5 Ways To Save On Your Concierge Services Costs

For many multi-family condo and apartment buildings, having concierge services is essential. 

As the first point of contact in many cases, the concierge sets the mood for residents and guests who enter the community. They’re the friendly gatekeeper, typically tasked with receiving packages, managing parking and building access for guests, and providing security and assistance to the residents when needed.

They’re also one of the largest expenses incurred by management companies every year.

In some of the largest cities across Canada and the USA, the price of front desk concierge services can average anywhere from $25-35 per hour. For many of these buildings, a concierge is required on-site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means that over the course of a week, 24 hour on-site concierge services can cost management anywhere from $4000 to $6000.

Over the course of a year, that’s well over $200,000.

And while it is hard to quantify the value a front-desk concierge brings to a community, finding a more economical way to provide these services (inclusive of security) can be a very effective way to reduce operational expenses, and add thousands to your bottom line. 

Here are 5 different ways that you can save on your concierge services costs, without sacrificing security.

Intercom System

Intercom systems or lobby phones are an effective way to manage access into your building, while also putting some of the responsibility into the hands of residents. 

With the intercom system, your residents are able to help manage which guests enter the community. Calling from the intercom system to their phones allows residents to grant building access to visitors when they arrive, acting as a security checkpoint for those venturing to enter. 

For those that see significantly reduced building activity during non-peaks hours such as nights or on weekends, the inclusion of a lobby phone to vet building access can eliminate the need for a 24 hour concierge.  

That is, if you’re comfortable leaving the responsibility to the residents themselves to ensure they know who they’re letting in.

Floor Keys 

Requiring fobs or key cards to access certain building floors is a solution already seen in many buildings today. When paired with a lobby phone, this can be an excellent way to reduce the staff hours of your concierge during non-peak times, and save money on your annual expense. 

Despite lobby phones helping the residents control which guests enter the building, once the door is open it’s easy for unwanted visitors to trail others as they enter. By requiring a fob or key card to access certain building floors, you’re able to keep strangers in the lobby, leaving them with nowhere else to go but out. 

Security Cameras 

While the initial capital expenditure may exceed that of the lobby phone and floor keys, security cameras are another effective way to make sure you always have eyes on your building, even when your concierge might not. 

With security cameras, you’re able to monitor public areas of the community, which are typically the highest-trafficked areas. When visible, they act as a strong deterrent for unauthorized building access or vandalism, and make it easier to identify and deal with issues in the case that they do occur. 

For communities that see reduced building activity during non-peak hours, combining security cameras with a lobby phone or floor keys can in fact provide the necessary precautions to justify eliminating the weekend or late-night concierge shift all together. Eliminating a night shift can save you an estimated $50,000 a year. Eliminating weekend shifts can save nearly as much.

Virtual Concierge

With more and more interactions becoming virtual, many developers and management companies are playing with the idea of using this shift to eliminate their on-site concierge all-together. 

Residential multi-family developer Tridel was one of the first companies to experiment with shifting to a virtual concierge in some of their buildings. Through security cameras, voice technology and remote access control, developers and management companies are able to equip their remote workers with the same capabilities as an on-site concierge. They can communicate with the guests and residents, unlock doors, and keep an eye on the community while also covering a much larger area than a single on-site concierge. 

The biggest benefit to this alternative, and where the real costs savings come in, is when the virtual concierge starts monitoring more than one building at a time. 

As earlier mentioned, eliminating a concierge night-shift from one building can save you upwards of $50,000 a year. Weekend shifts can save you nearly as much. Now imagine eliminating those overnight and weekend concierge shifts from your entire portfolio. Over the course of a year, that can total hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational savings.

For portfolios of smaller buildings as well where there are too few residents to afford an on-site concierge, a virtual concierge is a cost-effective means of adding a personalized and secure touch to all your communities. 

1VALET

How about all of the above?

1VALET has created a smart building ecosystem that uniquely combines all of the building systems above into one platform. The result is a turnkey solution that keeps your residents safe, and adds thousands to your bottom line. 

It begins with their proprietary Entry System, a touch-screen lobby phone/intercom system that acts almost like a digital lockbox. On top of providing contactless digital building access for residents and guests, this innovative lobby phone allows residents to verify their visitors through video calling directly to the Resident App on their mobile device. Your residents can actually see who’s trying to enter the building now before letting them in, helping them (and you) keep out unwanted visitors. 

Next is 1VALET’s web-based management portal, which integrates with your security cameras and combines all your feeds (as well as other building systems) into one web-based management portal. This allows you to access and view all the camera feeds in your building from anywhere, at any time. 

Where this all comes together, and where 1VALET is able to bring the most value, is through their centralized concierge calling.

Integrated into the interface of the Entry System is the call concierge button. When pressed, 1VALET can route that call to their web-based management portal, allowing a single staff member to intercept those calls from anywhere, and act as a virtual concierge. Within this web-based portal the user can view and communicate with guests, and also unlock doors to grant them building access, all remotely.

If you have multiple buildings with multiple Entry Systems, all of those calls can be rerouted to the same management portal, centralizing your concierge and allowing this person to monitor more than one building at a time.  

As previously mentioned, eliminating a concierge night-shift from one building can save you upwards of $50,000 a year. Eliminating weekend shifts can save you nearly as much. 

Now imagine those savings across an entire portfolio. 

For less than the cost of one month of a full-time on-site concierge, 1VALET’S virtual concierge eliminates the need for a traditional on-site solution, and can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars on one of your biggest line items, every year. 

All, while keeping you and your residents safe. 

————

1VALET has created new-age smart building technology that combines software, hardware, and services to make condo and apartment complexes better places to live and work. Our patented smart entry system replaces your typical video intercom system, and grants mobile digital access along with facial entry and a number of other features. When paired with our resident application and building management portal, we’re able to connect a building’s most important capabilities, and create safer, smarter communities. 

To learn more, visit www.1VALET.com and book a demo