Spaceflow's payments functionality opens up completely new opportunities for landlords

Update 2022: Spaceflow payments are currently being rebuilt and will be available in 2023.

Since we launched, we've identified a handful of our platform's most-liked features. Our newsfeed, services listings, and profile space are the top three most interesting features for our occupiers.

We've just added another feature that we expect our users will love. Particularly for landlords, our new payment functionality opens up a whole new level of opportunity for our partner buildings. Read on for some of the most exciting office and apartment use cases for our new payment feature!

1. Events

Available since December 2019
Regardless of the type of building, our users can now run and attend all sorts of paid events without friction. Sure, free events are great, but the reality of property management budgeting means that they can only go so far. Free events run by buildings tend to be either smaller, with less interesting food, drinks, and activity choices, or larger and with more interesting highlights, but less frequent every year.

Paid events change the paradigm entirely. While it might seem counterintuitive to offer paid events at the office or apartment complex, the reality is that people value activities that pay for, more.

Making them that much more convenient by bringing them to the workplace or home, not only makes them easier to attend but shows the clear value for tenants regardless of the market. With paid events, property managers can up the ante with more interesting activities, better snacks and drinks, and even offsite attractions, such as group outings to breweries, sporting events, or museums, or virtual events like yoga classes or workout session.

They can also offer paid on-site fitness, art, or even professional classes on a more regular schedule than what budgets would allow for with free classes. Each of these things demonstrate clear value for the property, and each of them are made that much more possible with a native payment platform.

2. Amenities

Available since March 2020
What's more, commercial buildings owners have a chance to rent out their common areas to outside companies and organizations, whether for parties, conferences, or whatever else. This gives owners a chance to activate and monetize their seldom-used spaces in a way that builds community for both tenants and guests.

In the residential sector, you can streamline payments for laundry boxes, bikes, parking spots or any equipment you provide for a fee: cleaning and repairing tools, entertainment amenities like board games or PlayStation, and sports equipment.

3. Services

Second, having a native payment platform will facilitate landlords offering value-add services. This is applicable to both residential and office properties. The trend towards additional amenities is well-known and widely discussed, with property owners at both office and residential properties adding things like dry cleaning services, personal training, and dog walking, either themselves or, in many cases, with vendors.

In the future, our payment platform will make it easier for landlords to expand these service offerings, potentially running in-house some of the things that they would have previously hired a third-party vendor to do. It's will be possible, for instance, for Spaceflow partner properties to offer things like in-unit cleaning services, grocery shopping, or even data and connectivity solutions, all without leaving the Spaceflow ecosystem.

4. Food

That brings us to another payment platform use case. It is already possible for Spaceflow's partner properties to routinely take food orders from tenants. In the future, we will also add a payment functionality for this kind of transaction.

This could be used as a perk or a value-add service based on the situation. Food makes for a fantastic mood booster, and having good eats available for routine delivery can ease the burden for busy professionals and office administrators alike, as well as showing a clear example of the value that a given property brings to its occupants

At the end of the day, tech tools like ours are critical to good property experiences, but good data and a strong human element are also important. Read more on that here.

The reality of our payment platform is that whether owners are looking to demonstrate value to tenants or monetize their space in ways previously impossible, we're ushering in a new realm of possibility for our owner partners. Regardless of whether you're active in residential or office real estate, you should spend some time exploring the opportunities of native payment processing within Spaceflow's interface. The only limit is creativity.

First published, January 15th 2020.