According to the 2024 Buildium State of the Industry Report, resident retention is one of the top challenges property managers are facing. One of the most effective and lucrative ways to improve your resident retention is by leveraging a resident benefit package.
A resident benefit package is an additional charge to the resident included on new leases that will give the resident access to a bundle of perks and services. Resident benefit packages are designed to elevate your tenants’ rental experience while creating a competitive advantage and new revenue stream for property managers.
At Latchel, we offer fully optional resident benefits as a way to create a steady ancillary income stream, in a market where rent prices have stalled and new laws make it tougher to increase mandatory fees.
Latchel offers a full benefits marketplace with wonderful partners that allow you to create the best benefits package for you, your operation, your demographic, and your business.
In this blog, we dive deeper into our partnership with Piñata, one of our benefits marketplace offerings, and how it can both deliver happy residents and a healthy bottom line for your business.
What is Piñata?
The idea behind Piñata is simple. Piñata is a rent loyalty program. You’re probably familiar with loyalty programs, whether it’s your local sandwich shop, Starbucks, or your favorite air miles or hotel program. Piñata is like that, but for on-time, rent payments. Every time a resident pays on time, that action is rewarded with points that can be used on amazing gifts that are sent to a resident’s home, framed as coming from you (the landlord or property manager), and each on-time payment is reported to the bureaus to build a residence credit.
Piñata is an integrated program that is driving the behaviors that matter most to you and your business, but along the way, you’re bringing surprise and delight to the renter and landlord relationship. Countless property management professionals utilizing Piñata have expressed the massive positive change since implementing this rewards program.
The Piñata program will transform your relationship and differentiate your offering. It’s really that simple. Renters redeem points for good behavior and that good behavior drives your business forward.
Every time renters pay on time, they receive points and can choose how to redeem it. That means gift cards that put money back in their pockets on everyday expenses like gas, groceries, pharma, baby pets, home decor and more. Piñata works with Amazon, Target, Starbucks, Walmart, Sephora, Best Buy, you name it. Piñata also offers home items. These are items that are shipped straight to the resident’s door with a note framing it as coming from you, the landlord and property manager.
Lastly, points can be redeemed for raffle tickets. It’s incredible when residents pay rent, spend their points on a raffle ticket and all of a sudden, they’ve got a big screen TV just in time for the Super Bowl or a brand new barbecue in time for the summer. That’s another part of the Rent Rewards program, which is delivering monthly surprise and delight.
How Piñata is Creating Long-Term Financial Help for Residents
Piñata is all about long-term financial health where they report residents to all three bureaus that can easily be turned on in the app. TransUnion and Equifax are part of the program. Experian is a bonus residents can turn on. All the resident has to do is pay rent on time. Piñata and Latchel will ensure that the information is captured, transformed, and Piñata will take care of all customer support, questions and renter education.
Piñata has seen a 50 point average boost in the first three months alone and over the course of a lease, they can see a 100 point increase just for paying rent on time, no debt. This is a really powerful offering that involves short-term and long-term benefits.
Pinata is trusted by 1500 property management companies and landlords and has served over a million renters nationwide.
Why do Rent Rewards Matter?
More and more we’re seeing that renters are looking for extra value and this is the best way to deliver it because if you have a powerful program already in place through Latchel that takes care of all maintenance needs and is building renter satisfaction, hopefully maintenance isn’t something that’s happening once a month.
Rent payment and the rewards and credit building benefits are happening every month and this becomes a touchpoint that your renters are loving and that’s reminding them of the benefit they get from living with you. We do see that when renters get rewards, you’re seeing a higher lifetime value in terms of referrals, online reviews and early renewals.
In addition, we’re seeing increased loyalty, positive engagement, and easy retention. And we do see from Piñata’s landlord customers that as rents start moving up, this is what renters are looking for – something to differentiate the experience and drive extra value with every monthly payment. Landlords love Piñata because they are able to deliver the behaviors they want to see: on time rent payments. But with Piñata, you can also customize many other things like lease renewals and event attendance.
Renters love Piñata because they’re doing something that they have to do anyway, but now they’re getting extra appreciation and celebration for that and it’s coming from their property manager. They’re getting an average of $120 in annual benefits and that’s if they just redeem their points every month. This does not even include any big winnings from any of the raffles or any of the Friday drops where they can get discounted gift cards and other exciting experiences.
Millions of rewards are granted to renters over the Piñata network and they’ll see about a 50 point credit score increase in the first three months alone. Piñata has also seen over a hundred points over the course of a lease and are seeing hyper-focused, really positive engagement. Piñata has seen that 50 to 70% of their users are coming into the app or going to the Piñata site for web experience, redeeming rewards, getting credit education, checking their score and more over every month.
Renters and landlords love Piñata and you’ll love the experience that you’re able to deliver and the results this can drive.
Piñata’s rewards are ones that matter in a renter’s everyday lives. When someone’s using a waffle maker, new wine glasses, delicious chai super latte mix, or their big screen tv, they’re reminded that they got this because they live with you. These are rewards they’re going to use in their homes. These are rewards they’re going to use in their daily lives, in their everyday expenditures. Whether it’s gas, groceries, pharma, or family, these are aspirational big ticket items that are on everybody’s wishlist and that will give you a huge boost in satisfaction and loyalty when one of those arrive on their door.
Increase Your Bottom Line with Piñata
To sum it all up, Piñata will help you drive renter behavior and that will drive your bottom line. Piñata has seen up to 73% of renters engaged every month, coming in and actively looking for ways to earn more points. They’ve seen a 10% increase in the number of units paying rent on time in the first couple of months after implementing Piñata. They’ve almost a 20% increase in the number of positive, 4-5 star Google reviews and an increase in credit scores.
The reports Piñata provides can really show you the ESG impact you’re having when it comes to either your corporate social responsibility reports, reports to owners and reports back to your renters.
Get Started with Piñata
Ready to level up your tenant experience with Piñata? Click here to request a meeting with one of their product specialists.
And if you want to learn more about Latchel’s optional resident benefits and how we can help pad your margins while enhancing your resident experience, click here to request a demo.
