'Genius' student saves £4,300 a year by living in hotel instead of uni halls

08.01.2022 - 08:23 / dailyrecord.co.uk

A student is saving over £4,300 a year by staying in a hotel instead of forking out for university accommodation.

Tigerlily Taylor shared her story in a now viral TikTok video, garnering 48.7k likes and 677.3k views.

Fellow students praised the 20-year-old for her money-saving tip, with others revealing they are in similar situations to cut back on university living costs.

TikTok user lumenhinata said “Genius, saving so much money”, while snapback3G commented: “I do that too but at the Premier Inn” and bethanyblissett said:“I do this too”.

Tigerlily lives in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and attends the University of Northampton, according to Wales Online.

She told MoneySuperMarket: “On average, the university accommodation is £620, per month (that's for a large ensuite room).

"My hotel room usually costs around £35 for the night and I only need to stay once a week so every month I spend £140, on average, for a double room at the Travelodge.”

She also revealed that she spends an extra £30 commuting twice a week. Three days a week, she is required to attend university with one of these days separated from the other two.

On this separate day she commutes in for the day only. Altogether she spends £260 a month, which is a whopping saving of £360 a month, and £4,320 a year, if she were to live at university accommodation.

Many students are now only required to attend university a couple of days a week with the rest being taught online.

Depending on how many you are needed to go in a hotel could work out cheaper.

MoneySuperMarket has also uncovered how many university cities this would work for by uncovering the cost per night of all 557 Travelodges in England, Scotland and Wales for every available date in 2022.

They compared this