The municipal council in Leiden passed a motion on Thursday which says that student hotels in the city should abide by the tenancy laws. The impetus was the University of Leiden’s plan to open a student hotel.
This is the first time that a municipality makes a decision like this concerning student hotels. People have been making a fuss about them for a while, because student hotels supposedly flout their residents’ tenancy rights. The GSb feel that The Student Hotel Groningen should also offer rental contract.
Points system
The GSb objects to the construction that The Student Hotel Groningen uses. The hotel is seen as student accommodation, but it does not have to stick to, for instance, the points system. That means that the hotel can charge 635 euros for an 18-metre square room, when according to the points system it should be more than 200 euros cheaper, says GSb.
President Christiaan Brinkhuis: It also means that a hotel can pretend to be student accommodation but at the same time kick out their residents whenever they want to. That’s just no good.’ However, says Brinkhuis, the union does not doubt the quality of the hotel’s services.
Over the next few weeks, the GSb will try to persuade the municipality of Groningen to take action. Brinkhuis: ‘We will have discussions with various parties within the Groningen municipal council, including D66 and the SP, to try and get a similar motion started here.’