Use amenity data to find opportunities and promote underused spaces

MCC's Amenity Utilization dashboard provides ranked suggestions and helps managers promote underused amenities. It highlights low use compared with similar amenities, fee differences, weekday gaps, weekend concentration, and long bookings.

The manager can turn a finding into a resident notice draft in Email Merge, review the wording, and decide whether to send. Nothing sends automatically.

Start with three questions: Where are we leaving money on the table? Why? What can the manager do right now? An empty guest suite on Tuesday needs a different response from a party room booked all Saturday. A free theatre may already do its job well.

1. Where are we leaving money on the table?

Start with 12 months of records so holidays and seasonal demand do not dominate the picture. Separate rental fees from refundable deposits. Keep revenue definitions consistent when reviewing trends.

Choose a measure that fits each amenity:

• Guest suites: booked nights, booking-based occupancy, and total revenue. Dashboard occupancy is nights booked divided by days in the selected period.
• Party rooms: bookings, booked hours, total revenue, and demand by day. For hourly amenities, dashboard occupancy measures the share of period days with a booking, not the share of hours used.
• Moving elevators: bookings, fees collected, and staff or operating costs.
• Free spaces: use, resident access, and operating costs, rather than revenue alone.
• Fobs and other shop items: units sold, sales revenue, and margin. A key fob is a sale, not a nightly amenity.

At a Toronto condo, 684 bookings produced $24,639 in net revenue over 12 months. Guest suites contributed $21,600. For one suite, 64% of bookings fell on Friday through Sunday. That pattern is a reason to review weekday demand, not to compare suites with potentially different sizes or features.

The party room earned $3,039 from 30 bookings. Those reservations held 377 hours, about 12.6 hours each, and 90% fell on Friday through Sunday.

These findings fit weekday-gap, weekend-concentration, and long-booking suggestions. A manager could test a weekday suite offer and draft a notice reminding residents about midweek stays. If shorter party-room sessions are approved, a separate notice could explain the new sessions and cleaning buffers.

2. Why is the space underused?

Low occupancy does not prove that a price is wrong. Check whether residents know the amenity exists, whether booking rules discourage use, and whether maintenance removes dates from availability.

Case study: a three-tower Toronto condo corporation

A Toronto condo corporation with 568 units across three towers generated $94,347 in annual revenue across 19 amenities.

Six guest suites earned $58,534 from 519 booked nights at 23.7% overall occupancy. Review that building-level pattern without assuming individual suites are interchangeable. Different bedroom counts, sizes, and features can affect demand.

The corporation's two party rooms show a scheduling pattern worth investigating. Both rooms had 90% of bookings on Friday through Sunday. Their 80 and 82 bookings held 1,034 and 1,061 hours respectively, about 12.9 hours per booking. Check whether residents need the whole reserved period or whether the rules require long blocks. Weekend-concentration and long-booking suggestions can guide a trial of weekday sessions or shorter blocks. Promote any approved options with a notice that states the times and booking rules.

3. What can the manager do right now?

Pick one change, get the required board approval, and compare results over similar periods. Track use and resident access alongside revenue.

Make booking easier before changing prices

Ease of booking affects occupancy too. When a resident app makes amenities easy to find, book, and pay for, use can rise without a price change. Check whether residents can find the amenity, understand the rules, and complete the reservation without calling the office.

MCC's resident app and portal make it easy to book amenities and pay for eligible reservations when the building has Amenities and card payments enabled. Include clear booking instructions in a resident notice so residents know how to use the space.

Test weekday guest-suite rates

Offer a lower weekday rate if unused nights are the problem. Define which days count as weekend before comparing results. The examples above group Friday through Sunday together, which may differ from your building's fee rules.

MCC's amenity settings support separate weekday and weekend rates for daily amenities. Managers can choose the weekend days. Stays crossing both periods use the configured rates.

Review long party-room blocks

Consider shorter sessions with cleaning buffers where staffing and building rules allow. Do not count every hour saved as a new paid booking. Additional capacity earns nothing unless residents want it.

Calculate scenarios before changing fees

The following gains are illustrative, not forecasts. They assume the stated booking volume or occupancy and do not establish additional profit:

• Raising overall occupancy across the six suites from 23.7% to 30% suggests roughly $15,600 more annual revenue, assuming the mix of booked suites and aggregate revenue per night stay similar. This does not assume that different suites should charge the same rate.
• A $5 increase across 408 moving-elevator bookings suggests $2,040 more annually, if booking volume holds. The elevator currently brings in $9,600. This is a manager-led fee review, not evidence that the elevator is underused.

For suite occupancy scenarios, draft a notice about availability and any approved weekday offer. For a fee change, explain the new amount rather than presenting it as a resident promotion.

Do not add these figures into one forecast. Demand and the mix of bookings can change. Deduct extra cleaning, repairs, staffing, and payment costs before judging the benefit.

Keep some amenities free on purpose

The theatre recorded 362 bookings and no revenue. That can be a deliberate resident benefit. Review access, costs, and resident satisfaction before introducing a fee. If residents do not know about the theatre, a notice can explain how to book it without making revenue the goal.

Turn dashboard suggestions into resident promotion

MCC's Amenity Utilization dashboard uses real booking data and presents up to four ranked suggestions to help managers choose what to investigate and promote.

For 30-day, 90-day, or 12-month periods, it shows net fee revenue, booking count, the top-earning amenity, and the busiest day. Revenue excludes security deposits, and cancelled bookings are not counted. Net fee revenue is not profit.

You can review bookings and revenue by amenity, usage trends, day-of-week demand, and the share of bookings on Friday through Sunday. Hourly amenities also show average hours per booking.

Occupancy comes from bookings, not sensors, attendance, or footfall. For suites, it is nights booked divided by days in the period. For hourly amenities, it is the share of period days with bookings, not the percentage of available hours used. Products such as fobs show sales and revenue, but no occupancy. Free amenities show no revenue.

The suggestions cover low use compared with similar amenities, fee differences, weekday gaps, weekend concentration, and long bookings. Comparisons are within the building, not against industry benchmarks. Amenities grouped as similar may still differ in size, bedroom count, or features. Managers must confirm that they are truly comparable before acting on a use or fee difference. A difference alone is not a reason to align prices.

A manager can use those prompts to investigate the cause and choose a test. Check maintenance, restrictions, costs, and resident demand before changing a fee or booking rule. The illustrative revenue scenarios above are manager calculations, not forecasts or guaranteed gains from the dashboard. The dashboard does not set prices automatically.

To promote an underused amenity or explain an approved change, the manager can have the dashboard draft a resident notice in Email Merge. Review the offer, dates, fees, and booking instructions before sending. The draft never sends automatically.

Put the review into practice with MCC

MCC supports amenity bookings, configurable booking limits, approval rules, and fee or deposit lines. Managers can use those controls to put approved policy changes into practice.

Keep the review focused on the same three questions: where revenue may be missed, what explains the pattern, and what action is justified. Avoid a blanket fee increase when the issue is weekday demand or long booking blocks.

Want to review your building's approach? Request a 15-minute MCC demo.