Custom smartliving management software
Furnished studios, short leases, all-inclusive services, shared amenities: smartliving requires a platform able to absorb fast turnover without multiplying administrative work.
KERN-IT builds business platforms for managed housing operators. Since 2017 we have supported IKOAB on exactly these building blocks: bookings, contracts, billing, interventions, resident and owner portals.
Smartliving and coliving: two models, two pieces of software
Coliving
- Private room in a shared house
- Kitchen, living room and bathroom shared
- Portfolio spread across many houses
- Software challenge: room allocation and community life
See our coliving management software.
Smartliving
- Fully self-contained furnished studio or flat
- No shared private areas, optional common amenities
- A single building with a high density of units
- Software challenge: short leases, fast turnover and add-on services
See our definition of smartliving.
What breaks when you run a smartliving building
Fast turnover
Leases of three to twelve months generate a constant flow of move-ins and move-outs, with inventories, deposits and make-ready work to chain together.
Pro rata billing
A mid-month arrival, a service added during the stay, an early departure: each case becomes a manual calculation.
Add-on services
Cleaning, parking, storage, gym, coworking: options end up tracked in files separate from the rent.
Access and shared spaces
Issuing a badge, opening a room or booking a shared space remain manual gestures, often outside the management software.
International prospects
Applicants, often expats, book remotely and expect a fully digital journey, from viewing to signed lease.
Several buildings, several brands
Each new building adds its own spreadsheet, rules and exceptions instead of fitting a shared framework.
We build the single system that connects these operations, without forcing you into the mould of a classic property management tool.
A platform designed for managed housing with high turnover
Buildings and units
Building records, studios and flats, equipment, statuses, availability and occupancy history.
Booking and short leases
Online application journey, validation, unit allocation, short-term leases and renewals.
Residents and documents
Resident records, contracts, deposits, inventories, onboarding and offboarding, e-signature through integration.
All-inclusive billing
Rent, charges, WiFi, cleaning and options on a single invoice, with pro rata calculation and recurring payments.
Add-on services
A catalogue of options subscribed during the stay, billed automatically and tracked per unit.
Access and shared spaces
Booking of rooms, coworking and equipment, with access rights driven by the contract. See our definition of connected access control.
Resident portal
Contracts, invoices, payments, maintenance requests, practical information and notifications. See our definition of the tenant portal.
Steering and reporting
Occupancy rate, revenue per unit, average length of stay, unpaid rents and open incidents, per building or brand.
Managed housing experience, transposable to smartliving
We did not learn this business from a white paper. Since 2017, KERN-IT has been building and growing the digital ecosystem of IKOAB, a major coliving player in Belgium: booking journey, rental processes, payments, resident and owner spaces, request tracking, renovations and multi-site network infrastructure.
The smartliving property model differs from coliving, but the software building blocks are the same: book, contract, bill, intervene, inform, steer. That is the foundation we adapt to your buildings and your short leases.
- A portfolio grown from 10 to more than 60 houses and over 600 rooms.
- A platform used by residents, owners and internal teams.
- Progressive development, without a full rebuild at every step.
Discover the rental management platform built for IKOAB.
Connect the platform to your existing ecosystem
Finance and payments
- Accounting software
- Payment provider
- Direct debits and recurring payments
- E-signature
Residents and building
- CRM and public website
- Access control and smart locks
- Support tools
- Messaging and notifications
Data and steering
- BI and reporting tools
- Booking portals
- Real estate APIs
We do not automatically replace all your tools. We identify what should be kept, connected, modernised or replaced.
We step in at different stages of your growth
Open a first building
You are launching your concept and need to digitalise bookings, leases and billing before opening.
Move beyond spreadsheets
Your building is running, but management relies on Excel, emails and disconnected tools.
Industrialise several sites
You are opening new buildings and want a shared framework rather than a per-building organisation.
How we build your smartliving platform
1
Business diagnosis
Interviews with the teams, mapping of the resident journey and of current management processes.
2
Prioritisation
Identification of the heaviest administrative tasks and of priority automations.
3
Prototype or first module
Building a limited scope, often booking or billing, to validate usage quickly.
4
Iterative development
Progressive delivery of modules and integrations, with feedback from teams and residents.
5
Continuous evolution
Maintenance, security and new features at the pace of your building openings.
We do not try to replicate your spreadsheets as they are. We simplify the processes first, then automate them.
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Frequently asked questions about smartliving management software
In coliving, the resident has a private room and shares the kitchen, living room and bathroom with the other inhabitants of the house. In smartliving, they occupy a fully self-contained studio or flat within a building, and common amenities (gym, coworking, laundry) are optional. Both models share flexible leases, all-inclusive services and largely digital management, but the rented unit is not the same, which changes the platform's data model.
It handles long leases and annual charges well. It handles fast turnover, pro rata billing, services subscribed mid-stay, shared space booking and online application journeys far less well. That is where custom software pays off.
Yes. Rent, charges, WiFi, cleaning and additional services can be grouped on a single invoice, with pro rata calculation of move-ins and move-outs and recurring collection through a payment provider.
Yes, if your system exposes an API. Access rights can then be granted and revoked automatically from the resident's contract, with no manual action at each move-in or move-out.
Yes. The architecture can cover several buildings, cities, legal entities, brands, languages and access levels, on a shared process foundation.
Our reference in managed housing is IKOAB, a coliving operator we have supported since 2017. The property model differs, but the software building blocks (booking, leases, billing, interventions, portals) are the same and transpose directly to smartliving.
The budget depends on the number of modules, integrations, migrations and the level of business complexity. A first scope can be built progressively, while a complete platform generally represents an investment of several tens of thousands of euros.
Yes. We can audit the code, architecture, database and usage in order to recommend a progressive takeover, a modernisation or a targeted rebuild.
Is your building opening soon?
Tell us about your concept, your leases and your included services. We will identify the modules to build first, so that management does not become the brake on your growth. First conversation with no commitment, in Brussels or by video call.