The Hostels area is for schools that run boarding: define properties, open applications, charge an application fee, accept students into rooms, and track who is in residence versus checked out or exited.
Application fees are entered in your school currency on setup; online Paynow checkout converts to USD on the server the same way as student tuition. Students and parents apply and pay from their portal when applications are open.
Permissions & roles
- 01
Hostel sidebar appears for users with hostel.manage (full) or granular keys: hostel.view, hostel.hostels.edit, hostel.applications, hostel.rooms.
- 02
Assign permissions in Teachers & Staff → Role groups. The Hostel warden template includes view and applications.
- 03
Staff can also be assigned as owner, manager, or warden on a specific hostel for scoped access.
Property setup (admin)
- 01
Hostels → Property setup: create hostels (name, gender policy, capacity notes), set application fee in school currency, open or close applications.
- 02
Add rooms per hostel
bed capacity, which rooms accept new applications, and gender rules where applicable.
- 03
Assign hostel staff (owner/manager/warden) so wardens see only their buildings if they lack school-wide manage rights.
Applications queue
- 01
Hostels → Applications: filter by status, gender, level, class, or hostel; search by student name.
- 02
Review each application
see application fee payment status (cash desk or Paynow), preferred hostel/room, and notes.
- 03
Accept (assign room), reject, waitlist, or mark exited when a boarder leaves permanently (frees the bed).
Residents & daily boarding
- 01
Hostels → Residents: list students currently accepted into a room.
- 02
Check out
student is temporarily away but keeps the bed (for example holidays).
- 03
Check in
return from checkout.
- 04
Exit
leave boarding permanently; status becomes exited and occupancy drops.
- 05
Boarding log entries help audit who changed presence and when.
Hostel payments (admin)
- 01
Hostels → Payments: ledger of application fee payments (Paynow references, amounts, status).
- 02
Cross-check with Bursary if you also record related charges manually.
Student & parent portals
- 01
Boarding & hostel in the student or parent portal: My boarding (room, roommates, checked-out callout), Applications (status and payment), Apply (when open).
- 02
Pay application fee online with EcoCash, OneMoney, or card when Paynow is configured
same polling flow as tuition Finance.
- 03
Gender on the student profile is used to match eligible hostels; update Students if placement fails.
🗺️ Navigation & Workspace Hierarchy
- Hostels → Summary
Occupancy overview.
- Hostels → Applications
Review and assign rooms.
- Hostels → Residents
Check in, check out, exit.
- Hostels → Payments
Application fee Paynow ledger.
- Payment Integrations
Enable Paynow for online fees.
Executive Advisory & Technical Best Practices
- Only accepted applications count toward bed occupancy; exited students free capacity.
- Checkout is not the same as exit — checkout keeps the bed reserved.
- Public enrollment can collect gender used for hostel matching — see /help/enrollments.