Swap Residencies Between Residents

The swap residency action allows admins to exchange housing assignments between two students who are both actively assigned to beds. This action is especially useful when two students agree to switch rooms or when staff are notified of an informal switch that has already taken place, such as students swapping rooms within a shared suite during move-in but not alerting staff until later in the term.

Unlike the change bed action, which requires an open bed for reassignment, swap residency can be used even when both beds are currently occupied. This provides flexibility for managing mid-term changes or reassignments without having to unassign a student first.

Check Eligibility Before Starting

Before starting a swap residency action, confirm:

• Both students already have active residency assignments.
• These residencies are not in the past or already checked out.
• Both residencies are part of the same housing cycle.

Choose Residencies

Navigate to the Residents section of the admin portal and select one of the two students involved in the swap. Click the student’s name to open their residency detail page.

Click Quick Actions.

 Select swap residency from the dropdown.

Review Swap

A pop-up window will open, guiding you through the swap process. The first step will prompt you to search for and select the second student’s residency.

Type the student's name and select their eligible residency to begin the swap.

Note: Both students must already have an eligible residency assignment for the action to proceed. If one student is not yet assigned, use the change bed action instead.

Review the residency details and click Next.

Review any ruleset conflict between the proposed new assignments. After review click Next.

Refunds and Charges

When swapping residencies, the system first gives you the option to issue refunds. In this step, refunds are always for the full original transaction amount — partial or prorated amounts are not supported here. Learn more about transactions in Housing.Cloud here.

If you need to adjust charges based on a student’s actual dates of occupancy, you’ll do that in the Charges & Fees step. Refunds are most common when students swap into rooms with different rates. 

Example 1 — Different Rates:

If Student A moves from a double room to a triple room:

• In Refunds, refund the full original charge for the double room.
• In Charges & Fees, re-charge for the number of days the student stayed in the double room at the double rate.
• Add a new charge for the triple room, based on the actual dates of occupancy.

Example 2 — Same Rates:

If Student B moves from one double room to another double room with the same rate, you don’t need to issue a refund or create new charges unless the swap changes the dates of occupancy or other billable factors.

Refunds (Optional)

Add or remove any necessary transactions to fully refund the original housing charge, if applicable.

Charges & Fees (Optional)

Optionally create new charges tied to the original or new room assignment. Click Next.

Confirm and Review the Swap

Review the adjustments created during this process. The student's new assignment will populate and show any newly created refunds or charges. Click Confirm to finalize the changes.

The residency record will show now show transfer details and a link to the new space.

On the student's Profile detail view, click Residencies to access their entire residency record.

View the full residency history, including the updated original assignment and new assignment.