Arizona State Students Get Lucky, Head To Luxury Hotel Instead Of Dorms

Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus has a record number of students enrolling this year -- more than 10,000 -- and the school doesn't have enough space for them in the campus residence hall. So a few dozen will somehow have to manage in a luxury hotel for now.

ASU's main campus is in Tempe, Ariz., but its downtown Phoenix campus has grown in popularity despite having just one residence hall, Taylor Place.

There were 120 students on the waiting list for Taylor Place for the fall semester, but KPNX said that number dropped to 45, and that smaller group will be living in the four-star Westin Hotel in downtown Phoenix.

"As cancellations come in, we will assign students to a permanent location within Taylor Place," Director of Residential Life Kendra Hunter told the Downtown Devil. "This is not a new process at ASU."

While students wait for a spot in Taylor, they will have to cope with a rooftop pool, bathrobes, free Starbucks and fantastic views of Phoenix. If students want to spend some of their own cash, the hotel also offers spa treatments and has New Balance gear for rent.

It's expected to cost the university about $2,300 a night, KPNX reports, and the school plans to house students there for at least two weeks.

"In previous years, University Housing has experienced similar situations at Tempe and each year has successfully placed each student in a permanent housing assignment within the first couple weeks of the semester," Marshall Terrill, an ASU downtown spokesman, told the Arizona Republic.

It'll be a rough move for some students.

"I’m going to have a hard time adjusting to a Taylor Place room,” Dennis Olson, a freshman who moved into the Westin on Saturday, told the Republic. "I've got two queen beds to myself now, but I'll be moving to a dorm room the size of a bathroom here at the Westin."

That's not to say students living on campuses these days are in dirty hovels. For example, Temple University's new $216 million campus apartments feature flat-screen TVs in each unit and swanky new furniture throughout the building. But now that an overbooked dorm can land students in a four-star hotel or water park resort, they can only hope for crowded dorms when their move-in date approaches.