Berkshire Winter Park, a premier luxury community in Winter Park, Florida, offers an exceptional living experience and amenities, including a podcast studio, hammock garden, game room, fitness center, and work-from-home lounge. However, staffing challenges and reduced office hours created hurdles in showcasing these stunning apartments – especially during evenings and weekends. To keep leasing seamless and accessible, Berkshire needed a solution that allowed prospects to tour on their own terms, without relying on a leasing team member to be present.

“We had a leasing consultant leave, and despite the incredible efforts of our property manager and assistant manager to keep operations running smoothly, our community is simply too busy for a two-person team,” says Tandi Tucker Toni, Director of Marketing – Eastern Division at Berkshire Residential Investments. “On top of that, our reduced office hours meant we were closed on weekends, making in-person tours even more challenging.”

Winter Park’s prime location and dynamic resident base made it impossible for just two leasing professionals to keep up with in-person tour demands. “We’re a high-turnover community, with resident retention ranging from 50% to 60%,” Tandi explains. “Our leasing office is always bustling. Being right off I-4 makes us easily accessible and we attract a diverse mix of students and medical professionals who frequently relocate. Many of our residents are in internships or work-study programs, adding to the constant activity.”

Beyond frequent turnover, Winter Park’s residents are tech-savvy and expect modern, convenient solutions. Any approach to property tours needed to align with their preference for innovative, mobile-friendly tools. “When 60% of your residents are medical professionals, many others work in IT and software development, and 15% are students, you’re not just managing high turnover – you’re catering to a community that embraces technology,” Toni adds.

Tour24 has been a success for Winter Park, especially once the team adopted a hybrid approach of self-guided and in-person touring following their initial period of exclusively self-guided touring.

“Our prospects and leasing team alike have done a great job embracing self-guided tours and perfecting the processes,” says Tandi. “We decided to pivot from doing exclusively self-guided tours, as a mixed approach led to a higher conversion rate, and our main focus is increasing conversions across all sites.”

Tour24 has been an especially good fit for such a tech-forward multifamily space, and attracts residents who embrace what the community has to offer. “Winter Park runs off of technology. A resident’s front door doesn’t even open with a regular key but with a key fob,” Paola says. “The self-guided tours not only attract residents who are seeking out exactly what Winter Park offers, it also saves us from tech-averse clients that may not be as happy here.”

Importantly, self-guided tours have reduced stress on the leasing team. “We’ve seen over and over how self-guided tours relieve the stress of touring for leasing professionals. So we work hard to promote the modern leasing experience, and how our agents are using technology to optimize the lease-up process. Self-guided tours are a big part of that initiative. Even if they don’t fully replace our touring process, Tour24 has been a significant value-add,” says Tandi.

“We’ve been through a lot of changes, but we definitely need Tour24 to help make Winter Park thrive,” she concludes. “Tour 24 can handle every visitor who wants to come through the door, granting our leasing staff the time to give residents the attention they deserve. After the tour, our team is always available to answer questions and help applicants through the leasing process. We are letting the system work, and it’s worked wonders so far.”