How Happy Are Our Coliving Members? (Semi-annual Survey - August 2023)

Acting on Our Members’ Suggestions

We want to say thank you to all the members that gave us feedback. This was the survey with the highest number of responses, since we have started to run these in February 2021. This feedback has been one of the best tools for us to make actual changes that are appreciated and vital for our coliving members to have the best experience possible. For example, in the last survey (in February 2023) we received feedback on the response time on maintenance issues, consistency of the weekly cleaning and improved home launches. Here is how we improved.

Response Time on Maintenance Issues

The last survey in February 2023 found that members felt there was space for improvement in response time to any issues they may be experiencing at home. For those that are unaware, we have a butler service that helps our members with any issues they may be facing in their homes. Ranging from air conditioning problems, broken furniture that needs replacing or pest control issues. To improve our response time, we expanded the team! Sy joined our Community team in April 2023, (see her welcome post here) and has been a tremendous help. We have also made our members more aware of our operating hours and our promise of responding within 1-2 business days. Should there be any emergencies that require immediate attention, we also have shared information with them via our auto-response and in-house guides. 

Additionally, we have also hired a new handyman (you may have seen him going around in his new electric van) who will help attend to any issues in the house that can be fixed immediately. This means there are less instances where we need to reach out to external contractors to get issues resolved. This time round we have seen that our members are a lot more satisfied with the response time on maintenance issues! We also had specific member feedback praising our new handyman for his work, which is always lovely to hear :)  

Consistency of Weekly Cleaning 

All our homes come with weekly cleaning included in the rates(repeat, all of our homes have weekly cleaning included in the rates – we just want to make sure you all know what all-inclusive at Casa Mia means). The cleaning covers communal areas (such as the dining and living room, as well as the kitchen) as well as the members’ bedrooms and bathrooms (for no additional charge). In our last round of feedback our members had mentioned that the consistency of cleaning needed improvements. To help solve this issue the Community team has hired two new in-house cleaners. We’re happy to say that we have seen an improvement in satisfaction with the cleaning. Over the last couple of months we have also introduced the concept of cleaning checklists. It continues to be our mission to make sure these tasks are full-filled to a great standard by the cleaning team! 

Home Launches & Increased Rent

In the beginning of 2023 we had an influx of new homes, which meant there were some months where we were launching five homes per month. The influx resulted in the Real Estate Acquisition & Development team having lots of tight deadlines to meet resulting in a few apartments launching in average conditions. To improve this we have implemented a thorough checklists and inspections before each launch. 

Rent is something that members will most likely always mention in our survey. Anything to try and get that reduced rent right ;) Additionally, about rates adjustments: 

• We only increase your rent if appropriate. We match the rent to the rental market at that given point. Given the current landscape, there have been a few rental increases but we keep these at bay. You may have seen in the news that some landlords have increased rent by up to 100%! At Casa Mia, if we choose to increase, it will usually be between 5%-10%, the most we will increase by is 15% but this is typically a one-off! 
• We only increase rent after you have stayed with us for one year. Unlike other coliving operators, we clearly state in our contract that we will not make any price adjustments at random points during your stay. Once your 1-year Casa Mia anniversary comes up we will have a look at the rental market and will then decide. Again, this new rent will then stay in place until the following year. 

Thanks for the Great Feedback! 

Here are some of the highlights from this survey round.

Length/Quality of Cleaning

Your feedback has shown us that generally the cleaning and the cleaning schedule has improved! This is great to hear. We have replaced and hired new in-house cleaning staff and have made sure that the cleaning schedules are kept in place, with the community team trying their best to avoid last minute changes. However, we see that the length and quality of cleaning can be improved. The length of cleaning is based on the home size. The cleaners should have enough time to clean all the bedrooms, bathrooms and communal areas. If this is not the case, we will be amending their cleaning schedule. 

To improve the quality we have been re-introducing our checklists and on a weekly basis will check-in with our cleaners to make sure the deep cleaning of that week has been completed. More specifically, after the cleaning has been completed, our cleaners send us a report (which includes pictures) and we can check if they have completed the assigned deep cleaning task of that week. 

More Events

Woohooo, we love that you love our events and so naturally your feedback has been to plan more events! There was feedback that you would like more events that are less focused on drinks, not too early on the weekends and more cultural events (you guys really aren’t picky, are you?!) Given the logistics of planning events midweek, we will begin hosting more events on weekends. This includes re-introducing our ‘Meet The Neighbours’ event. A perfect event for you to meet other Casa Mia members that live in your neighbourhood. We will also start organising bigger events every couple of months. They will be similar to our Summer BBQ but instead of the barbecue food we will order pizza or other finger food. We will update you as soon as we start planning our first one! We are also planning to share information about walking tours around Singapore so you can get to know popular neighbourhoods of Singapore, as well as art jamming and other fun activities. 

