MSU students create website for accommodation outside campus

TWO Midlands State University (MSU) students have designed a website for the university that allows students to access off-campus accommodation online.

In an interview yesterday, the students — Anesu Chibve and Marvellous Nyongoro — said they designed a website to help their fellow students who would have failed to secure accommodation within the university campus to book online accommodation from property owners outside the campus.

“We have engaged property owners around the university and got the necessary information then designed a website so that students can book accommodation on line,” said Nyongoro.

He said the website, known as the Housing-Hub, has uploaded all the houses available and students would simple search for the houses according to the house addresses.

“We gathered information from property owners and have uploaded available houses on the website using codes and house numbers,” said Nyangoro.

“What the student needs to do is to identify an accommodation of their choice and the platform immediately gives them details on how to pay so that they secure the accommodation.”

Chibve, the web co-founder said they were inspired to develop the website after realising the challenges that students were facing in accessing accommodation.

“At the start of every semester, accommodation is always a problem to many students so our goal was to come up with a system that can help students easily secure accommodation in this digital age,” he said

Chibve said property owners were paying a certain percentage towards the maintenance of the website.

“We have engaged these property owners and they are paying a certain percentage towards advertising their places,” he said. “There is a fee that we pay towards the maintenance of the web.”