This is a great question. When searching various apartment communities, all of the basic amenities begin to blend together. Everybody has a pool, a sauna, a gym, a bark park—which are all great. But for me, what sets one community apart is how well those amenities are maintained.
I once signed a lease at an apartment community sight-unseen (I was moving across the country, and needed a place ASAP). When I arrived, half of the amenities listed weren’t actually available. No bike share, no community garden, the bark park was a patch of dirt with a hole in the fence close to a busy highway. The security gate was broken, and the pool shut down for repairs.
Not a great first impression—especially considering the “luxury” label (and price tag) on the community website.
So before you begin researching potential new amenities to attract prospects, take a look at the state of your current offerings and if they could be turning prospects away.
Anyway—time to get off my personal soapbox and offer you some real life data:
I analyzed a month’s worth of chatbot conversations with our AI leasing assistant ResMate at one of our east-coast client locations. Here were the most popular amenity requests out of 721 total conversations:
- Laundry
- Balcony
- Pet Perks (not including requests for community pet policy)
- Paid utilities
- Security gate
What surprises you most about this list? For me, it’s surprising that the basics aren’t at the top of the list (pool, fitness center, clubhouse), which tells me the community website did a good job highlighting these basic amenities.