Social Distancing Apartment Amenities to Enhance Your In-Home Experience

Social Distancing Apartment Amenities

The times they are a-changin’. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures have forced us all to adapt to a new way of living. This goes for apartment living as well. Long live the days you could just pop into the office and hand in your rent check to an actual human, which let’s just be honest the only reason you opted out of paying your rent online was so you could snag a few cookies and grab a caffeinated beverage as you waited in the lobby. Remember that whole working out thing? Most of us have forgotten since the gym in our apartment complex has closed. Since lockdown orders have been put into place, the “community” feel of apartment living has been taken out. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, now is the perfect time to be the hero and bring your apartment community closer together than ever before. You can offer these social distancing apartment amenities that your residents won’t want to see go even after stay-home orders are lifted. Keep reading to get a super awesome bonus amenity, which happens to be our personal favorite!

Virtual Classes

Virtual Entertainment

Weekly Food Trucks

On-Demand Fitness Subscriptions

Streaming Subscriptions

Community Competitions

Balcony Happy Hour

Foreign Language Lessons

Community Charity Picks

Bonus: Outdoor Theater

This list could go on and on, but we thought these 9, plus a bonus one, would be plenty to get you started. A friendly tip: Amenities that you offer already, which can easily be altered to accommodate social distancing measures, start that transition, like yesterday! Then from there take a look at the list we’ve put together for you and pick a few of your favorites and get to work! Before you start going bonkers over our top 9, plus 1, list of amenities, take a look at these pointers below that will give you some ideas on how to market your new and improved social distancing amenities!

1. Social Media

Design an entire social media strategy around all your social distancing amenity options. You can have multiple campaigns dedicated to different types of offerings. If it’s a virtual fitness class, post a small video clip on your IG with just the phrase “Are You Ready”, including the dates and times below. Again, the possibilities are endless, but if you want more ideas, you know you can always come to zipcode and we’ll get you sorted

2. Web & Print

Social distancing amenities have already become a selling point that prospects are looking for. So, don’t be shy with them. Put your amenity list on your homepage  for the whole world of prospects to see! Bold that list on your brochures! Put a sign outside your complex to let anyone who drives by know that you offer all the best amenities that social distancing has to offer! This will definitely help you stand out from the competition. Distribute flyers to all your residents with the new social distancing and virtual amenities available and how they can access them. 

3. The Buddy Pass

Offer a “Buddy Pass” for your amenities. As appealing as hanging out with your complex family within a socially acceptable distance is, we’re all dying to hang out with our other buddies too! For most of the amenities that we suggested on our list, you can find a creative way to allow your residents a pass to have their friends join them. Not only will your residents be ecstatic, but it’s also a great way to advertise how awesome your complex is! There will be definite opportunities to get friends of residents to sign a lease. 

4. Email

To make sure residents stay interested in everything you’re offering, think about providing weekly newsletters. You could feature a particular fitness class that isn’t getting as many attendees and try and get them interested. Maybe highlight the most popular fitness class. You could pick a resident of the week and write a small bio on them. Always promote the next big event taking place as well as a calendar of amenities for the following week. Of course, in every newsletter be sure to include any links or codes that residents will need to join an event as well as your website and social media links.

For help with designs and strategies, contact us and we will make sure that the hard work you put into pleasing your residents with social distancing apartment amenities will not go unnoticed.

1. Virtual Classes

Virtual classes can come in many different shapes and sizes, but for the sake of this post we’ll just give you our top 7 list as ideas for social distancing apartment amenities they will love. 

Fitness Classes

Offer a variety of fitness classes so that way all your residents feel like there is an option suited for them. This means offering classes for all ages, for residents that work 9-5, classes with various levels of difficulty and everyone in between. 

Yoga Classes

Same idea as fitness, but we wanted to keep them separate because the same residents who do your fitness classes may not be the same as those who do your yoga classes. Also remember, there are different styles of yoga and it may be good to offer a variety here too. Yogi’s will appreciate that.

Meditation Classes

Same thing as yoga, right? Wrong. Again, the people who take your yoga or fitness classes may not be the same ones who take your meditation class. And, well, right now, everyone’s a little on edge and stressed and could benefit from having an outlet to help them wind down a bit. This one is a must in our book.

Another great thing about these first three options, not only will you be able to offer your residents much needed exercise while gyms are shut down, but you will also be able to provide work to local instructors , which they will certainly appreciate. 

