Everything you need to choose well.
Frameworks, comparisons and explainers for property teams evaluating a convenience hub, including the cases where Lentra is the wrong answer.
Three steps that prevent an expensive mistake
Define the resident need
Start from what people in this building actually run out of, borrow or go without, not from a product catalog.
Compare total operations
Stocking, support, maintenance and payments have to land somewhere. Compare who carries them, not just the headline cost.
Test the assumptions
Ask which figures are contractual and which are estimates, then check the estimate against your own unit count.
What is Convenience as a Service?
The category pillar: what the model is, the two commercial shapes it resolves to, what it is genuinely good at, and the five questions to put to any proposal.
Read itConvenience vs Amenity as a Service
Two names for one structure. What each phrase emphasises, which to use with owners and which with residents, and the question that settles what a proposal really is.
Read itWhat is Amenity as a Service?
The category explainer: who funds the build, who owns the equipment, who does the recurring work, and how that differs from buying an amenity outright.
Read itSmart locker amenities for apartment buildings
What a locker amenity actually does for residents day to day, and the point at which it stops being useful.
Read itWhat does a smart locker amenity cost?
The cost lines worth comparing, from hardware and stock to software and service, and why a public price list would be wrong for almost every building.
Read itHow to evaluate amenity ROI
A framework separating what can be measured from what can only be argued, and what belongs in a proposal either way.
Read itChoose the right tool for the job
Each comparison names the alternative up front, makes its best case, and says plainly where Lentra is the wrong choice.
All comparisonsAll the alternatives, side by side
One table covering parcel lockers, package rooms, concierge, micro markets and amenity rooms, with the Lentra row marked as ours.
Lentra vs. parcel lockers
Dedicated delivery hardware against a broader resident service. Plenty of buildings run both.
Lentra vs. package rooms
A room you cannot rent out, against a compartment bank along a wall.
Lentra vs. concierge
Staffed hours and human judgement against self-service at three in the morning.
Lentra vs. micro markets
Unattended retail against retail plus rentals, and which resident need each one actually answers.
Lentra vs. amenity rooms
Committed floor area against a compact footprint, and what each costs to keep running.
The round-up table marks the Lentra row as ours and says so on the page. Nothing in it is ranked: the right answer depends entirely on which job your building needs doing.
Multifamily
The highest unit density and the most repeated needs per building.
See the detailStudent housing
Shortest tenancies, tightest budgets, and the highest willingness to borrow rather than buy.
See the detailWorkplaces
Shared equipment and the small essentials that otherwise cost someone an hour.
See the detailHotels
Guest essentials and rentable products, self-service at any hour, with no front desk in the loop.
See the detailThe amenity strategy that wins the next decade
Longer lists stopped differentiating buildings. What to do instead.
What the NMHC renter survey actually found
172,703 renters, and the practical features that topped the list.
The amenities residents actually use
Why some amenities compound and most quietly fade.
What product usage data shows after the sale
A sale is one yes. Use is everything after it.
What renters say when nobody is asking
Four unprompted public comments about paying for amenities nobody uses.
The whole library, without the hunting
Every page on this site that exists to help you decide, rather than to sell you something.
Start here
Work out the numbers
Compare the options
Practical questions
Put the frameworks against your own building
We'll apply them to your lobby, your unit count and your resident profile, and show the working.