Lessons in Hospitality Branding—For Multifamily

Guest Post by Stephanie Shore, Director of Marketing and Brand Development, Bozzuto (formerly with Marriott International and Hilton)

Multifamily branding and marketing could take some notes from other industries—like hospitality. In hospitality branding, the critical focus is the guest experience; customer loyalty and maintaining brand reputation are the keys to success.

Each of these principles can be easily, almost seamlessly, applied to multifamily.

At an apartment community, the resident experience is the key to retention—and that’s why you work hard on your branding, your marketing, and your resident services—to bring it all together so they renew their lease (AND tell their friends).

Before we get much further, let’s break down the hospitality experience, and what it really means to create exceptional guest experiences.

Understanding the Hospitality Experience

THE KEYS TO HOSPITALITY

The key components of hospitality branding are as follows:

• Personalized Service
• Attention to detail
• Creating memorable moments

These each mean something a little different. 

Personalized service means you receive emails with a personal greeting; welcome cards in your room; and plentiful spa treatments, dining options, and room service items that are available to your guests.

Attention to detail means every single component of your guests’ experience matters. Cleaning the remote. Making sure that order gets to them on time. The TV isn’t too small. The bedding is noticeably soft.

Creating memorable moments is getting an inside track to what your guests want most. Understanding their desires leads you to bringing them the solution—while they’ve barely uttered “Do you have….” Short of reading minds, it means you’re anticipating their every need and making sure that experience wows them.

REAL-LIFE HOSPITALITY EXAMPLE:

For Exceptional Guest Experiences: The Ritz-Carlton

The Ritz-Carlton is synonymous with service. Arguably the best known in the industry for their standards of exceptional service, The Ritz-Carlton has founded its brand on the principle, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” Its Three Steps of Service are instilled in all team members, from front desk to housekeeping to management, and guide all guest interactions to create a noteworthy guest experience:

1. A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name.
2. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs.
3. Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest’s name.

Applying Hospitality Branding Principles to Multifamily

But how can multifamily properties adopt these principles to get improved resident satisfaction and thereby boost resident loyalty?

Use hospitality as the inspiration for your branding and marketing:

• Equip your teams with training so they can serve your residents better.
• Execute a brand strategy (think: brand messaging, brand differentiators) to deliver an excellent experience.
• Make sure that brand is carried through every element of the customer journey, from the website to the tour to the resident experience.

But, it might be easier to show you with a few examples of stellar branding, amenity, and service.

REAL-LIFE COMMUNITY EXAMPLES:

1331

1331 in Washington D.C. is conceived to exceed expectations, and enables a lifestyle that is unattainable at any other residence in D.C. The level of service at 1331 is similar to a world-class hotel. Every need has been anticipated, beginning before a resident moves in with the Move-In Concierge to Away-From-Home Services assisting with pet or plant care while they are out of town to on-site event planning. The menu of options even extends beyond the building itself, through exclusive partnerships. Residents of 1331 enjoy access to Salamander’s spa, fitness center and restaurants, as well as catering and events. Those on the Penthouse Level receive elevated access to Salamander and an additional selection of personalized services to create an all-encompassing services experience.

The Barrett & The Claude at Chevy Chase Lake

At both The Barrett and The Claude at Chevy Chase Lake, your experience is everything.

That’s why, in addition to the world-class design and amenities, both apartments offer exceptional services for residents. Available services at The Barrett and The Claude include concierge services, Away-from-Home services, in-home customization services, grocery delivery, room service, a garage care center, exclusive retail partnerships, monthly fitness programming and events, and the Bozzuto Welcome Home commitment.

Heron at Water Street Tampa

Heron offers you every modern comfort to streamline your life and enhance your experience. From a state-of-the-art fitness studio to a green-roof viewing garden to direct access to the Tampa Riverwalk. A bike storage room even has a repair station equipped with tools so you can get back out onto the Riverwalk in no time. Life at Heron is enhanced by the bespoke services offered to residents; the24-hour concierge helps to coordinate a variety of personalized home care services for residents’ comfort and convenience, including pet care and housekeeping recommendations.

Branding Strategies Inspired by Hospitality

Hospitality is hyper-focused on branding. With good reason. A strong brand identity creates differentiation, highlights unique characteristics, and emphasizes the values of the hotel brand.

The same goes for a community. A brand that communicates why it exists through its storytelling (throughout its marketing) creates a more compelling emotional connection than any run-of-the-mill “Lease Today for 1 Month Free!” offers could ever manage.

VISUAL BRANDING

Branding’s more than a logo. But that’s certainly part of it. Brand visual identity can (and should) be used to convey the uniqueness of the community itself: its interior design, its level of service, its features and amenities.  Typefaces can help carve out your identity—for example, serif fonts can feel more elevated and refined, while sans serif fonts can lean into a more approachable brand feel. Color palette can be used strategically as well: High-contrast neutral colors  can feel more elegant than, say, bright, deeply saturated hues. Unique visual identifiers like design elements and imagery can aid these basics to solidify brand recognition.

Marketing Strategies Taken from Hospitality

When you know your ideal customer—guest or resident—you can attract them based on what you know about their motivations, pain points, preferences, and overall lifestyle. For someone with a dog, you can offer on-site grooming and a grass-filled, shaded dog park. For someone who works from home, you can ensure your messaging talks about flexible desk spaces and high-speed internet.

EMAIL DRIP CAMPAIGNS

Targeted marketing campaigns ensure that your messaging reaches the right audience at the right time—email drip campaigns are a great tactic to ensure your messaging is sent throughout relevant stages of the customer journey. Automation makes this kind of campaign even more frictionless. For example, if a prospect signs up for a tour of your community, you can automate an email that follows up confirming key details, and perhaps pairs brand messaging with any applicable concessions. Hospitality brands are great at this—always staying on top of their guest messaging with incentives to book another stay.

SOCIAL RAPPORT

Additionally, hospitality brands are highly active online: social channels are another lever to tell the brand story, while websites feature inspirational photography and clear booking capabilities. Communities can easily do this with desirable photography, a thoughtfully designed site, and clear calls-to-action. 

Pro tip: Dedicate sections of your website specifically to service. For example, creating special callouts for your Penthouse(s) shows your dedication to deliver on those top-notch services, and differentiates your community brand from competitors.

All in all, every community and hotel we’ve shown conveys the high level of service at the property—starting from the earliest point in the customer journey. 

When everything’s done in the service of the resident and in the service of the guest—the goals for multifamily and hospitality aren’t all that different. To create a successful community, keep your residents happy, and keep residents at the heart of everything you do – it’s what hospitality brands do, and it’s what we try to do in every Bozzuto community.