Cooking Classes

Cooking classes can provide an opportunity to partner with local restaurants and chefs for some good ol’ cross promotion to bring your residents weekly or monthly cooking tutorials. Feature well-known dishes at local restaurants as a way to further  promote your neighborhood and offer something exciting and new! 

DIY 

DIY tutorials are great simply because you’ll never run out of options. At a time when all we have is time and most of it is spent at home, DIY is sort of an essential. This could be anything from tye dying to scrapbooking or from building projects to home-decor. Social Media is a great way to promote your resident DIY amenity. Use the hashtag #PropertyNameDIY. Create a Facebook group where your residents and staff can post and share their DIY projects. Having residents share on social is a great way to help showcase your social distancing apartment amenities to the world

Master Classes

Give residents the opportunity to better themselves and progress at a time where we all feel like our life is at a stand-still. This will require you to get to know your residents better, which is great for CRM purposes as well. You’ll need to know what types of jobs and careers your residents have or desire to have. What are their hobbies, interests etc. 

All this information should equip you to pick one hour long master class a week to offer to your residents. It could be an expert video on SEO for your residents that are in marketing. Perhaps one week could be an entrepreneur expert for residents who run their own business or would like to one day. A sewing class. A hand-stand class. Whatever the class is make sure it’s relevant to your residents.

Speakers

Sort of in line with number 6, but slightly different. Instead of having it as a class format, you could hire speakers, like the Ted Talk kind, and have them as guests for your monthly or weekly talks. You can really go anywhere with this one. You can have a speaker that specializes in the way the mind works. Or a speaker who is an expert on dreams. Or a women empowerment speaker. Go nuts. Have fun with it. Again, look to your local community to find experts in the topics you are seeking to cover. Poll your residents for ideas of subjects they would be interested in hearing about.

2. Virtual Entertainment

Most forms of entertainment generally result in large gatherings of people. Well, COVID-19 immediately put a stop to all that. But, there’s ways around that, thanks to technology. We’re social creatures and we want to share our excitement and happiness with others. So, here is our top 3 list of virtual entertainment ideas you can offer as social distancing apartment amenities for your residents to share their happiness with the rest of the community. Of course, there are so many ways you can add to this list.

Virtual Dance Party

GO ALL OUT! Hire a professional DJ. Get your residents to invite as many friends as possible. Encourage them to decorate their doors and balconies for the event. You can even leave little goodie baskets on all your residents’ porches with basic decorations and fruit punch and party hats. If you’re feeling extra crazy, you can get pizza delivered to the main office and have your staff deliver it to your residents’ door without coming into contact with them. Seriously, everyone is looking for a reason to party and boogie down right about now. Give them that reason!!!

Virtual Concert

Music is something everyone can relate to. Every Friday night, or maybe just once a month, have a local musician play a live concert virtually. Maybe feature a different genre of music each time. This is also a great way to shine a spotlight on any residents you have that may be musically inclined. You can even plan a music festival where multiple musicians will play a few songs throughout the day. Make a whole celebration of it.

Virtual Stand-Up

Who couldn’t use a good laugh right about now. Same idea as a virtual concert except you can hire local stand-up comedians to do a virtual show for your residents.

We would recommend adding disclaimers to these events, specifically age sensitive disclaimers.

3. Weekly Food Truck

Pretty self explanatory. Each week have a different food truck to come to your complex and offer food to your residents.

Put tape down 6 feet apart to mark where people should stand

If your complex is quite large, specify what times each building is allowed to wait in line

Make it diverse! Each week have a different food for a different part of the world

4. On-Demand Fitness Subscriptions

Annnnd now that your residents have just stuffed their faces, you need to offer them a way to redeem themselves! Instead of advertising your state of the art grills (that you can’t grill on) that are next to your top of the line cabanas (that you can’t cabana in?) by your heated pool (that you can’t swim in), it’s time to start advertising for amenities that your residents CAN enjoy and from right inside their homes. 

A subscription to on-demand fitness is an awesome in-home amenity to offer in lieu of the gym. It’s a perfect solution for times when the fitness center is too crowded (or closed) or for those who like to workout after hours. Below is a list of 12 fitness subscriptions and apps you could offer to your residents. Check out the 17 Best Workout Apps for On-the-Go Fitness for more details on each of these apps and subscriptions.

5. Streaming Subscriptions

Maybe the same rules apply as for fitness subscriptions. Who doesn’t like a good Netflix binge here and there…don’t be ashamed if “here and there” is more like everyday right now. We’re right there with you! Netflix is the most popular of all social distancing apartment amenities because people are already streaming it – be a hero and pick up the bill! 

