Journal Student Living Delivers a One-Stop Shop Student Portal with StarRez

Starting Fresh with Lessons Learned

After using a different solution, Journal switched to StarRez in 2019. The change happened quickly in Journal's first year of operations, and by 2023, after selling two properties and launching a new one, the team had a rare opportunity: a chance to enhance and reconfigure their StarRez setup to reflect everything they’d learnt since their initial implementation.

"It was a clean slate in the best way," said Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living. "We kept our StarRez system, but we took the opportunity to rethink our configurations and optimise our workflows. From 2019 to 2024, we had grown so much. We knew exactly what we wanted, and StarRez gave us the flexibility and support to bring that vision to life."

A Portal That Works for Everyone

Journal’s primary challenge is serving international students who need clear, accessible information, often from across the globe. "We needed to make the resident portal a one-stop shop," said Fréville. "We focused on making it easy to understand and usable for all students, regardless of background."

By redesigning their StarRez portal, Journal dramatically reduced the time spent collecting pre-arrival information.  

"We used to do a lot of chasing; emails, texts, phone calls. Now students complete everything in the portal. It’s reduced our chasing time by about 60%."

- Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living

This focus on student autonomy had a ripple effect: less friction for residents and more efficiency for staff. "When our instructions were clearer, we got fewer questions. Students could do everything themselves."

Automations That Keep Teams Focused

With a lean team and growing responsibilities, automation became essential. Journal uses StarRez's Email Scheduler and reporting capabilities to automate targeted communication.  

"Automation runs quietly in the background, keeping everything on track without the need for constant oversight."

- Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living

By using reports to pull specific student groups and sending automated emails based on status, the team reduced their outbound communication workload by at least 50%.

Dashboards also play a critical role. "We have dashboards for everything," said Fréville. "Now, instead of emailing back and forth to ask, ‘what’s going on with this student?’ we can all see the same live data."

Payments and Paperwork, Now Paperless

Journal also transformed its payment processes with the implementation of BPOINT and direct debits via StarRez. Before, staff manually entered bank details and handled bounce-backs. Now, payments run through a tokenised portal process that’s secure and automated.

"It used to be a full day to run payments. Now it's a half day and errors dropped from 20% to 5%. It’s been a game changer."

- Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living

The shift to digital documentation has also been significant. "We integrated DocuSign, and that reduced 70–80% of our manual work," she said. "Students sign digitally, and documents attach automatically to their profiles. We don’t touch them again."

The result? An operation that’s 80% paperless.

Scaling Seamlessly Across States

With two more properties now under development, including Journal’s first property outside Victoria, the team is focused on creating systems that support centralised operations across locations. That means building consistency and resilience into every workflow, with StarRez directly partnering to provide expert guidance and ensure long-term success.

"We’re planning now for how we support a property we can’t physically see every day. StarRez is a huge part of that. We’ve worked closely with our account managers to configure things for scalability."

- Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living

Learning from the broader StarRez community has also been instrumental in shaping Journal’s cross-regional strategy. "After attending a StarRez Connect event, we made plans to update how we track incidents based on what others shared," Fréville explained. "Hearing how other organisations structure their systems, especially when operating across multiple locations, gave us concrete ideas for improving clarity, consistency, and responsiveness. That’s the value of the community, you’re not alone."

Advice for Others: Commit to the Portal

When asked what she’d tell other PBSA operators, Fréville doesn’t hesitate:  

"Make the portal your one-stop shop. Test it. Make sure students understand it. The more self-service you allow, the more time you save."

- Natalie Fréville, Business and Systems Manager at Journal Student Living

And for Fréville, StarRez support is always there when she needs it. "StarCare is my best friend," she laughed. "I never have to pick up the phone. The help is always there."

With a streamlined system, empowered students, and a team aligned on process, Journal Student Living is well-positioned to grow and deliver an exceptional resident experience every step of the way.

Learn more about how StarRez can help you streamline operations and improve the resident experience.