Housemate Selection

Like in the last survey, a couple of your comments suggested that you could hold interviews to ‘screen’ new housemates. Although this is a great idea, it is not very feasible on a scale of over 400+ rooms. This is why we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into building and implementing our screening questionnaire, and feel it has been a great support for our sales team. In the past year we’ve confidently been using our pre-selection questionnaire as a tool to understand whether prospective members would be the right fit for our community. Although we would love to offer everyone a room with us, the community lies at the heart of Casa Mia Coliving. This means that there are instances where we cannot offer someone a room. Ultimately, this has resulted in a much stronger community feel as well as less frustration and tension when it comes to housemate interactions. You can find out more about the tool here. That being said, a few comments have suggested including more varied questions in the questionnaire. We have taken this feedback onboard and will be implementing it moving forward. 

We also received specific feedback about our selection criteria for rooms. As you may know (if you joined Casa Mia in the last year) we strive to balance the housemates by gender and nationality. We wanted to take the opportunity to explain to everyone why we have this in place. 

1. Gender is balanced in a way so that there is never an instance of a female sharing a home with only males. As we do not offer female-only homes (something that has been requested in the past) we have put this criteria in place to make sure our female members feel comfortable. 
2. Additionally, we also look at the nationalities of each member in the home. We have balanced nationalities as we firmly believe this gives the greatest cultural exchange for our members. There was some feedback that suggested we don’t always apply this criterion consistently. In 99% of the cases the criteria is applied unless there are other unforeseen circumstances. To make sure our Sales team has a full understanding of your upbringing, background and nationality please inform them during the sales process. For example, if you hold a German passport but have spent most of your life in the UK, like me, we will take this into consideration when seeing what rooms are available for you. Ultimately, we want to make sure that there is a sufficient diversity of nationalities in every home so that everyone is able to enjoy the community within the home. 

All of these things are in place to make sure you have the best experience possible. As you can imagine, it would be a lot easier for us to place anyone, of any age, gender or nationality into any given home, but our experience tells us that this way ensures the happiest members! 

Part of joining the Casa Mia community is to be able to network and make more friends and a large majority (over 80% to be exact) of you say that they have felt joining Casa Mia has helped improve this and feel that we actively bring together like-minded people. The community team also makes sure that all of the new housemates are introduced via email - this gives you and the new housemate an opportunity to reach out, introduce yourself and welcome them into the home. 

Other General Feedback

Overall, 80% of our members would recommend Casa Mia Coliving to their friends and family :) (ratings of 7/10 or higher)

We also asked our members for any other general feedback and suggestions that have either helped make their stay great or how it could be even better. Here are some of the comments:

• I think your company has what a lot of other private rentals lack, a team dedicated to resolving issues ASAP. I've heard so many horror stories of the lack of maintenance and cleaning services provided to tenants from other companies.
• Good to build network and meet new people especially if you are a new expat in Singapore, helpful Butler team (you wouldn't get this in standard rental) 
• Easy transition and adjustment to moving to a new country, community and the events are the best, so far from what I hear still better than other co living
• I have already recommended Casa Mia to many friends. I love that the rent includes cleaning, maintenance and AC Service - this is very hard to find with other co-living companies and makes the rent well worth it. Houses are well decorated and all essentials are provided. It's the perfect co-living agency to live with. I have lived with other popular agencies but Casa Mia is the first time I feel relaxed and at ease/ at home!
• The housing options that Casa Mia offers are very convenient in a city like Singapore, where it can be hard to find quality accommodation for an affordable price. The apartment where I live, in Novena, is spacious, luminous and well-equipped. The cleaning service is very professional, and when my flatmates encountered issues about their rooms, Casa Mia seemed to take it into account rather seriously. Of course, as an intern, the rent is extremely high (I never paid so much for a rent in my life), though I guess that it is a good quality-price ratio for Singapore.
• Good locations, everything is thought about for you, cleanliness is A+, housemates are A++

See You in 2024!

This survey has become one of our most important tools to help us understand how our community is enjoying their time with Casa Mia Coliving. The results always spur on chats with the team at Casa Mia to come up with creative ideas and solutions to improve and create this the best coliving experience for our wonderful members. Stay tuned for our next  survey coming in 2024!