Creating Your Housing Inventory CSV

The Housing Inventory CSV defines your physical housing spaces: buildings, rooms, and beds. This file establishes the structure of your housing inventory so you can assign students to specific spaces during sandbox training.

This guide walks you through building your Inventory CSV step by step, including how to represent your building hierarchy, which fields are required, and how to avoid common errors.

Before you begin: You will need a list of your housing buildings, room numbers, and bed counts. If you use suite-style housing, gather suite names or numbers. If you have room types (like Single, Double, Triple) and bed types (like Twin XL, Full), collect that information as well.

Understanding the Inventory Hierarchy

Housing.Cloud organizes inventory in a parent-child hierarchy. Every bed belongs to a room, every room belongs to a building, and optionally rooms can be grouped into suites or floors.

The basic hierarchy is:

• Building — The physical residence hall or housing facility

• Floor (optional) — Groups rooms by floor level (1st Floor, 2nd Floor, etc.)

• Suite (optional) — Groups rooms into suite clusters if you have suite-style housing

• Room — The individual room (like Room 201 or Apartment A)

• Bed — The assignable bed space within each room (Bed A, Bed B, etc.)

If you do not have suite-style housing, you can skip suites. If you do not track floors separately, you can skip floors. The minimum hierarchy is Building → Room → Bed.

Every row in your Inventory CSV represents one bed. If Room 201 has two beds, you will have two rows in your CSV — one for Bed A and one for Bed B — both listing "Room 201" as the parent room.

How the CSV Represents Hierarchy

Unlike the Profiles CSV where each row is a separate student, the Inventory CSV uses one row per bed and establishes hierarchy through parent names.

For example, if you have a building called "North Hall" with Room 101 that contains Bed A and Bed B, your CSV will have two rows:

building,room,bed
North Hall,101,A
North Hall,101,B

Both beds list "North Hall" as their building and "101" as their room. Housing.Cloud uses these names to automatically create the building and room records, then assign each bed to the correct room.

Required vs Optional Fields

Every row in your Inventory CSV must include:

• building — The name of the residence hall

• room — The room number or name

• bed — The bed identifier (like A, B, Bed 1, etc.)

Optional fields include:

• suite — Suite name or number (if applicable)

• floor — Floor name or number (if tracked)

• roomType — Room category like Single, Double, Triple, Quad, Apartment

• bedType — Bed size like Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen

• buildingStreetAddress — Physical street address of the building

• buildingDescription — Additional building details

• roomDescription — Additional room details

Naming Your Buildings

The building field should contain the official name of each residence hall, exactly as your students and staff know it.

Examples:

• North Hall

• Smith Residence

• Honors Village

• Lakeside Apartments

Building names do not need to be unique codes. Use the full descriptive name that appears on signs and campus maps.

Spelling and capitalization matter. If you spell a building "North Hall" in some rows and "North hall" (lowercase h) in other rows, Housing.Cloud will treat them as two separate buildings. Check for consistency before importing.

Naming Your Rooms

The room field should contain the room number or identifier. This can be a simple number like "101" or a more complex code like "A-201" or "Apt 4B".

Examples:

• 101

• 201A

• Apartment 12

• Suite 4 Room B

Room names must be unique within each building. You can reuse room numbers across different buildings (like "101" in North Hall and "101" in South Hall), but avoid duplicate room names within the same building.

Naming Your Beds

The bed field identifies individual bed spaces within each room. For multi-bed rooms, use simple identifiers like letters (A, B, C) or numbers (1, 2, 3).

Examples:

• A (for Bed A)

• 1 (for Bed 1)

• Loft (for lofted bed)

• Lower (for bunk bed)

For single-occupancy rooms, you still need a bed identifier. Use something simple like "A" or "1" to indicate the only bed in that room.

Bed names must be unique within each room. You can reuse bed identifiers across different rooms (every room can have a "Bed A"), but avoid duplicate bed names within the same room.

If you have a triple room with three beds, you must create three separate rows in your CSV — one for Bed A, one for Bed B, and one for Bed C. All three rows will list the same building and room name, but different bed identifiers.

Adding Suites (Optional)

If your housing uses suite-style layouts where multiple rooms share a common area, you can include a suite column to group rooms together.

For example, if Suite 2A contains Room 201 and Room 202, your CSV would look like:

building,suite,room,bed
North Hall,2A,201,A
North Hall,2A,201,B
North Hall,2A,202,A
North Hall,2A,202,B

All four beds belong to Suite 2A, but Beds A and B are in Room 201 while Beds A and B are in Room 202.

If you do not have suites, simply omit the suite column from your CSV.

Adding Floors (Optional)

If you want to group rooms by floor level, you can include a floor column.

Examples:

• 1 (for first floor)

• 2nd Floor

• Ground

• Basement

Floor names can be numbers or descriptive labels. If you include floors, every row should have a floor value to maintain the hierarchy correctly.

Room Types and Bed Types

The roomType field categorizes rooms by occupancy or layout. Common room types include:

• Single (one bed)

• Double (two beds)

• Triple (three beds)

• Quad (four beds)

• Apartment (multi-room unit)

• Studio (single-room apartment)

The bedType field specifies the physical bed size. Common bed types include:

• Twin

• Twin XL

• Full

• Queen

• Bunk (if bed is part of a bunk set)

• Loft (if bed is lofted)

Room types and bed types are optional but helpful for reporting and filtering. If you include them, use consistent naming across all rows.

