I am reaching out to the community for some ideas on this one. One of our communities consists of 29 buildings located in an urbane setting. All 29 buildings are secured entry governed by a telephone entry system. That being said, it’s not all that difficult to tailgate someone into the buildings.
Our problem, the coin operated laundry machines are being vandalized and robbed about every other week. We have talk about cameras; they are too expensive. Card operated system: we are disposing the buildings and the current vendor and subsequent alternative providers don’t want to make the investment. Token system; apparently it’s fairly easy to duplicate the coins and it requires an upfront investment by the vendor.
My idea is to make the system free and pay a monthly maintenance contract fee. We would then work to raise rents over roughly $20 across the board on new leases and renewals. Not sure that will be 100% popular with our residents.
What do you think? Technorati Tags: Apartment laundry rooms, apartment marketing, tokens
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Hmm… $20 seems a bit high. In my market, you can rent your own units for $30 a month, so $10 a month cheaper but you have to share the units and they are outside of your unit seems like a pretty hefty cost to a renter.
How many facilities do you have? Would it put a strain on your maintenance team to empty the machines of the money on a semi-frequent basis? Then post signs that they are emptied regularly to dissuade vandals?
I think your idea of removing cash on your property is an excellent one and a trend in multi-family housing that is evolving across the country. By taking cash out of your laundry rooms, you are addressing not only lost revenue but also repair costs and sometimes additional capital costs (replacing equipment) as well as reducing the potential of liability with your residents.
An alternative to charging the $20 fee across the board would be to install a card system that accepts debit and creidt cards only. Card fees on micro transactions like laundry have declined significantly over the past few years. The challenge may depend on the demographic of your residents and who has a debit/credit card and who doesn’t.
If you are interested in obtaining more information about this alternative payment system or about the commercial laundry products and services we have to offer, please contact me at nmaclellan@macgray.com.
I don’t think $20 is too high. It’s free and available 24 hrs a day. How many 24 hrs a day laundry mats still exit in a safe area? How about a key to the laundry room and only those who want to pay a $20 monthly fee get access?
Also, could the landlord remove the money on a daily basis at 5 pm every day?
Look at the model that properties are using for Valet Waste. They are generally charging all new move ins up front for it and then ‘adding it’ to the existing population. Yes, you’ll get some pullback, no doubt about it. But it appears necessary and I am sure your residents don’t like the security risks either. Can you put a combination lock on the door (push button type) that only the residents have the codes for? That will deter others, for a bit at least, from hearing about and using the ‘free laundry’ at your property.
Hi Lisa,
Have you thought of installing a thumb print reader to the door? You can get one at https://www.fingerprintdoorlocks.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi We placed these on some of our laundry room doors for the same reason. The lower cost versions can only “match” thumb prints, but higher end ones can track historical users. Either way, when residents have to use their thumb print to access something, the assumption is that their idenity is linked to it. It brought our vandelism to a hault. Couple hundred dollars – great investment.
I like the idea of the thumb prints… also something a bit less tech-savvy than that… what about a few plain old fashioned (new fangled) security cameras? We had vandalism at the first property I was at, and when we installed video cameras, it was almost non existent after that. I have met some resistance on that with my current property, but believe the small investement into a digital setup with digital tracking/recording would be well worth it in return for less cost put toward replacing broken/damaged property.