The Company
Hospitality at Work specializes in the management and maintenance of commercial properties with a particular focus on office buildings. The company is a subsidiary of Lowe, a California-based private real estate company with 51 years of real estate investment, development and management experience. Hospitality at Work combines hospitality with meticulous property management, creating an environment where tenants thrive and owners discover lasting value.
The Challenge
Paper-based processes
Lacking a centralized database of facility management information for maintenance operations meant time-consuming manual work and poor transparency into job details and costs for Hospitality at Work’s site staff and management teams. Further, tenants expect online services and are more satisfied when the convenience of submitting maintenance requests and making payments is available to them any time of day. Without a self-service portal, tenants were unable to enter maintenance requests and track them online, as well as view their accounts and make rent payments.
The Solution
Yardi Facility Manager and CommercialCafe
Facility Manager optimizes operations by centralizing maintenance information in a single transparent system, automating work order requests and tracking and eliminating paperwork that slows down maintenance techs and distracts office staff from higher-value tasks.
CommercialCafe provides an easy-to-use tenant portal for convenient self-service maintenance requests, rent payments, account access and communication that tenants love and staff appreciate because it reduces their workload and expedites transactions.
The Story
Automated maintenance operations
Yardi’s connected solutions founded on the Yardi Voyager property management and accounting platform have helped Hospitality at Work grow by consolidating operational data into a single system that provides one source of truth for company-wide information. T.J. Tarbell, senior vice president, leads the operations of several Lowe subsidiaries, including Hospitality at Work and the company’s building engineering and brokerage organizations.
“Before Facility Manager we had 28 engineers turning in stacks of paperwork to process,” said Tarbell. The company has streamlined maintenance operations with the integrated Facility Manager solution, which not only optimizes work order management on the staff and tech side, but also enables real-time communication with tenants, which has been very positive as tenants can see how the company is responding to maintenance requests with a sense of urgency. And when a work order is completed, tenants receive an automated notification with confirmation that the issue has been resolved. Managers gain insight into how much time it takes for a work order to be assigned and closed out, and executives can monitor the associated costs. They can also see patterns and frequency in maintenance issues that alert them to items and equipment that might need upgrading or replacement.
Self-service tenant portal
Tarbell said the company focuses on creating the best tenant experience possible. “Tenant satisfaction and retention can single-handedly determine the success, or failure, of an office investment. By ensuring higher levels of tenant satisfaction, we help our clients retain more tenants, which leads to better cash flow and higher property values.” CommercialCafe provides a range of convenient services that today’s tenants demand. Enabling tenants to enter their own work orders using the tenant portal in CommercialCafe has been a game changer, as has the increase in online payments made by tenants through the portal. Facility Manager enables the company’s engineers to quickly take care of maintenance requests and keep building operating at peak efficiency. “We asked ourselves, what’s the best solution that delivers a better workplace experience for our tenants? Self-service is key. With CommercialCafe, tenants can pay rent, submit work orders, track the status of those work orders to completion, reserve building amenities and more,” said Tarbell.
Smith agreed and added that their property management teams do a great job of keeping tenants up to date on what’s happening in their buildings thanks to CommercialCafe, which enables announcements and timely notifications that provide tenants with readily available information at any time. They can view building event calendars, communicate with the management team and access lease files and rent statements. “It’s all right there at their fingertips,” said Smith.
Solutions that support growth
Since transitioning to Yardi in 2017, Hospitality at Work has doubled in size and employs twice as many people. Yardi solutions provide a central location for company-wide data in a single system, with secure access from wherever their staff are working. Tarbell explained that Yardi supported the company’s transition from disparate systems to a single platform that connects all of the company’s services and employees. Tarbell said, “Having all operational, financial, leasing, maintenance and construction data in one database has been an important factor in our growth over the last five years.” Smith added, ” A lot of the institutional clients we work with love Yardi and know the software well. Roll-ups and consolidations are simplified, and transferring data happens with the click of a button.”
