Health care should not define people as they age, and many Baby Boomers want to live independently, with very little support, according to Danette Opaczewski, executive vice president of resident experience and COO of Revel Communities, a division of The Wolff Co. One of the hardest parts of her job is “debunking the generational thinking that senior housing is only where you go when your health is in decline,” she confessed in this month’s episode of Mission Success: Women in Multifamily.
READ ALSO: Senior Housing Occupancy Continues Post-Pandemic Rebound
After spending more than 30 years in hospitality, Opaczewski has made it her mission to prove that senior housing is not necessarily nursing homes, and providing residents with freedom of choice contributes to their overall wellbeing and helps them feel a sense of independence as they age. Recently, Revel launched a hospitality-inspired resident membership model, which provides services that include more than rent. Each of the four membership tiers are outlined online with corresponding pricing, a type of transparency that is not often seen in senior living.
“We follow the multifamily approach with real-time pricing availability of online leasing. Nobody in senior housing outside the 55+ is doing online leasing. We’re focused on convenience and self-service,” she told Multi-Housing News Senior Editor Laura Calugar in the podcast interview.
Here’s what other aspects they touched on:
- How her hospitality experience has shaped her views on senior living (1:08)
- The complexities of a service-oriented industry like senior housing-independent living (3:14)
- Revel’s senior housing portfolio (7:00)
- The resident membership model and how it works (8:35)
- Why price transparency is important (12:24)
- The operational advantages of a membership model for senior housing operators (14:20)
- Will the resident membership model become more common in the future? (18:46)
- The most demanding and the most satisfying parts of her job (20:10)
- DEI in senior housing (22:47)
Follow MHN’s podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
