Welcome to The Resident. Each month, we explore multifamily reputation and sentiment data. Our research is based on the Widewail Multifamily Reputation Index, a database of 400,000 resident reviews. For more, go to widewail.com/data.
Do rent increases negatively impact Google ratings?
Conventional wisdom: if rents go up, residents will vent online, and ratings will go down.
Katie Ritter (National Director, Multifamily) has a different theory: rent and ratings are positively correlated.
With higher rents, there is likely an INCREASE in Google ratings. Katie makes an interesting point, but I’m not yet fully convinced.
She thinks about it this way. Better resident experience = higher ratings = justification for rent increases to cover the rising operating costs.
RealPage reported on a curious trend of 9 markets that saw the highest YoY revenue and rent increases in Q1 2024, despite occupancy being down.
If Katie's theory is correct, these 9 markets should see rising Google ratings during this timeframe.
Below are the markets reported by RP in order of largest asking rent increase and their % change YoY in Google ratings from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024:
Milwaukee, WI ➡ +6%
Cleveland, OH ➡ +6%
DC ➡ +5%
Kansas City, MO ➡ -13%
Columbus, OH ➡ +55%
Cincinnati, OH ➡ +15%
Chicago, IL ➡ -1%
Anaheim, CA ➡ +7%
Winston-Salem, NC ➡ +12%
Reputation data source: Widewail Multifamily Reputation Index
Market data source: RealPage
7/9 markets saw an increase in ratings. 78%.
Also, does somebody want to tell me what’s going on in Columbus?
In Widewail’s Google review research of all negative multifamily reviews, rent is the 10th most common topic mentioned.
Maintenance, management, communication, safety/security, parking, cleanliness, and pests are mentioned by residents more often.
Price increase is 20th. Pricing is 18th.
Price only becomes an issue in the absence of value.
It was great to meet everyone at NAA last month!
My cadence on the newsletter has been slow, but it will pick up in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, if you haven't read our extensive Voice of the Resident research report, get it here.
See you next month - Jake, Marketing @Widewail
