During a season where friends and family are visiting your residents’ apartments, gift giving is in full force, and residents are making their homes cozier, how are you preparing your community to support residents? Here’s five tips on how you can get your community ready for the holidays.
Offer tips & tricks to maintaining their rental property during the holidays
Depending on what the weather looks like in your market, residents may need tips on how to stay warm during the holiday season while keeping the electric bill low. It’s easy to forget things like rotating your ceiling fans clockwise can help warm a room. It’s also always a good idea to include information on how to take care of their apartment during the cold winter months, especially when they are on vacation or out of town.
Setting your leasing office up right
The simplest way to get residents ready for the season is to set up decorations around your community. Not all residents are going to celebrate the holiday season the same way, so it’s key to find decorations that everyone can enjoy. Snowflake window stickers or decorative lights will make your common areas of the building feel more warm and inviting. Add candy to your clubroom space or keep hot chocolate by the leasing office coffee station for residents to enjoy on chilly days. Here are some ways to keep fair housing and the holidays in mind.
Clear the package clutter
With holiday shopping starting, resident packages are going to begin to pile up. Package lockers, rooms and leasing offices will begin to overflow as packages flood these common areas. If your community is experiencing excessive overflow, gather your team together to deliver packages to residents’ doors. This helping hand will be appreciated by residents, leave your on-site team feeling bonded and get those packages out of the leasing office. If you’re looking for a more permanent solution that will ensure your apartment community is clean, inviting and clutter-free, consider fully removing packages from your property by offering direct-to-door package delivery.
Bonus tip: If your community uses package lockers and there is a late pick-up charge, be sure to remind residents about this late fee. The last thing a resident wants is an unexpected charge when they arrive home from the holidays!
Recommend local holiday events
By doing some research on what events are happening in your area, you can find all sorts of winter activities. Light shows, ice skating, cookie baking contests, you name it. Sending out an email to residents with a short list compiled of different events is a great way to connect with residents and encourage community involvement. Leave flyers in your lobby for residents to take a look at, or let your local community drop a few in your lobby!
Canned food drives
What better way to spend the holidays than giving back? Choose a local organization to support and set a goal for giving. Through posters in your leasing office or emails, organize a food drive for residents to bring canned goods to the office to donate. Leave your residents feeling grateful and happy knowing they’re helping the community. You can do this over the course of a week or even up to a month. Provide residents weekly updates on how close your community is to meeting a goal and at the end of the food drive, send them a thank you email recapping what your community accomplished in giving back!