Room type helps you track occupancy and capacity. If you assign roomType values correctly (like "Double" for two-bed rooms), Housing.Cloud can automatically calculate how many students each room can hold.

Building Addresses and Descriptions

If you want to include physical addresses for your buildings, use the buildingStreetAddress field. This is helpful if you need to provide directions to students or display addresses in the housing portal.

Example: 123 Campus Drive, Springfield, IL 62701

You can also add a buildingDescription field for additional information like "Coed residence hall with dining facilities" or "Honors housing with study lounges on each floor."

Similarly, the roomDescription field can include details like "Corner room with extra windows" or "Accessible room with wider doorways."

How to Handle Different Housing Scenarios

Traditional Residence Halls (Simple)

If you have standard residence halls with numbered rooms and multiple beds per room, your CSV structure is straightforward:

building,room,bed,roomType,bedType
North Hall,101,A,Double,Twin XL
North Hall,101,B,Double,Twin XL
North Hall,102,A,Single,Twin XL
North Hall,103,A,Triple,Twin XL
North Hall,103,B,Triple,Twin XL
North Hall,103,C,Triple,Twin XL

Suite-Style Housing

If you have suites with multiple rooms sharing common spaces, add the suite column:

building,suite,room,bed,roomType,bedType
West Hall,Suite 1A,101,A,Double,Twin XL
West Hall,Suite 1A,101,B,Double,Twin XL
West Hall,Suite 1A,102,A,Double,Twin XL
West Hall,Suite 1A,102,B,Double,Twin XL

Apartment-Style Housing

For apartments with multiple bedrooms, treat each bedroom as a room and the apartment number as the suite:

building,suite,room,bed,roomType,bedType
Campus Apartments,Apt 4A,Bedroom 1,A,Single,Full
Campus Apartments,Apt 4A,Bedroom 2,A,Single,Full
Campus Apartments,Apt 4A,Bedroom 2,B,Double,Twin XL
Campus Apartments,Apt 4A,Bedroom 2,C,Double,Twin XL

Single-Occupancy Rooms

Even if a room has only one bed, you must include a bed identifier:

building,room,bed,roomType,bedType
South Hall,201,A,Single,Twin XL
South Hall,202,A,Single,Twin XL

Building Your CSV in Excel

1. Start with a list of your buildings and room counts

2. Create column headers: building, room, bed (and any optional fields)

3. For each room, create one row per bed

4. Fill in building name, room number, and bed identifier for each row

5. Add roomType and bedType if you categorize your spaces

6. Verify that multi-bed rooms have the correct number of rows (Triple = 3 rows)

7. Check for spelling consistency in building and room names

8. Save as CSV format

The most common mistake is creating only one row for a multi-bed room. If Room 101 is a double, you need two rows — one for Bed A and one for Bed B. Missing beds will result in incorrect capacity and assignment errors.

Verifying Bed Counts Match Room Types

If you include roomType values, make sure the number of bed rows matches the room type:

• Single rooms → 1 bed row

• Double rooms → 2 bed rows

• Triple rooms → 3 bed rows

• Quad rooms → 4 bed rows

If you mark a room as "Triple" but only create two bed rows, Housing.Cloud will have an incomplete room with missing beds. If you create four bed rows but mark it as "Triple," the room capacity will not match the actual beds.

Column Header Reference

Your CSV must use these exact column headers (case-sensitive):

Required:

• building

• room

• bed

Optional:

• suite

• floor

• roomType

• bedType

• buildingStreetAddress

• buildingDescription

• roomDescription

Common Errors and How to Avoid Them

Missing Beds for Multi-Bed Rooms

Error result: Room shows incorrect capacity or students cannot be assigned to missing beds

Make sure you create one row for every bed in every room. If you have 50 double rooms, you need 100 bed rows (50 rooms × 2 beds).

Duplicate Bed Names in Same Room

Error result: Only one bed created instead of multiple, or beds overwrite each other

Every bed in a room must have a unique identifier. Do not create two rows with the same building, room, and bed values. Use different bed names like A/B/C or 1/2/3.

Inconsistent Building or Room Names

Error result: Housing.Cloud creates duplicate buildings or rooms with slight spelling differences

Check for variations like "North Hall" vs "North hall" or "Room 101" vs "101". Use Find & Replace in Excel to standardize names before saving as CSV.

Room Type Mismatch with Bed Count

Error result: Capacity calculations incorrect, assignment problems

If you mark a room as "Double" but include three bed rows, the system will show conflicting information. Verify that roomType matches the actual number of bed rows you created.

Missing Suite or Floor Values

Error result: Some rooms assigned to suites/floors, others left orphaned

If you include a suite or floor column, make sure every row has a value. Do not leave cells blank for rooms without suites — either omit the suite column entirely or use a placeholder value like "No Suite."

What Happens After Import

Once your Inventory CSV is imported into Housing.Cloud, the system will:

1. Create building records for each unique building name

2. Create room records for each unique building + room combination

3. Create bed records for each row in your CSV

4. Establish the parent-child hierarchy automatically based on the names you provided

You will be able to view your inventory in the Housing.Cloud admin portal under Inventory → Buildings, Rooms, and Beds. From there, you can add additional details like amenities, photos, and floor plans.

Next Steps

• Creating Your Charge Codes CSV — Set up billing rates for housing and meal plans

• Common CSV Errors and How to Fix Them — Troubleshooting guide for import errors

For detailed field specifications and advanced options, reference the CSV Integration Schema - Inventory article.

For more about how inventory hierarchy works in Housing.Cloud, see Understanding Inventory Hierarchy.