Varsity Nest
Building trust in student accommodation through verification and technology.
The Problem
Students searching for off-campus accommodation face a fundamental trust problem. How do you verify that a listing is real? That the landlord is legitimate? That the property matches the description?
Existing platforms treated accommodation like any other marketplace — facilitating connections without verifying participants. This led to scams, disputes, and a poor experience for both students and legitimate landlords.
Students needed a platform where verification wasn't optional — it was the foundation.
The Solution
Varsity Nest is a verified marketplace where every landlord and property goes through authentication before listing. We built the verification pipeline directly into the platform — not as an afterthought, but as the core feature.
The platform handles the complete accommodation journey: discovery, verification, communication, booking, and payment. Each step is designed to build trust between students and landlords.
Technical Approach
Multi-tenant Architecture
Built to serve multiple institutions with isolated data and customizable branding while sharing core infrastructure for operational efficiency.
Verification Pipeline
Automated document verification combined with manual review for landlord authentication. Property verification includes location validation and listing accuracy checks.
Real-time Communication
WebSocket-based messaging system allowing students and landlords to communicate without exchanging personal contact information until booking confirmation.
Payment Infrastructure
Integrated payment processing with escrow-style holds, protecting both parties during the booking and move-in process.
Operational Reality
Building Varsity Nest was one thing. Running it is another. As operators, we handle everything: infrastructure monitoring, customer support escalations, payment disputes, and platform reliability.
This operational responsibility shapes our development decisions. Every feature we add, we also support. Every system we build, we also maintain. That accountability keeps our architecture clean and our codebase maintainable.
Varsity Nest isn't just a portfolio piece — it's a live platform that requires real operational excellence every single day.