There are many reasons for apartment property owners to offer on-site laundry for tenants. However, those services can come with some surprising costs. Discover five hidden costs of maintaining on-site laundry for tenants and how to reduce them.

Maintenance and Repairs

Probably the biggest cost people underestimate is maintenance and having your machines repaired. Tenants do not always follow the rules when it comes to doing laundry in your machines, which can lead to machines breaking down and needing repairs. And even if your tenants are perfect at doing laundry, your machines will still break down periodically due to high-volume usage.

Space Usage

Having a laundry facility means using up valuable space that could be used to house more tenants. Instead, you hope the presence of laundry facilities entices more people to stay on your property. If you don’t take good care of your laundry rooms, they might not contribute positively to your reputation, which means they become a waste of space.

Higher Utility Bills

If you choose to maintain on-site laundry for tenants, be prepared for higher utility costs. While individuals might choose to save themselves money by doing laundry at low-demand times, you’ll be paying premium energy prices most of the time. You can offset some of this burden by factoring utilities into your rental rates, but that doesn’t always fix the problem.

Security Costs

Laundry rooms at apartment complexes are typically isolated, making them prime spots for crime. If you have a laundry room, you’ll need to install some form of security so your tenants feel safe. This means installing cameras and paying someone to keep an eye on them. You may also want to give tenants a laundry room key—another expense—to prevent strangers from using your facilities.

Coin Theft

Coins are certainly one of the easiest ways to charge people for public laundry spaces, but they can also attract crime. Coins are stored in your machines until you collect them, which can be a temptation for some people.

Cutting the Costs of On-Site Laundry

If you’re looking to decrease the costs of providing on-site laundry on your property, ShinePay can help. We offer an apartment laundry app that gets rid of the need for coins, which saves floor space since you won’t need coin exchange machines. Contact ShinePay to learn more about how we can help streamline your apartment laundry.