Learn with Respage

Last week, Respage announced that our revolutionary multifamily chatbots can now ‘speak’ Spanish.

As a follow up to that announcement, we wanted to clarify what prompted us to build this technology. Check out the following three reasons why Spanish-bots are a growing multifamily necessity in 2017.

The United States Has A Large (And Growing) Spanish Speaking Population

Aside from English, Spanish is the most widely used language in the United States. Current US census data pegs the number of Spanish speaking Americans at roughly 40 million, and estimates predict that number to follow an upward trajectory for the next 20 years. In fact, studies by Pew Research suggest the US will surpass Mexico as the country with the largest Spanish-speaking population by 2050.

Spanish Speaking Households Tend To Rent Their Homes

Much of the growth in Spanish-speaking American households can be attributed to Hispanic immigration and population growth. Nearly 54 percent of these Hispanic households were renting their homes in 2016. In other words, the number of Spanish-speaking renters in the US is in the tens of millions.

It’s Unlikely Your Leasing Staff Speaks Spanish

Despite the United States’ large Spanish-speaking population, it’s rare for apartment communities to have bilingual leasing staff. Sure, there are plenty of communities that have one or two bilingual employees in their leasing office. But in terms of the volume and scale of this market, these employees are few and far between.  

Adding It All Up

The multifamily industry is facing somewhat of a conundrum. We have a massive, rapidly growing segment of the population that’s extremely likely to rent. However, without bilingual leasing staff, we have limited ways to communicate with this segment of the population and convince them that a particular property is the right fit.

That is, until now…

The Spanish ‘speaking’ multifamily chatbots from Respage present a genuine opportunity for leasing offices to start conversations with people they may never have been able to communicate with otherwise. This represents an enormous step forward in the industry, and it’s one we’re extremely proud to lead.

If you currently have a chatbot installed on your property website(s) and would like to activate the Spanish-speaking option, please contact your Respage representative to do so. Those who are interested in the technology, but have not yet installed it on their sites, can test general and Spanish-speaking bots on our interactive demo page.