Technology is adding value to our daily lives. It is so integrated into our society that it’s almost natural to take it for granted or overlook, especially when you are in the developing stages of your coliving space. From start to finish, you should always keep in mind that providing accommodation in a coliving space is more than just renting out an apartment. It is enabling a certain lifestyle based on your tenant profile.

Where building design used to be about construction, these days it’s about more than the four walls that make a room. Think of energy savings, environmental sustainability and a flawless tenant experience. Facilitated and amplified by the appropriate services that help make your operations run smoothly, the right integration leaves you with more time to build your community and optimise your space.

But, where to start? What are some crucial integrations you should take into account when developing your space, and how do they help you simplify your operations?

In this article, we share some of these best practices with you.

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Integrations that helps streamline operations.

The intelligent building of today is dynamic and consists of a holistic approach to a solid and future- proof tenant experience. High-tech enhancements should go beyond the technical aspects to contribute a personal touch and act as an extension of your services. Streamlining your operations with the help of eligible integrations is a great step to that higher goal.

For a thoughtful and personal touch, we ask you to imagine the following scenario that might be eligible for your business concept: you receive a new tenant application. All you have to do is ask your new tenant to download your space’s application and the onboarding process starts automatically. From signing up for billing cycles to adding their preferred laundry settings, everything can be managed from within the app.

A well-fine-tuned application should be custom made and built based on your operational needs, adding significant value to your tenants’ experience. With a customised ecosystem that has been constructed based on your specific business plan, you automatically spread brand awareness that grows your business.

The more daily administrative tasks get automated the more time you have to build your brand together with your community.

Speaking of communities: this should be the foundation of your business. A well-constructed community is a valuable tool that moves your business forward. Even though building a community thrives when there’s a personal touch, there are still a lot of peripheral matters that need to be taken into account. Often these tasks take up a lot of time and that time could be spent more efficiently with a sufficient integration in place. You can strengthen your community by offering efficient ways to communicate, such as giving your tenants a platform to give feedback, help each other out and learn. For you, this is a chance to turn this feedback into actionable items and enhance your tenants’ experience.

From booking a space, onboarding a new tenant, automating billing cycles to announcing events to your community - all of this can be managed from one application. With the right management software, you can build upon this application with the integrations customised to your business needs.

Some pointers to look out for when researching a system to host your integrations are the following:

• Often overlooked, but highly important: choose a system which is supported in your country (especially when there is hardware involved).
• Pick ‘out of the box solutions’ to hit the ground running when you are just starting out.
• Not all aspects of your tech ecosystem can be implemented by day one. As your tech ecosystem evolves so does your integration portfolio.
• Choose systems that support future scenarios and can scale with your business.

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Planning, Deciding and Implementing

When to implement certain integrations during the development cycle depends on the type of integration. Think of WiFi, fibre and connectivity services. These need to be integrated right from the start. Define what foundation you want to build upon and whether that meets the demands of your tenants. The ideal integration needs to take work off your plate instead of adding onto it, and enable your tenant to feel at home from the second they walk through your door.

There are a lot of factors to take into account when building your tech ecosystem as a coliving space operator. This process becomes significantly less overwhelming when you map out what type of tenant experience you would like to offer before you start your developing cycle.

Find out what technical requirements your ideal tenant experience needs to succeed and what the limitations are of meeting them. Are there third parties out there who can build integrations that overcome those blockers? Be selective and pick third parties who are like-minded, innovative and can add value to your integration portfolio.

Having a well thought-through plan in place before you even begin your developing cycle enables you to have a head start in enhancing your tenant experience.

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Integrations to Help Scale Your Business

Operations and scaling your business go hand in hand. Scale can also lead to more complexity: the more tenants, the more vendors, the more maintenance and therefore more to handle on a day to day basis. With the increase of service requests, and operations that are not designed to scale at the same pace as the business, a great backlog awaits.

Flexible third parties are key in scaling your operations alongside your business. In the case of a cloud-based access control system, you can start by using the solution for just a few doors. The moment your space starts to grow, the system needs to service flexibility by providing the feature to easily add more doors, more tenants and a system that enables you to access real- time events for multiple locations on the go.

Set yourself up for flawless scalability by choosing systems that are ready to fit the ever-evolving needs of your tenants and unforeseen situations that could force a range of industries to reevaluate and redirect their course, as we have seen happening this year.

Accommodations of today must provide services that go beyond just the physical walls. Implementing integrations that connect finance, management and communication is the smartest way to enable straightforward operations that scale in line with your business.

As a cloud-based access control pioneer, SALTO Systems highly encourages technological awareness within the coliving industry and can help you map out an ideal customer experience and user journey for integrating the suggestions presented throughout this article. With seamless integrations and operations, the more your community can thrive and the more the coliving sector as a whole will scale and evolve.  

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