The October 2009 issue of units magazine featured an article about how apartment communities can effectively manage their online reputations by taking appropriate action in response to what is being written about them by residents.
In some cases, a direct response to a resident’s claim is effective. The article, however, did not acknowledge that to directly respond on ApartmentRatings.com, community managers must pay a $100 start-up fee and $180 per year to register as managers on the site.
There is no charge for residents to comment on the ratings site. When owners are not willing to pay these fees, concerned apartment managers who wish to respond to criticism must pay the fees out of their own pockets.
Karen Emerson, Property Manager of the Tranquility Pointe and Standing Bear Lake communities for Pointe Management, in Omaha, Neb., and Treasurer and Secretary for the Apartment Association of Greater Omaha & Lincoln, made units aware of these fees. Emerson, who has worked the past seven years for Tranquility Pointe, also spoke out against such sites, saying the fee model allows residents to post nasty comments that can damage managers’ reputations.
She said that in some cases, these ratings sites have become a sounding board for many hurtful, exaggerated and untrue statements made by residents about apartment staff. The remarks can leave communities and their staff members’ reputations in tatters.
She says because those who are not willing or able to “pay to play” cannot respond to the site to dispute false claims and misinterpretations about events, some prospective residents become wary about visiting, much less leasing at a community.
Emerson has this to say about her ratings-site experience:
I had a prospective resident come in, and when I told her I had been manager at the community for seven years, she said she was shocked. “Why?” I asked. “Because when I go to ApartmentRatings.com, there’s negative stuff about the manager, and you seem so nice,” she said. That’s when I first signed on to read the comments about me.
The one comment that hurts me the most is a post that reads, “Karen does not like kids and black people.” They’re attacking me on federal fair housing law and I’m unable to defend myself. I know exactly who posted it. Every spring, the same group of kids (who don’t live here) jump over the fence to swim in the pool with their clothes on. This spring, as usual, I let them swim for 30 minutes before I said, “Hey guys, I’m still here and I have to ask you to leave.” Because of this, I’m called prejudiced. I adore kids, so it’s very sad that someone would attack me on something like that.
Another comment read, “She’s really nice when you move in, but you have one party and she asks you to move out.” I know who posted that one, too. They had held a party that disturbed all the neighbors in the building. The police came and property was damaged. But because I don’t subscribe to the ratings site, I cannot respond to defend my actions and our community’s policy about noise and social activities. Our owners recommended that I not read the comments. But when a prospective resident comes in and says, “I heard these horrible things about you,” you have to look.
Today, Emerson says she doesn’t log on to the site anymore because of what she’s read. “I have a hard time reading all the things that are said about me,” she says. “I’ve been at my community for seven years, and I feel that is a tribute to my experience and performance with the property.”