PadSplit’s award-winning co-living model aligns incentives for property owners, cities, businesses, and our workforce. By converting underutilized spaces, such as dining rooms and offices, into additional bedrooms and renting by the room, property owners create much-needed, affordable housing for our workforce and often see NOI increase by more than twice.
We believe it’s possible to do good and do well, and PadSplit’s marketplace makes it easy to optimize and list your home to receive bookings.
How does PadSplit promote listings?
PadSplit’s marketplace makes it easy for property owners to onboard and list their homes. Once a property is live, PadSplit goes to great lengths to promote it to approved and prospective residents.
PadSplit solicits Members looking for rooms through digital marketing channels, integrations with 20+ listing aggregator sites, and high-targeted outbound marketing efforts leveraging AI-based algorithms. PadSplit’s in-house marketing team — yes, they’re real humans! — are available by phone and live chat to walk prospects through the application, booking, and move-in process.
During onboarding, PadSplit Hosts can list their properties as “Coming Soon” on the marketplace, allowing Members to sign up for email and text notifications when the property goes live.
Why are bookings Important?
PadSplit Hosts generate revenue when their rooms are occupied. Faster bookings and longer tenures mean more revenue for you as a property owner. Increasing occupancy breaks down into two parts:
- Increasing move-ins
- Reducing move-outs by keeping Members happy.
Let’s examine how to improve bookings and reduce move-outs to increase your revenue.
8 ways to improve occupancy and increase PadSplit bookings
1. Review your property listing
Ask yourself what makes your PadSplit unique. Is it near a public transport stop? Is it close to a job center? Does it have a large and beautiful kitchen? Lockable bedroom doors? Now, take a look at your property title and description. Does it highlight these features? If not, you may be missing out on bookings. If you need some ideas, ask your current Members what attracted them to booking your PadSplit. Listen to their feedback and adjust your listing accordingly.
In addition to highlighting the property features, it’s essential to verify the listing information. Have you filled out the room size for your bedrooms? Is the room information, such as bed size and storage options, accurate? Review every aspect of your listing in detail and fill in any missed information.
2. Update your listing photos
The most compelling feature of any listing on our site is photography. Our Members love seeing multiple aspects of the property, including common spaces, kitchen, bathrooms, various photos of bedrooms, and the storage options in each bedroom. Members aren’t viewing properties in person before move-in day, so your images are critical.
Before scheduling your photos, review our PadSplit listing best practices. We recommend 10-15 photos per listing. If you’re unsure about the quality of your photos, consider sharing your property listing with friends and family and asking for their honest feedback. If you decide it’s time to update your photos, browse PadSplit’s Vendor Network to find the perfect photographer for your PadSplit.
3. Adjust your pricing
One of our Members’ top searches when finding a room is price, so it’s an important factor in occupancy. When setting your pricing, be sure to use PadSplit’s pricing recommendation tool and browse other active listings on PadSplit to gauge pricing.
Our pricing recommendation tool serves as a guide, so feel free to adjust the pricing to be lower than our initial recommendation. A good rule of thumb is to start pricing a bit higher and then slowly reduce prices over time if your expected occupancy has not been achieved. We highlight price reductions of over $10 of the cheapest room in a property with a green “price reduction” label.
4. Reduce your move-in fee
If you’re not ready to adjust your room pricing, consider adjusting your move-in fee. Hosts set the move-in fee for each new move-in when onboarding a property. This one-time fee, paid by the Member, covers the cost of cleaning and preparing the room for move-in.
Reducing or even eliminating your move-in fee can help increase your bookings. PadSplit highlights properties with no move-in fee by labeling them as “no move-in fee” in the room search. Members in certain areas can also filter by the “No Move-in fee” label. If you aren’t ready to drop your move-in fee altogether, consider reducing it by $25.
5. Consider adding additional property or room amenities
A great way to increase bookings is to differentiate your property from nearby PadSplits with additional features or amenities. Here are a few property and room amenities we’ve seen Hosts add to increase bookings:
- In-room workspaces: Consider adding a desk and chair to bedrooms to allow Members to work from home or make it easy for students to continue their coursework.
