Future Proof Automation for Property Managers

Marlix Student Living is a provider of high quality student accommodation. One of the properties that they were looking to market was a 32-bed contemporary luxury apartment in a really desirable location in Derby.

We were recommended by Arthur Online to help them with their project, and what they were looking for was an automated booking system to allow users of the website to register as an applicant and book a room as a tenant.

Students are able to book one of three room types. So depending on what they wanted, there was a gold, silver and bronze room type and they were allowed to book the accommodation directly online from the website.

Automation for Property Managers to speed up booking
The idea was to take out the need for any viewings, so if they booked the room, then that was held for them for 30 days and they could then move straight in. The whole point of this was automating a system to cut down on time on viewing, but also to drive the need or the emphasis to book quickly.

So, one of the things we created in the application was when a certain percentage of the rooms had been booked, automated messages appeared on the website saying, “50% remaining,” or, “30% remaining. Book quickly.”This helped in driving interest and raising demand for the accommodation.

Managing tenants
When booking, applicants were able to provide guarantor details, so this means that it smooths the process from booking to moving in, and the person booking the room went directly into the property
management system as an applicant and a prospective tenancy. As soon as they received all the due diligence and paperwork, they could then be converted very easily into a current tenant.

As part of the booking, when they went into the property management system as a prospective tenancy, an automated email was sent out to the prospective tenant to let them know what they needed to do in terms of sending information, identification, guarantor details etc.

Future Proof
The best thing with this project was that the module that we built for Marlix can be transferred to any property going forward. So when they get new properties, they can add them in the database and get bookings instantly from their website. So from a point of saving time, they’re going to certainly save time in the future now this has been built.