Inside CLS Living’s Hospitality-Infused Operations Model
Elliot Tamir shares how customization can transform student housing into a high-touch experience that drives resident satisfaction.
What makes student residents remember a space? It’s personalization, argues Elliot Tamir, co-founder & co-CEO of CLS Living.
That individual attention needs to come through in their daily experience. It translates to how well residents are known, how quickly service requests are handled and how consistently properties are maintained. Together, these details create an environment that feels more like a boutique hotel than the traditional “beds and leases” model that has long defined the sector.
This philosophy is visible across CLS Living’s portfolio, which spans 37 markets nationwide. The company aims to redefine how students experience their communities through synced teams, rapid conversions and precise campaigns, all hallmarks of its hospitality-infused approach to student housing. Multi-Housing News asked Tamir to share more about this strategy and how it shapes operations on the ground.
READ ALSO: How to Retain Students as Long-Term Residents
Student housing is a very cyclical sector, and good performance often means both getting students through the door and keeping them happy once they’re there. How are you keeping an elevated experience for your student residents?
Tamir: Years ago, while traveling abroad with my family, I stayed at a hotel where one employee greeted me by name every single morning. That small gesture left a lasting impression. Not only was someone paying attention, but they also cared enough to make my day brighter. At the same time, I was using three different third-party operators for my portfolio of apartment communities. They managed the day-to-day well enough, but our resident experience could be so much more if our teams cared enough to serve our residents better.
When we launched CLS Living, passion to serve was a requirement to join our team. We want to cater to our residents and, when possible, make their day brighter. Hiring passionate talent was only half the battle. To sharpen our skills, we partnered with Forbes Travel Guide to create hospitality-driven standards specifically tailored for student housing. These procedures may seem simple, but they have a profound impact on how our residents experience community, service and care.
You’ve previously compared aspects of running a student housing community to operating a SaaS company. What analogies do you see between the two worlds?
Tamir: Much like a SaaS platform, our platform is built on scalability and consistency to ensure each resident has a positive experience. For us, digital tools like apps and portals streamline operations. However, it’s our hospitality-driven culture that ensures technology enhances rather than replaces the human touch.
Like a SaaS, churn is easy to measure when a resident chooses to move or renew. Through customer satisfaction surveys, online reviews and social media sentiments, we continuously listen to the feedback loop of our residents to improve community relations. If you listen, your residents’ experience is easy to hear.
Speaking of resident experience, tell us more about your competitive edge in a market where most operators focus on scale and efficiency.
Tamir: Scale and efficiency only matter if they translate into a better resident experience. Our hospitality-centric mindset empowers employees to serve residents in ways rarely seen in apartment housing. Through our partnership with Forbes Travel Guide, we’ve built a training program that equips our teams with the skills and confidence of world-class service providers. That investment pays dividends not just for our residents, but for our employees as well, who carry those skills throughout their careers.
LISTEN TO: Student Housing Unlocked Podcast: How Are Higher Expectations Defining Management?
Tell us more about that hospitality-inspired mindset. What does it mean exactly?
Tamir: While we take pride in well-maintained facilities, cleanliness and curb appeal, our true differentiator lies in the principles of service. Much like a boutique hotel, our teams are trained to anticipate resident needs, create welcoming interactions, and elevate everyday moments beyond the ordinary. For our residents, this means a community where they feel recognized, cared for and supported, not just housed. It’s the service culture, not just the bricks and mortar, that defines the daily experience at our communities.
Boutique hotels are known for their attention to detail. What do you want students to feel when they walk through the door of one of your properties?
Tamir: Absolutely. What truly sets us apart is the way residents are treated. From the moment they walk through the door, students are welcomed into an environment that feels both elevated and personal. Our teams are trained to deliver thoughtful, hospitality-driven touches using information they’ve obtained through intentional rapport. Like my trip abroad, something as simple as remembering a name can have a lasting impression on a prospect or resident.
Although today’s students are tech-savvy, a digital-first resident experience can mean anything from online leasing to app-based maintenance requests. Where do you draw the line between convenience and keeping the human touch?
Tamir: Gen Alpha expects instant gratification, so we’ve built a tech stack that prioritizes speed, convenience and functionality. Fast, accurate and easy functionality is not their preference—it’s their requirement. We work hard to strike a balance between tech-enabled efficacy and a human experience that is there when residents need it to be.
I think everyone would agree that we want ease and convenience, but when you are in need, you want to cut through and get straight to a person who can help.
To ensure we remain balanced with our approach, we continually refine our systems and staffing models that enable our apartment communities to achieve stronger NOI and a better resident experience. By weaving out wasted time and leveraging the right tools, our teams are freed to focus on what matters most.
READ ALSO: Trends in Student Housing
One of the most important aspects that your teams need to focus on is leasing, an area that continues to evolve. Today’s students often prelease months in advance, sometimes before they even pick classes. How has this early decision-making trend shaped your approach to the leasing season?
Tamir: In today’s student market, strong supply and demand dynamics often mean entire communities are fully preleased by early spring, months before the academic year begins. In some cases, especially with high-demand unit types or prime locations, we even see students ‘pass down’ their apartments to friends rather than allow them to return to the open market.
If you think that leasing to students is easy, you are wrong. Our marketing and leasing teams must perform at the highest level to both generate the right traffic and convert leases at the right moment. Student housing is a finite market. Once demand is met, the opportunity is gone. If we have an empty bed in August after move-in, it can sit vacant for the entire year. That’s why we focus on building early momentum, ensuring our campaigns, digital platforms and onsite teams work in sync to capture demand quickly and consistently.
Looking ahead, what do you think will define student housing expectations and operations?
Tamir: The next generation of residents is comfortable with technology and quick to adopt new advances. At the same time, student housing isn’t just a service platform: It’s their home. Technology will continue to streamline leasing, communication and everyday conveniences, while personal service remains essential to making residents feel cared for.
From a marketing perspective, we have found that residents have enough confidence in digital tools to make informed decisions on where to live without ever visiting the market or community. If prospects are provided with a variety of options to validate the community conditions and experience, they will lease faster, sight unseen. For instance, outside of traditional websites and social platforms, authentic video tours, live-feed open houses or apps to connect with genuine residents allow a prospect to layer their research for confident decision-making.
