“What can we add to the clubhouse that residents will actually use, and that won’t need another person on payroll?” If you manage a Florida apartment community or a student housing building, you have asked that in a budget meeting. Here is the honest answer. The best amenities are the ones residents photograph, because a resident’s post does your leasing for free. So below you’ll find the unique apartment amenity ideas that earn posts, the ones that gather dust, and one that costs you $0.
Why most amenity lists fail Florida properties
Search for amenity ideas and you get the same list every time. Dog park, package lockers, coworking room, rooftop grills.
They’re fine. However, every competing property within a short drive already has them. So they stop being a reason to sign and become a box to tick.
Florida also adds its own problems. Outdoor amenities fight humidity, salt air near the coast, and an Atlantic hurricane season that swallows half the calendar. Grills rust. Hammocks mildew. Pool furniture ends up in the retention pond.
Meanwhile, your residents spend August indoors with the AC cranked. In other words, the amenity that wins in Florida usually lives inside.
So we’d use a three-part test, and we’d use it ruthlessly. Does it work indoors in August? Does it run without staff? And will a resident show it to a friend?
Unique apartment amenity ideas residents actually post
Here’s how the usual suspects score against that test. These are our judgment calls, not survey data. So argue with them if your building is different.
| Amenity | Works indoors in August | Staff needed | Gets posted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pet wash station | Usually | Daily cleaning | Rarely |
| Pool cabanas and sun deck | No, and not in a storm | Some | At sunset, sometimes |
| Podcast or content room | Yes | Booking and upkeep | Now and then |
| Cold-storage package room | Yes | Some | Never |
| Monthly resident events | Yes | Yes, every single time | Often |
| Photo booth in the clubhouse | Yes | None | Every session prints a strip |
A content room for residents who film everything
A small room with a ring light, a neutral wall and a door that shuts is cheap to build. Your residents also already create content on their phones. Still, someone has to manage bookings and keep the gear from walking off.
An event calendar with a point of view
Pizza in the lobby isn’t really an event. A pool-deck movie night in March, when snowbird season makes evenings pleasant, actually is. Even so, events burn staff hours, and attendance swings with the weather.
A permanent photo booth in the clubhouse
This is the one we’re biased about, so we’ll be upfront: we place them. But the logic holds up. A booth works in August and needs nobody on staff. Plus, every session hands a resident a printed strip that ends up on a fridge, a dorm mirror or a feed.
If you already have a clubhouse corner in mind, our venue partner page explains exactly how a free placement works.
Why a photo booth fits apartment life so well
Our founder, Thomas, puts it simply. Nobody notices they’re in the good old times while it’s happening. Later, people want something tangible from that stretch. A lease is a chapter of someone’s life, and most residents leave it with nothing but a camera roll.
That’s where a printed strip earns its keep. Digital clips get buried under screenshots. A strip, by contrast, gets taped to a bedroom door and moves with the resident to the next apartment.
Student housing proves the point fastest. Our first live booth sits in a university lobby at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. The question students ask most isn’t about price. It’s whether the booth is staying, and they light up when the answer is yes. For a residential property, that reaction is the whole point: permanence is what turns a novelty into an amenity.
For a conventional community, the booth also does a few quieter jobs:
- It gives leasing tours a stop that feels alive, even at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
- Resident mixers get a built-in activity, so a pool-deck social has something to do besides stand around the cooler.
- Your logo leaves with every strip, because the wrap and the print both use your colors and name.
- It keeps working at 11 p.m., when the leasing office is dark.
The objections your regional manager will raise
Good. In fact, they should raise them. Here are the answers we’d give in the meeting.
“What if it breaks?” We watch every SmileMore booth remotely, so we usually spot a problem before your front desk hears about it. Repairs are on us. If a session ever fails, the resident gets a refund, and nobody on your team has to handle the complaint.
“Who restocks the paper?” We do. Your maintenance team never touches it.
“Will it look cheap?” Our machines are built in-house, never bought off a catalog, and each one is dressed in a wrap made for its building. The NSU unit wears Sharks blue. Yours would carry your palette and community name instead.
“What about liability?” The machine is ours, so it’s covered on our side. Your management company should still run it past its own policy, exactly as it would any vendor’s equipment in a common area.
“What if residents ignore it?” Then it isn’t a fit, and we move it. That’s the whole risk on your side.
Give your clubhouse a corner residents brag about
Snap the clubhouse corner, tell us roughly how many residents pass it, and hit send. Two minutes of your time gets an honest yes or no on whether your community fits.
Turn the booth into resident marketing
Here’s the part leasing teams tend to miss. Every month we run the SmileMore Challenge. A resident posts their strip, tags your property and SmileMore, and then enters a monthly draw.
As a result, each entry is a real post from a real resident naming your community. Prospective renters scroll tagged photos before they ever book a tour. So those posts beat any stock image on your listing.
Meanwhile, the footprint is modest: a single wall outlet and a patch of floor near 5 by 5 feet, and the cabinet wheels in through an ordinary doorway. If you’re curious what install day looks like, our walkthrough of a photo booth install covers it step by step.
Timing and how to get on the list
Home base is Davie, which means Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade properties are where we’re busiest. Managing a community farther up the state? Ask anyway, and we’ll give you an honest read on timing.
Also, demand has us scheduling installs in groups, so your booth could land a few months after you say yes. If you want one in place for fall move-in or before snowbirds arrive, ask well ahead.
The process itself is short. First, you tell us about the space. Then we design the wrap. Finally, we install. For the bigger picture, our pillar guide on hosting a free photo booth as a business explains what qualifies.
Frequently asked questions
Can a photo booth run in a 24-hour student lounge?
Yes, if the space suits it. The booth never needs a staff member, and we monitor it remotely around the clock. We’ll look at your hours and traffic during review before recommending a spot.
Will the booth show up in our leasing photos and virtual tours?
It can, and we’d encourage it. A wrapped booth in your colors reads as a branded amenity, not a vendor machine. It also gives the clubhouse shot something residents will recognize from their own feeds.
Where in an apartment community does a booth do best?
Usually somewhere residents already pass on purpose, such as near the mailroom, the gym entrance or the clubhouse lounge. Beyond a plug and a small square of floor, the main thing we look for is a spot residents walk past on purpose. A quick photo answers most of our questions.
Is a booth only for student housing, or for luxury communities too?
Both can work, because the wrap matches your brand rather than ours. A student building may see louder weekends, while a luxury community may lean on resident events. Either way, we’ll tell you honestly if the numbers don’t make sense.
So here’s a dare for the next property walk. Most unique apartment amenity ideas look great in a slide deck and then disappear in real life. Walk your clubhouse tonight and count the things a resident would actually photograph. If the count is zero, see if your space qualifies and let us fix one corner of it.
