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Perhaps the most stressful event for a student moving to a new housing community is move-in day: parents driving with their son or daughter to a new place, trying to figure out when and where to check-in and start moving all of your electronics and plastic storage boxes, and figuring out where the closest TARGET or WAL-MART is located. What if you forget to bring an incredibly important item from home like your iPad speed charger or the cord that hooks up your 70” HD TV to your surround sound mega-system with the bass enhancer? What if you remembered to bring all of those vital items, but forgot to bring less important items like the lease paperwork that will allow you to actually have a place to move-in all of your “stuff” so your parents can quit circling the block?
Gretchen Smutney and her staff at Towson Place Apartments (TPA) understand these issues, and they have come up with a method that solves just about all of them: the “Golden Ticket” process.
“Basically, students who take care of their paperwork and payments before they arrive for move-in can just arrive on move-in day, go to a tent set up on the property, turn in their “Golden Ticket” that was sent to them when they completed all of their paper work in advance, get their key, and move in,” says Smutney, General Manager at TPA.
It’s that simple. “It allows everyone to take care of their personal move-in responsibilities without having to worry about any paperwork on move-in day. We try to make it run as smoothly as possible. Most of our students (the majority of whom come from New Jersey and New York) are juniors and seniors,” she says. “Once they’ve lived on campus, they want to upgrade a little bit and experience apartment life. We provide that style of living, but still maintain student harmony by working closely with Towson University if there are ever any individual issues.”
In particular, the Golden Ticket process is one of the things that sets Towson Place apart from other off-campus living choices. The comfort of a virtually hassle-free move-in not only provides a smooth transition for students, but also reassures parents on the drive home that their son or daughter is ready for the new semester.
“The Golden Ticket lets students spend more time unpacking everything with their parents, as opposed to worrying about having to stand in long lines to take care of their paperwork. The less time they spend worrying about the procedure, the quicker and more enjoyable their move-in will be.”
Aside from a smooth transition process, there’s a small bonus to the program, as Smutney explains. “Once students and parents have submitted all of their paperwork beforehand, they receive an actual paper ticket that they hand in on move-in day. That ticket also enters them into a raffle for a gift basket. So there’s a little incentive there also.”
It’s just another reason why Towson Place Apartments continues to lead the way in student relationships, satisfaction with on-site management, and innovations that lead to many satisfied TPA residents who attend Towson University.
According to Smutney, “When move-in day goes well, the whole resident relationship starts off on a really positive basis for the resident, the parents, and the on-site staff. It can be one of the biggest factors in developing and maintaining high resident satisfaction during their entire time to live with us.” The moral of this story is that the less time in a line to get your apartment keys and more time to shop at Target with your parents in tow, is a very good thing!