Also, you can add a column in your newsletter for most popular shows/movies streaming in your community right now. Just a suggestion. Here goes our top 5 movie streaming sites.

For more details on cost, features and additional streaming sites, check out From Netflix to Hulu to Disney+, the best streaming sites for movies

6. Community Competitions

As humans, at least American humans, to compete is in our blood. But, with all sport events being cancelled, how shall we ever get it out of our system! That’s where you step in. Offer some good ol’ fashion healthy competition to your residents as social distancing apartment amenities. Offer sweet prizes too, this will ensure more people will participate and bring your complex community even closer together! If you’re stuck on what prizes you should offer, check out our post The Top 10 Ways to Maintain Resident Retention and Sign Renewals During the Coronavirus Pandemic to get some ideas. Here’s a short-list of some competitions you could offer.

Fitness Challenge 

This could be for the most steps walked in a week, the most time recorded for dedicated movement or the most weight lost in a month.

Award for the Most Community Events Attended

Exactly as it sounds. Give notoriety to the resident that attended the most events that month. Write about her or him in the weekly newsletter!

Dance Off

Schedule a Zoom event where any resident who signs up gets to enter into a dance off. After all participants have busted a move, anyone who watches gets to cast their vote and the winner gets to bask in their glory, and of course get a big honkin’ prize from you.

Cleaning/Organizing challenge

Your residents can post before and after shots on social media and tag you in it. I mean, cleaning has never been so much fun! 😉

7. Balcony Happy Hour

This one is an absolute classic and you can even do it multiple times a week depending on apartment community vibe and participation. A happy hour event can also be done virtually instead of having residents hang out on their patios & balconies. Of course, checking ID’s would be a requirement if you are providing the drinks!

Make it fun and theme each event!  Perhaps this friday the theme could be margaritas and next Sunday could be a morning brunch special happy hour where mimosas are the theme.

Provide the drinks (to those of legal age) or provide drink recipes for the added perk of this amenity. If you choose to host this even virtually, maybe have a guest demonstrate a how-to cocktail recipe live on video.

There’s no better to celebrate your local community other than to offer local brews and wines at your happy hours. Right now, with the economic downturn, this is a great way to support your local businesses and build your community back up. It’s the perfect way to create relationships that could turn into referrals! 

8. Foreign Language Lessons

Offering a subscription to online language courses is such a move-in bonus and one of the most creative social distancing apartment amenities you could offer – stay out from the competition! Everyone wishes they could speak another language, but the hassle of finding out what’s the best way to learn one, the time needed to dedicate to learning one and then being able to afford it, is always a deal breaker. Right now, people have the time, you just need to offer them the best way and add it as a move-in amenity so they don’t have to worry about how they will afford it!

Check out, Best language-learning apps, software, and online classes, to get a list of some of the best language learning subscriptions out there. 

9. Community Charity Picks

You may think this one doesn’t seem like an amenity, but you’d be wrong. Most people want to give to charity, but never know which one they should. If you offer your residents charity picks that are not only relevant but community focused, this will help make their decision, thus provide them a service. Help a cause and create loyal fans – offer to match their donations!

Make a list of local charities that you’ve researched and give residents the option to add $1 and up to their rent each month, which will be donated directly to the charity that they’ve picked. We may not be able to advise you on different local charities by name, as the options available will be dependent on where you live, but we can give you some general ideas that are most relevant right now.

Families directly affected by Covid-19

Families who have lost their jobs due to the economic crises

Child-care for parents that still have to work, but can’t send their kids to school because they’re closed.

Nursing homes- they’re the hardest hit by Covid-19

Vet Hospitals and homes- they’re one of the hardest hit as well

10. BONUS: Outdoor Theater

This one is an absolute gem and by far our favorite social distancing amenity! Best part, you can DIY this beast and for cheap too! DIY Drive-in: How to Set Up Your Own Outdoor Movie Theater goes step by step on how you can set up your very own outdoor movie theatre. You can have so much fun with this amenity if you have the space for it!

Provide the popcorn and snacks

Lay down blankets for them if it’s in the grass. Be sure to lay them at least 6 feet apart!

Themes. Pick movies based on a particular theme and decorate for that theme. On Valentines day you could choose a romantic comedy and pass out candy hearts and decorate the movie area accordingly. Help parents out by having a kid’s themed movie night. Halloween, Christmas…you get the picture (pun intended).

Get residents involved. Offer a list of 10 movies, have residents vote and reveal the winning movie in the weekly newsletter.