How a Relentless Focus on Customer Experience and Tenant Wellbeing Can Turbocharge Your Property Success
B-Hive Living is a multi-award-winning developer and operator of co-living properties based in Oxfordshire and the winner of the 2024 HMO User and Community Experience Award for the second year in a row. In this interview with co-founders Williams and Silvia Johnson, we’ve explored their journey and how they are redefining service standards by placing their users and community first to build market differentiation.
Fuelled by Purpose, Built for Impact
Once a young professional couple renting in London, we experienced first-hand the harsh reality of the UK rental market. At the time, a staggering one in every three rented properties was deemed unfit for habitation. Instead of feeling deflated by these statistics, we quickly recognized the significant market opportunity and prospect for impacting people’s lives.
Out of this ambition, we created B-Hive Living in 2017 to challenge the old convention of rental properties and a service culture that reinforced lifestyles that make us frustrated and unhappy. The UK rental market has doubled in size over the last decade, and the resulting chronic undersupply has given rise to a culture of disregard for the wellbeing and convenience of users, as renters have little choice these days.
This is how we redefined the standard approach to co-living. We hope that by sharing examples of what has worked for us, and how it’s positively impacted our tenants (and profits), we give you some inspiration and ideas for your own property projects.
People Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel
The legendary American poet Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel,” and this deeply resonated with us. The community experience defines HMO and co-living as a use class and sets us apart from other rental strategies, so it’s important that we as an industry get this right. It’s also business common sense—in fact, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.
Eight years on, we’re proud to see our residents consistently cite the quality of our living spaces and the calibre of our community as the primary reasons for choosing us. This is powerful, since 76% of UK renters believe that a sense of community is important to them because it impacts their quality of life. When asked why, UK renters said that community makes them feel safe, less lonely, and able to rely on others in times of need. For us, a focus on our end-user is a way of creating a sustainable and profitable business underpinned by a hard-to-replicate competitive edge.
Creating with the End-User in Mind: Some Inspiration
As a property business, user and resident engagement strategy must start with the physical space. Millennials and Gen Z—in other words, those aged 18-45—are now the largest consumers of rental housing in the UK. This new generation of renters will demand more quality, flexibility, and technology than ever before because they want a rental product and experience that matches their lifestyle.
Before building our first co-living property, we conducted various focus groups and extensive research to ensure we intricately knew our audience, and we learned that empowering residents to make sustainable choices was key to our audience. As a result, we started to actively seek such solutions and installed an app-based heating system in our properties that gives each of our residents the ability to set the thermostat of their room to suit their routine and lifestyle remotely from wherever they may be.
We also discovered that many wellness-related features could be integrated into our home at little or no extra cost. For instance, offering dimmer switches instead of just on-off lights allows for personalisation. Optimising daylight through thoughtful building orientation, larger windows, and skylights significantly impacts mental well-being and productivity. It may seem simple, but we are puzzled as to why more people don’t implement these strategies.
The Impact of Biophilic and Circular Design
Biophilic and circular design has also become a key cornerstone of our interior design approach. To create more productive and healthy environments through biophilia, we started by setting a ratio of built area to natural outdoor spaces of 2:1. "Our gardens are large and fully equipped with amenities such as outdoor gyms, games areas, Asian hammock stations, fire pit areas, and a community vegetable patch where residents can plant their own herbs and nutritious ingredients. Whenever possible, we embrace circular design by repurposing materials used in construction to build furniture and accessories. These are simple interventions that landlords can make, resulting in a big impact on their users.
The Profitable Benefits of Putting Customers First
A relentless focus on residents' well-being and experience ensures happier and more engaged customers, which equals higher satisfaction, better renewal rates, sustained demand, lower operating costs, and brand loyalty—all clearly reflected in business metrics and achievements.
You’ve probably heard before that it’s less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one, and it’s true. This stability enhances cash flow, reduces costs associated with tenant turnover, and hopefully proves that valuing your tenants, keeping them engaged, and growing their lifetime value has the greatest return on investment (ROI) of any type of marketing.
But, underlying all of the above, the performance metrics that really matter to us are that 93% of our residents feel connected to their peers, and 73% report an improvement in their overall health and well-being after moving in. These business metrics matter because they make our strategy (and your strategy!) highly defensible, as competitors can imitate any aspect of properties and interiors but will find it very hard to replicate the culture and community experience created.
How You Can Elevate Your Rental Experience Today
If you wish to boost the experience of your users, maximise your income, and strengthen the resilience of your rental portfolio, here are some actionable tips:
Re-evaluate the design of your properties: Explore ways to enhance the comfort and convenience of your communal spaces or introduce biophilic elements. Simple changes, like adding plants or creating inviting lounge areas, can significantly impact tenant engagement.
Get to Know Your Customers: Before you can build a user experience that people love, you have to get to intricately know your customer: who they are, what motivates them, and their pain points. Take every opportunity to ask questions (and really listen) to build a better understanding of how you can best serve them.
Foster Community: Success starts by curating the right community. Set criteria for the type of user you want and actively market for them. Then host monthly events or create online platforms for residents to connect. Even small gatherings can enhance their sense of belonging, and community equals market differentiation.
Stay Flexible: The property market is dynamic. Regularly assess performance, seek feedback, and stay updated on trends to refine your approach continually. Be open to introducing systems and technology, and learn how to make it relevant for your business.
Change is inevitable, but transformation is a choice. The competitive landscape of the rental market is changing fast, and we invite you to get creative, be bold, and build long-lasting connections with your residents.
At B-Hive Living, we are passionate about helping others elevate their lifestyle through property. If you feel inspired by what you’ve read, you can download our Customer Experience Guide, where you’ll learn more about trends and strategies to boost your user and community engagement. Or simply reach out if you wish to explore ways of working together.
By focusing on innovative design, addressing tenant needs, and fostering community, you can create a more sustainable and profitable rental business that better suits both your customers and your long-term business goals.
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B-Hive Living's spacious shared spaces encourage socialising, making connections, and productive work. Technology is used to boost connections within the community and enable efficient communication.
Williams Johnson - co-founder and director of B-Hive Living, collecting the award for the world’s best User and Community Experience at the global Co-living Awards 2024 in Amsterdam for a second consecutive year
Application of biophilic design in one of B-Hive Living’s communal spaces
