A resident services platform sells household services, such as cleaning, laundry, dog walking and small repairs, to the people who live in apartment buildings. It reaches them through their landlord or the building's management company, not one household at a time. It is an American model. In America, a large apartment building is usually owned by one landlord, often an investment company, which rents out every flat in it.
Why go through the landlord? A home-services company that advertises to each household separately spends a lot to win each customer. A landlord with 300 flats can reach all its residents at once, through its resident app or its welcome email. The landlord offers the services as an amenity, a benefit that makes its buildings more attractive and may persuade tenants to renew their leases. Some landlords also earn a share of each sale.
Imagine an apartment complex with 300 flats in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Its management company signs up with a resident services platform. The platform receives the list of current residents from the landlord's property management software, so it knows who lives in which flat. A resident books a two-hour cleaning for Saturday at $95. The platform chooses a vetted cleaner from a local cleaning company, and schedules the visit through field service management (FSM) software. The building's front desk lets the cleaner in. The resident pays by card in the app. The cleaning company receives $76, the platform keeps $14, and the landlord receives $5.
The platform does not employ the cleaners. It lists the services of many local companies and takes a commission on each booking. In the terms of the marketplace vs inventory model, it is a marketplace.
How is it different from building maintenance? Repairs to the building itself, such as a broken lift or a leaking roof, are the landlord's job. They are run as work orders in a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). A resident services platform sells services that the resident chooses and pays for, inside their own flat.
In India, the residents of a housing society usually own their flats, so there is no single landlord to go through. Indian residents book such services directly on a home-services app, and some society management apps also offer services to residents.