The University of Texas at San Antonio Decreases Room Change Requests by 90% with Room Swaps in StarRez

A Campus on the Rise—and Under Pressure

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is San Antonio's only Tier One university, nationally recognized for generating student success and powerful return on investment. Consequently, UTSA is quickly gaining attention as a model for the future of higher education in our country. Over the last several years, UTSA has significantly increased the number of students the university is educating and graduating into the world, fully prepared to make an impact. But with that growth comes significant operational challenges, among them: housing.

The University currently offers approximately 3,800 beds, which is only 11.5% of UTSA’s overall student population. By the time housing applications become available and placements begin, the window to secure a room for students is very brief, thus creating complications with future placements and room changes.  

“We reach full occupancy within four weeks of opening the housing contract. It’s an incredible demand, but it also means we don’t have extra space to relocate students when they want to change rooms or roommates.”

-Bailey Farmer, Assistant Director of Housing Administration, the University of Texas at San Antonio

Turning the Tide on Room Change Pain Points

Historically, room change requests had long been a pain point for both students and staff. With enrollment growing and housing filling up within weeks of opening, there was little flexibility for mid-process moves. Students seeking to change rooms or resolve compatibility issues were often left with limited options, while staff were inundated with manual requests, emails, and case-by-case coordination. The result was a time-consuming, reactive process with few viable solutions—until the UTSA team discovered the Room Swap functionality in the Room and Roommate Solution of StarRez during a Global Connect conference.

“We couldn’t accommodate changes because we didn’t have space open. We wanted to offer better customer service around roommate concerns, but we needed a way to do that without physically moving students around ourselves.”

-Bailey Farmer, Assistant Director of Housing Administration, the University of Texas at San Antonio

After learning more about the tool at Global Connect 2022, UTSA saw the potential to bring it into their own operation. In 2023, they rolled it out for the first time. Now in its second year, Room Swap has proven to be a game-changer.

Shifting the Room Change Mindset for Staff and Students

The introduction of Room Swap has transformed the housing experience at UTSA, turning a once manual and staff-intensive process into a transparent, student-driven system. Let's dive into how students can now independently explore and coordinate room changes, reducing confusion, cutting down on emails, and creating a smoother experience overall. Ultimately, increasing student control and decreasing staff involvement with the room swap process improves both student satisfaction and staff efficiency.

Creating a More Empowered Student Experience

For students, Room Swap offers clarity, control, and confidence. Once they’ve secured a booking, students can access the Room Swap feature directly within PortalX, where a dedicated tab allows them to browse a list of swappable rooms. The listings are filtered by gender and Living Learning Community (LLC) status, so students only see relevant options. They can view room details, message other students, and coordinate directly to arrange a swap.

UTSA supports this self-service process with intentional communications throughout the housing cycle. After room selection concludes, all booked students—whether through self-selection or auto-assignment—receive an email outlining the Room Swap process, including a link to a helpful step-by-step video and a list of FAQs. This proactive outreach ensures every student is aware of their options.

“Room swaps put the ownership on the students and frees us up to focus on escalated issues like ADA accommodations or urgent roommate conflicts.”

-Bailey Farmer, Assistant Director of Housing Administration, the University of Texas at San Antonio

The results have been encouraging. In the first year, UTSA recorded 40 completed swaps—a strong foundation for a new process. Now in its second year, the number of completed room swaps is climbing even faster than in year one, driven by increased awareness and adoption across campus. For example, in the Summer of 2024, 107 room swaps were completed, which impacts 214 students prior to move-in. Resident Assistants played a key role in promoting the tool, often serving as the first line of support for students navigating the swap process. Students have embraced the tool not only for its convenience, but also because it removes the guesswork and frustration that often came with room changes in the past.  

“We’ve seen a complete shift in student expectations. They don’t need to reach out to us with every concern. They go to the portal first, and they know how to make it work.”

-Bailey Farmer, Assistant Director of Housing Administration, the University of Texas at San Antonio

Reducing the Operational Load for Staff

Room Swap hasn’t just improved the student experience—it has significantly reduced the workload for UTSA’s Housing Operations team. Before implementing the tool, staff were handling up to 300 room change requests before move-in. Each one required individualized review, coordination, and communication, all while juggling high occupancy and limited availability.

Today, those requests have dropped to just 30—a dramatic reduction that has freed up time and resources across the board.

“We no longer spend hours every week responding to emails and adjusting placements. We point students to Room Swap, and that’s it. Unless it’s an emergency or ADA accommodation, we’re not involved.”

-Bailey Farmer, Assistant Director of Housing Administration, the University of Texas at San Antonio

This has allowed staff to shift their focus to more strategic priorities, including managing the university’s 2,000+ person housing waitlist. Because students with existing bookings now manage their own changes, the team can preserve open spaces for students who don’t yet have housing—maximizing occupancy and aligning with UTSA’s broader student success goals.

Extending Room Swap Beyond Move-In

While Room Swap is most impactful prior to move-in, UTSA also uses the tool throughout the remainder of the academic year. During billing and move-in season (July and August), the function is temporarily turned off to avoid conflicts. Once the census date has passed, Room Swap reopens for in-year swaps.

The process for in-year room swaps is more manual, as staff must verify both students’ intentions and confirm that moves are completed. However, it remains far more efficient than traditional methods, because students are still empowered to initiate the process, so staff can focus only on final approvals and billing adjustments.

A Platform that Scales with Growth

UTSA’s partnership with StarRez has enabled the UTSA Student Housing team to meet the demands of a rapidly growing campus with confidence. The Room Swap functionality has not only improved student satisfaction—it has fundamentally transformed on-campus housing management.

By offloading time-consuming, manual processes and giving students greater ownership, UTSA is building a more responsive, efficient, and student-centric housing experience.

To learn more about how you can create a student-centric housing experience, request a call to connect with our team.