Leasing Tablets - What Are the Best Choices

Hello!

3 years ago we recieved some free tablets that ended up being useless, however we are now in the process of bringing them back to a few communities to help provide leasing information.

I'm curious folks - in your experience, what particular brands or models of hand-held tablets have you had success with? Not trying to use iPads as our contract doesn't permit that, but just in general.

Appreciate all the feedback

I don't have a good answer for you...But we are also looking to add tablets to our leasing and maintenance teams. We plan to have high quality floor plans loaded onto the tablet for touring, plus availability listings. Prospects will be able to use the tablet to complete our online application, and we are working on finding a good app to use for guest card tracking. Maintenance will use the tablets to track inventory, receive/close out service requests, and order parts/supplies. For me, the challenge isn't necessarily which tablet to get, but finding the apps/software that will produce the results we're looking for. I'm interested to see what everyone suggests for you to use!

I am also looking into this for the same reasons above. Does anyone have any new suggestions on good tablets for maintenance and leasing?

We chose a windows based tablet for our sites rather than ipad, since our property management system is windows based. Our tablets were what our data provider (Verizon) recommended at the time, and which they support, so while they may not have been the best of show, we had one point of contact, the service became part of our phone and data agreement, and seemed like an OK deal at the time.
That said, I have really been surprised (OK, disappointed) at how much our team uses (or doesn't use) them. We give training, ongoing tips for using them, try to sell a "coolness" factor; When we do our weekly webinar training, if there is ANY way the tablet fits it we show how it relates to that week's training. It is really easy to use ResMan, our PM system, on the tablet too. We surveyed our teams on what they use it for, what would make them use it more, etc., and the bottom line seemed to be that those who will use the tablet will, and those who won't, well, I encourage them to keep it dusted. Even if they aren't using it now, we don't take it away or appropriate it to another site, hoping something will inspire them that this will make their lives easier!
Be sure and test whatever type you decide on with your PM System, and some team members (the most and least tech-savvy!) And maybe poll your whole team on whether and how they will use them...