connect Venues, The Workstation, Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX (0114 249 3090)
www.connectvenues.co.uk
e-mail: info@connectvenues.co.uk
