5 Tips for Successfully Upgrading Your Multi-Housing Laundry Room

Nov 8

As a hard-working property owner or manager, you know how important it is to your tenants to provide the very best in your laundry room. But it’s worth stepping back and looking at whether your coin-operated laundry services are truly paying off, for them or for you. Not long ago, coin-operated washers and dryers seemed like a great deal. Your multi-housing laundry vendor would come in and collect the quarters, they would deduct your lease fees and cut you a check for the profits. But are you SURE that they were being straight-forward with you?

In recent years, advancements in technology have made it easier than ever to cut the vendor out of the equation and to achieve full transparency in how much profit your multi-housing laundry is truly generating. It sounds like it’s time for an UPGRADE!

While this seems like a daunting task, these 5 tips should help you to successfully upgrade your multi-housing laundry room.

Check out the the Multi-Housing Laundry Association

If you haven’t already, take a look at the resources available on the Multi-Housing Laundry Association’s website. As with any major upgrade, expert guidance can be very helpful in helping you make some of the difficult decisions that will come up. The MLA’s resource page includes guidance on maximizing space, calculating utility costs, water conservation, and even planning a laundry room that is appealing to your residents. Their Laundry Room Guide, for example, provides guidelines for your multi-housing laundry room. They explain:

The number of machines required is affected by the following:

Resident profile (families, singles, elderly)
Price charged (low price encourages usage)
Proximity of units to laundry rooms

And they provide a helpful suggestion for how many machines you likely need based on your primary resident profile and the number of units your laundry room will serve. This can be a great first stop as you plan this upgrade.

Schedule a site survey

As helpful as the Multi-Housing Laundry Association can be, nothing can rival an on-site consultation with a multi-housing laundry expert. A qualified and experienced expert can come into your space and help you to determine how to truly optimize your space for maximum profitability.

Determine your needs

With the expert guidance you’ve found from the Multi-Housing Laundry Association and your on-site specialist, You should be equipped to determine the needs of your laundry room upgrade. You’ll have a good sense of how many washers and dryers you’ll need to bring in to replace the old coin-operated laundry services that you have been using. And you should have a much better idea of the costs and the projected return on investment for making a change.

Decide on laundry equipment

Now that you know what you need, in terms of machines and space, it’s time to select the best equipment for your laundry room. Your research will really pay off here, while you work your way through the many options available to you in terms of capacity, water usage, and other factors. One of the biggest decisions that you will need to make at this stage is whether to continue to lease your equipment, or to switch to self-ownership.

Lease or Own?

The decision to lease or own seems very difficult, but it’s really a question of transparency and control. If you lease your equipment, you are placing a huge amount of trust in your vendor, and that leaves the ever-present possibility that you will see less money than you should.

Owning your own equipment, on the other-hand, can afford you the control that you have been missing. With all of the advancements in technology, that control no longer has to look like you lugging bags of quarters to the bank. And equipment from the right suppliers can also come with service and maintenance plans so you never have to worry about those laundry machines. Not only that, but you may be able to increase your laundry revenue stream 80% by leaving your route operator and moving to a self-operated laundry solution--while still enjoying the benefits that a route operator promises.

Choose how you would like to accept payment

One of the most exciting things about your new laundry room upgrade is that, with the latest equipment, you will be able to choose from a wide array of payment options for your users. You can find equipment that takes credit or debit cards, machines that allow payment through a phone app, or even install a kiosk that allows for several different options (including good old quarters).

The very best news for you, as you get ready to upgrade your Multi-Housing Laundry facility, is that SelfOp Laundry can help with every single part. From on-site consultation to selection of your equipment, SelfOp Laundry can guide you to the best choices for you and for your residents. And more, with their available maintenance plans, they can continue to support you for years to come.

SEO Customers