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Need Creative Ideas from People Who've Rented
I work in the apartment industry and am bucking for a promotion. Well really I basically want to create a regional position and convince the powers-that-be to hire me for it that involves training, marketing and resident relations. I've already talked to my boss about it and she loves the idea, but we have new owners coming in (officially on Monday) and if it's ever going to happen I need to knock their socks off with a ton of amazing ideas for getting new people to come in and also making our current residents' experience so great that they never want to leave (even when we start raising the rent).
With all of that explained, I'm looking for ideas (from your experiences with renting or just what you would like) of cool things to do for both residents and to reach prospects. A few things I've already proposed and the type of thing I'm looking for include: breakfast on the go (breakfast tacos and coffee on the run for residents); birthday treats (like a coupon for free pizza or something on each resident's birthday); buying newspapers and putting our fliers in them and then delivering them on the doorsteps of residents at neighboring apartments; taking fliers and treats to the receptionists at surrounding businesses and offering them referral incentives (giftcard for each person they refer who leases).
We have occasional events for residents (like a Saturday breakfast with free gift wrapping in December), but they don't have as good of turnout as we'd like. So, what would you like if your apartment management did?What kind of apartment event would you like to go to? What would make you want to check out a particular community if you were in the market?
Sorry this is long, but I really appreciate any help. The job satisfaction and flexibility (because I'm also self employed on the side) this type of position would offer would be amazing for me!
Re: Need Creative Ideas from People Who've Rented
Some things that I have enjoyed at apartment comlexes are:
-free breakfast every weekday (continental)
-valet trash (where you just set it out and they pick it up)
-One place said they would come feed your cat and clean litter boxes if needed. I would LOVE if we had some sort of built in pet sitting service (even for a charge)
-Holiday dinners at the clubhouse
-Dessert contest at the clubhouse
-movie night in the pool with free hotdogs and drinks
I don't know if you could do this but the last two times we've moved we found the apartment through one of the locator services that will move you for free. This has been so awesome! That would be an incentive for me. GL!
I lived in 3 different apartment communities before moving to a house, and none of them were as fun as the stuff you're planning!
One thing I would've LOVED in apartment living would have been the ability to leave a bag of trash or recycling outside my door and have someone pick it up and get rid of it for me. Walking to the dumpster from a top floor apartment with a heavy bag was a PITA. And, at various times my neighbors would leave bags of trash or piles of newspapers outside their doors for multiple days--eww!
The last apartment complex I lived in had a security guard walking the grounds after dark/all night. That definitely encouraged me to sign up there rather than other similarly-priced places in the area.
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does the complex have a gym? if not, maybe discounts to gyms located close by?
I'm lame at these kinds of things;(
We actually do.
These are great ideas! I've already brought some more of them up and my boss is LOVING it.
If you have reserved and/or covered parking, you could offer raffles for a free month.
My old apartment complex would do a "bag lunch" day where you could pick up a brown sack lunch on your way out the complex in the morning.
Here's stuff our last complex had:
- an AMAZING maintenence crew
- holiday parties for kids - Easter egg hunt, Halloween costume party
- Singles night at the laundromat
- They had a nice clubhouse with a huge flatscreen tv, there was a raffle to rent it for free one night a month
- there were always cookies in the office
- the girls in the front office were very personal. They always knew our names and which apt we lived in.
- Referral program for new tenants and get a discount on your rent
- Every three times you paid your rent early, you got a $50 discount
- they had an office for tenants to use with two computers, printer and a fax
* just lurking *
If you made half of these things happen, I'd move back to Austin.
TGIA.. Id love to chat with you... would you mind emailing me findyourwayhomeinaustin at gmail dot com
Thanks
Please!!!!
Some ideas from our complex:
We have a monthly happy hour with food and drink.
We have twice a month brunches.
We have workout classes at the gym.
Sometimes they have treats at the gate in the morning.
We have valet trash twice a week.
*101 Blog*foodie blog*scrapbooking blog*
Thanks everybody! I'm going to use a lot of your ideas.
I'm proposing a whole 5-Star Concierge Service thing, including:
-Dry cleaning service (a nearby drycleaner is going to offer pick-up and delivery at the office, so residents have one less errand),
-Greenling Service (we'll accept grocery delivery and I'm going to see if I can work out any kind of special or deal with them to add incentive),
-Discounted maid service from the company we contract with
-Valet Trash Service
-Pet Sitting (not by us, but I'll work a deal with someone in the area for coupons or discounts)
-Design Service (I'm going to contact the decorator who did the model apartments and see if she will offer some kind of service where she'll look at what they already own and give advice/sketches on how to use it in the space, with minimal additional purchases to create a well styled apartment, and then see if we can offer a coupon on it)
-Weekly event calendars of things going on around town
Maybe the best thing is that we're looking into what it would take and cost to get the whole place set up with Clear, so we can offer free internet to all residents.
I also really like some of the resident function, incentive and treat ideas y'all mentioned. Sounds like an awesome place to live, no? Anybody in the market for an apartment? ;-)
Now I just hope we can actually implement them, rather than getting a pat on the back for being proactive, but not seeing results.
My suggestion was going to be a boot camp on site, but looks like it's already been covered. That would have been a huge incentive for me while renting! I bet you could find a trainer who is just trying to start up his/her business who would do it for free (because it would give them tons of exposure to possible clients) or for a small fee.
Trash pick-up was an awesome one too. I had that at the last apartment I lived in (on the 3rd floor) and it made all the difference in the world.
Good luck!