[dropcap]DCU[/dropcap] Rooms has 16 rooms on the Glasnevin campus available for open-bookings for tourists throughout the academic year.
The rooms are available on sites such as Expedia and are available to book for around €100 a night with breakfast provided on the Glasnevin campus canteen.
There are 12 rooms available in the Hampstead complex and 4 available in the College Park complex.
Approximately 4,000 students applied for campus accommodation this year but there are not enough DCU rooms to meet the demand and so some did not receive a place on campus to stay.
When asked why these rooms online were not made available to students seeking accommodation, John Caffrey, the general manager of campus residences, said: “These rooms are not and have never been student rooms. There are 16 visitor rooms on the Glasnevin Campus.
“[They] have always been designated for the use of visiting academics, family members of students who in times of need require a family member to be close and for emergency use for students in the event of a breakdown in a relationship with a roommate or due to their living space becoming uninhabitable for reasons of fire, flood or other extenuating circumstances.”
This is the first year the rooms have been made available to book online throughout the academic year. Caffrey said that they decided to make them available online instead of allowing them to sit there empty throughout the year.
They plan on using the money made from renting out the rooms to help ‘generate funds for the refurbishment of student rooms throughout the summer’.
DCU Rooms declined to comment on what would happen if one of these rooms was needed for an emergency, their intended purpose, but was pre-booked by a tourist.
The SU understand why students may feel upset over seeing these rooms being made available online, but they said that they’re not an option for students even if they weren’t available to book.
“So although students should be first when talking accommodation on campus I would say that these rooms are pre-booked for certain times regardless of open bookings to tourists,” DCU Students’ Union VP for Welfare and Equality Podge Henry, said.
“This would make it rather awkward for students if it was open to them as they would have to leave for these pre-booked times.”