- Two-way locks: When choosing your bedroom locks, consider many factors, including cost and Member experience. Two-way locks are appealing to Members looking for an added element of privacy. Some Members are concerned about leaving their belongings in a room that doesn’t look from the outside. If you update your room locks, update your property move-in instructions and codes.
- Monthly cleaning service: Cleanliness is important to PadSplit Members and can significantly drive Member tenure. We’ve seen some Hosts schedule a monthly cleaning service to visit their PadSplits and clean the common areas, such as kitchens and bathrooms. Factoring this cost into your room price the same way you do utilities may increase bookings and improve long-term Member satisfaction.
Whatever additional room or property amenities you decide to add, update your photography and property description to reflect the new additions.
6. Promote your listing outside of PadSplit
PadSplit goes to great lengths to promote your property listing to prospective and approved Members, and we’ve seen some PadSplit Hosts take it one step further with guerrilla marketing efforts.
Consider listing your property in different places, such as Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. You can also join localized Facebook groups for community members looking for housing and share your property information.
Print flyers with your property information and a QR code and post them around the neighborhood, nearby job centers, or transit hubs. To print a property flyer, go to your dashboard, click on the properties tab, select one property from your property list, then go to the Promotion tab, and you will be able to generate your property’s customized flyer!
7. Grow your community through referrals
PadSplit offers two referral programs designed to help you fill rooms and empower members to share housing opportunities with people they trust.
Active Member Referral Program
Active members, those currently living in a PadSplit home, can earn $250 in PadSplit account credit for every successful referral. A referral is considered successful when the referred friend moves in and stays for at least 14 days. Members can earn up to $2,500 total through this program, with a maximum of 10 eligible referrals.
The process is simple: members grab their unique referral link from their dashboard at padsplit.com/member/settings/referrals, share it, and start earning once their friend qualifies. There’s no cost to you as a host, and it helps build stronger communities within your property.
Legacy Member Referral Program
Non-active members, including former residents, hosts, and affiliates, are eligible for the Legacy Member Referral Program. These users can still refer friends using their personal link and are eligible to earn up to $500 per calendar year in total referral bonuses. Referrals must still meet the same basic requirements: the friend must sign up using the referral link and move in within 90 days, staying for a minimum of 14 days.
Learn more about the PadSplit Member Referral Program →
8. Make move-ins as smooth as possible
Improving your occupancy doesn’t just stop at bookings. We encourage PadSplit Hosts to make move-ins as seamless as possible. There are so many ways to ensure your move-ins are as easy as possible; you can read about them here, but here are three of the most important things to consider when preparing for move-ins from new Members:
Cleanliness
Evidence suggests that a lack of cleanliness is one of the primary reasons for poor move-in experiences, resulting in early move-outs. The lack of cleanliness affects move-ins, and as the atmosphere of the house degrades, the house requires more maintenance, and the relationship between the Members deteriorates. A Member moving into a dirty room or property doesn’t instill confidence in their long-term experience.
If you or your property manager is able, visit the property ahead of scheduled move-ins to ensure cleanliness, or send a notification to current Members to encourage them to clean the common areas. You can also read about more ways to encourage cleanliness here.
Responsiveness
Maintenance, Member response rate, and move-in experience affect Member satisfaction. When Members are happy, they stay longer!
PadSplit offers a maintenance ticketing service that enables members to submit maintenance tickets directly to Hosts. Addressing issues in the home leads to longer tenure because Members know their concerns will be addressed. Check out our recommended guidelines for maintenance response times.
Ongoing quality assurance inspections
We suggest all PadSplit Hosts or property managers conduct bi-weekly quality assurance walkthroughs to ensure the PadSplit is in good working order for current and future Members. Pair these walkthroughs with an in-person visit to deal with a specific maintenance issue. You can address current issues in the house with Members before they become more significant and more costly issues in the future. Besides, it’s a perfect moment to talk to your Members and receive their feedback.
Final thoughts
As a PadSplit Host, the faster your rooms are booked and the longer they are occupied, the more affordable and accessible housing for your community members and the more revenue for you as a property owner.
PadSplit will continue to drive traffic to property listings through our marketplace and ongoing marketing efforts. However, if you’d like to see faster bookings, consider making a few of these changes to increase occupancy.
