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As senior living demand surges, operators are putting more time and resources into tours that wow older adults and their families.
Senior living sales and marketing teams in 2025 are shifting away from cookie-cutter experiences and tailoring tours based on what they think their prospects want. Operators are customizing the community tour experience based on preferences for everything from the care that residents will receive to the food and music they enjoy.
All of that starts before a resident or their family steps foot within the community, according to Ginger Atwood, national director of marketing and sales for Harbor Retirement Associates.
“We coach our HarborChase sales teams to really step back and conduct a deep discovery by asking personal questions about what that prospect enjoys doing, what they used to enjoy doing and what they want to continue doing if they had the freedom and the security to do it,” Atwood told Senior Housing News.
Baby boomers and their adult children are conducting more research in 2025 than they used to, making customization in sales even more important, according to Gale Morgan, vice president of sales for Evanston, Illinois-based Mather.
Other senior living companies taking a tailored approach in senior living tours include Beztak, Solera Senior Living, Solinity Marketing and Watercrest Senior Living Group.
Before the tour
A cornerstone of senior living sales and marketing with new prospects is clear communication. Senior living prospects often bring apprehension with them that operators can alleviate during their first meeting, according to Anna Wynn, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Solera Senior Living.
“This is not exciting to them to come look at senior housing,” Wynn said. “[It’s] what you do to … ensure that it’s not their worst fear, that this is the biggest relief and they could actually leave enthusiastic about what we offer.”
Multiple operators seek to learn the details of a prospect’s life story and build rapport immediately after making first contact. Salespeople at HRA begin their initial outreach usually within a day of inquiry, according to Atwood.
Some operators, like Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Beztak, initially share with prospects prerecorded community tour videos to build excitement and get them through the door faster, according to Executive Vice President of Senior Living Jason Kohler.
Mather communicates with prospects initially either through text messages or short emails to learn how much they understand about senior living and why they’re interested in it.
“It’s shocking how many times we’re having a voice conversation with somebody for the first time when they walk through the door,” Morgan said. “We know with this clientele, first impressions are pivotal, so we have to know enough about them through the pre-conversations.”
Watercrest has rebranded the name of its tours to “experiences,” which Vice President of Sales Education Michale Marlowe said has proved beneficial for increasing conversion ratios. The Vero Beach, Florida-based company’s inquiry-to-tour ratio currently sits at around 26% and a tour-to-move-in ratio of about 46%.
Watercrest focuses on three primary stages for attracting prospects and communicating to them: the pre-visit and online discovery, the in-community tour experience and follow-up once the tour concludes.
During the tour
Once a prospect arrives at a senior living community, operators welcome them in some way, usually with signs, designated parking or friendly staffers. Then, operators usually bring them to a meeting room so they can learn more about the prospect, a meeting that could last as much as a few hours.
Operators put a lot of thought into the kinds of refreshments they offer prospects and their adult children. Common snacks include sweets such as candies, cookies and fruit, alongside water, soda, coffee and juice.
Sometimes, operators take the moment to wow prospects with more unique offerings and showcase what the community’s kitchen staff can do. For example, Denver, Colorado-based Solera lets prospects nosh on treats like chef-crafted cookies, infused waters and lemonades that are unique to each of its communities. Mather doles out toothsome treats like homemade macarons, sugar-free cheesecake slices and fresh pastries, Morgan said.
The tour process offers multiple stops where operators can feed both residents’ curiosities and their hunger. Beztak, for instance, keeps the refrigerators in its model units fully stocked with sodas, water and fruits prospects can help themselves to. HRA staff often take prospects into a community restaurant for a meal or appetizer, with food selections culled from preferences gleaned earlier in the sales process.
General crowd pleasers for senior living tours include cookies, brownies and organic fruit, according to Sara Mitchell, president of Knoxville, Tennessee-based Solinity Marketing. Incoming residents also are choosing healthier and allergen-free options that factor into a more active lifestyle, she said.
Refreshments are just one way operators show they are in-tune with resident preferences. Bottom-line, during the ideal senior living community tour “nothing is cookie-cutter,” according to Solera’s Wynn.
“They do not overwhelm the family or the prospect that they’re giving a very customized tour, and not feature-dumping,” Wynn said.
Senior living sales teams can use information gathered earlier in the sales process to focus on features that might stick out to a prospect, such as dining venues for those interested in food or gardening spaces for those who prefer to be outdoors. Sometimes operators will go to lengths to wow a prospect. For example, HarborChase of Mandarin in Jacksonville, Florida,set up raised garden beds in the community for a prospect who previously ran a landscaping company, Atwood said.
Music and other media also help set the mood during a tour. Sales teams at Beztak for example might play music a prospect likes or play their favorite TV show in a model unit during a tour, Kohler said.
The custom approach is meant to help the community stand out amongst competitors.
“We see research that says the average family visits four communities before they choose one. So this makes a community stand out because they remember what has been customized for them,” Marlow said.
Senior living sales teams also are catering to the wants and needs of adult children – in particular, by sharing information such as cost, level of care and staffing ratios, according to Kohler. To ease these concerns, Beztak staffers demonstrate care methods, like showing someone how to use a call pendant or walking them through physical therapy options.
Operators incur varying costs putting on tours, from as little as $50 to around $450, based on the quality of gifts and refreshments, and budgets are built around community occupancy needs.
After the tour
The follow-up is an important part of the tour process, given that prospects will often shop around to other communities.
Operators typically give prospects gifts upon the end of their tour or after, such as handmade dark chocolate candy bars and biscotti, flower deliveries, books, handwritten notes and cards or custom-built gifts such as birdhouses. Gifts often give operators another chance to put their brand or logo on something the prospect will bring home with them. For example, Mather embosses its logo onto the treats its communities’ executive chefs make.
From there, sales teams refocus their efforts on maintaining rapport and following up with prospects. Beztak for example follows up with prospects 24, 48 and 72 hours after a tour to keep the connection fresh. Follow-up for Beztak might also include a video from a community’s chef with a message mentioning a prospect’s favorite dish.
Wynn said one Solera sales team member sends a text message to the families she toured with throughout the day before she leaves the community. From there, sales team members have a goal of getting another face-to-face meeting within a week to 10 days.
Additionally, operators utilize resident ambassadors to connect with prospects for additional outreach.
“We see this a lot in the independent and assisted living communities, operators are leveraging their own residents to help tell that story,” Mitchell said.
Atwood mentioned that for HRA, the time for a prospect to decide tends to vary depending on what time of the month they come to visit and the level of need. Tours that occur prior to the 20th of any given month are more likely to close before the end of that month, while those who come after tend to take into the following month to make a decision.
