Jennings & Barrett are moving towards a new digital bookings process to enable a smoother viewings experience for existing tenants, potential new tenants, and office staff. Find out more about the process here.
Q: How does the process work?
A: Our new process has three steps:
- An online bookings system: This enables us to assign viewing times to each property, and ensures that everyone requesting a property viewing provides us with the information we need to pre-qualify tenants ahead of bookings. Anyone interested in the property will receive, via email, a link to the online bookings system.
- A property waitlist: This enables perspective tenants to express their interest in a particular property. When we arrange new viewing slots for that property, everyone on the waitlist will receive a notification enabling them to book new slots.
- A confirmation system: Once we have pre-qualified potential tenants, they will be added to our property management system and receive a confirmation email or text. This message will contain the complete address for the viewing.
We also now offer a complimentary Property Matching service, which enables you to tell us your property requirements, and receive an update if we get a suitable property for you.
Q: Why can’t you link directly to this system from Zoopla or Rightmove?
A: Unfortunately, it is beyond the functionality of those portals to enable us to utilise a more customer-friendly bookings system with less steps.
Q: Why do you need a digital bookings system?
A: There are multiple reasons why we’ve decided to transition towards a digital bookings system:
- To ensure we’re able to accurately collect the data we need.
- To make booking a viewing less labour-intensive for our office staff.
- To make the process more accessible outside of office hours or to people who do not like to use a phone.
- To pre-qualify potential tenants before a viewing. This enables us to ensure that everyone viewing the property is able to rent the property, saving your time as potential tenants, but also our time.
- To reduce no-shows, which were frequently occurring previously.
Additionally, by holding our viewings as bulked “slots”, we’ve been able to minimise time spent arranging viewing appointments, as well as time spent travelling to and from the viewings.
Q: Why aren’t there viewing slots when the property is being marketed on Zoopla/Rightmove?
A: There are numerous reasons why viewing slots may not be set for a particular property. These may be:
- There are tenants in the property, and we need to confirm availability with them before we can offer out viewings to prospective tenants.
- Maintenance works are in progress within the property, and we are waiting for them to be completed before arranging viewings.
- Any existing slots set might already be filled.
- The property is being held for referencing on a potential tenant. In these cases, we cease viewings and will only arrange further viewing if that application does not result in a tenancy.
Q: When will you tell me about new slots?
A: We arrange viewing slots 1-2 weeks in advance and will usually communicate these slots via email.
Q: I can’t make a viewing during traditional office hours (Monday – Friday, 09:00 – 17:00), will you accommodate evening or weekend viewings?
A: We are not usually able to accommodate evening viewings. This is a decision we make to ensure the wellbeing of our staff, who we feel have a right to “switch off” after our office hours. We do set viewing slots for Saturdays. If you sign up to the waitlist, you are able to tell us which days suit you best, and we will look at these preferences when planning our property viewing slots.
Q: Can I arrange a personal viewing appointment, rather than join a viewing slot?
A: We operate our viewings in “slots” to manage our time efficiently, as staff need to travel to and from the properties. Personal viewing appointments may be accommodated on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the circumstances of the property.
Q: Why can’t I phone to book a viewing?
A: Rental viewings are now booked via a digital system, which provides a faster booking experience for tenants and enables us to better capture the information we need ahead of viewings. If you, or someone you care for who is looking to rent a property, have barriers to digital communications, we are still able to accommodate you/them by phone. We thank those who do not need to use our phone bookings system for using the digital bookings system, therefore enabling those requiring a phone service to access it.
Q: What data do you collect through these systems, and why?
A: At this stage, we only collect the personal data that is necessary to process the appointment, pre-qualify perspective tenants, and confirm the appointments. Each stage of the process links to the appropriate privacy policy, which you can also find here.
This data is:
- The appointee’s name, email, phone number;
- The annual household income;
- Consent for processing data.
You can request that we delete any data held on you by emailing property@sienna-buffalo-255343.hostingersite.com.