It's simply amazing the juggernaut that Facebook has become, as you can now check into businesses, comment on
Flying Kite articles, and reconnect with (or laugh at) long-lost family and friends. Yet, there's even more, especially for university students in Philadelphia. Campus Apartments, which holds properties in University City, now allows its student tenants to pay their rent through Facebook Connect. Campus Apartments unveiled this service in late January, and is excited with the response, albeit a little afraid of being poked.
Campus Apartments is able to utilize Facebook through a partnership between their existing online payment system, SmartClick, and the social network. Previously, the only way to access
SmartClick was by inputting an e-mail address and password, says John Ailor, senior Director of Web and Wireless Technologies at Campus Apartments. Yet, in a sign of how ubiquitous Facebook has become, Campus Apartments decided it would be easier for many residents to simply remain on Facebook to pay their rent.
Ailor outlines all that students can do via Facebook. They can "make payments, view (the) tenant ledger and submit service requests easily and more quickly than before,” he remarks. Ailor assures that it's far from a complicated process to sign up for the privilege of Facebook rent payment, as it should drag on no longer than a minute.
While the Facebook perk came only went live just a couple of weeks ago, Ailor boasts that already a few hundred residents used it to pay their February rent. No word on how many of these social networkers live in Campus Apartments' Philadelphia properties. According to Ailor, these several hundred users are among 27,363 active SmartClickers across the country. SmartClick also allows students to pay rent through their app on Android phones.
Campus Apartments has over a hundred apartments in University City that house pupils at
Penn,
Drexel,
USciences, the
Restaurant School at Walnut Hill, and the
JNA Institute of the Culinary Arts. Nationwide, Campus Apartments offers student housing in 23 states, including California, Texas, and Michigan.
The student housing provider reports no complaints about Facebook Connect among the few hundred who have used it so far. For the student Luddites among us, Campus Apartments still offers residents the chance to pay rent by check. Expect to see other student housing firms follow suit with a Facebook payment option. No dislike button needed for this.
Writer: Andy Sharpe
Source: John Ailor, Campus Apartments