Written by
Sarah Nguyen
Published on
Jan 29, 2026
You invested in property management software. You set up the tenant portal. You sent the welcome emails with login instructions. You even did a quick training session with the team.
Six months later, tenants are still calling the office, emailing randomly, and occasionally just turning up to report a leaky tap in person.
The portal was supposed to streamline everything. Instead, you're running two systems: the portal for the tenants who use it, and phone/email for everyone else. Your team is logging issues manually anyway. The efficiency gains never materialised.
This is one of the most common frustrations in property management. And it's not your tenants' fault.
The adoption problem is universal
If your portal adoption is below 50%, you're not alone. Many agencies report that despite months of promotion, a significant portion of tenants never log in — or log in once and never return.
The result is the worst of both worlds: you're paying for software that only some tenants use, while still handling calls and emails from everyone else. Your team duplicates effort, and the promised time savings evaporate.
The question isn't how to force tenants to use the portal. It's why they don't want to use it in the first place.
Why tenants avoid portals
Friction kills adoption
Every portal requires tenants to:
Download an app or remember a website URL
Create an account or retrieve forgotten login details
Navigate an interface designed for property managers, not tenants
Fill in forms with fields they don't fully understand
That's a lot of steps between "my boiler isn't working" and "someone knows about it."
Compare that to picking up the phone: one action, immediate human response, done.
Tenants will always choose the path of least resistance. If calling is easier than logging into a portal, they'll call.
Forms feel impersonal
Traditional portals are essentially web forms with a property management wrapper. Select a category. Fill in a description. Upload a photo. Submit.
There's no conversation. No acknowledgment that a human has read it. Just a ticket number and a vague promise that someone will be in touch.
For a tenant whose heating has stopped working, this feels inadequate. They want to know someone is actually dealing with it, not that their issue has been added to a queue.
Timing mismatch
Tenants don't discover problems during office hours. The leak appears at 9pm. The boiler stops working on Saturday morning.
Submitting a form into what feels like a void — knowing no one will see it until Monday — doesn't feel like taking action. So they call instead, even if it means leaving a voicemail or waiting until the office opens.
A portal is passive. The phone feels active. That perception matters.
The form problem runs deeper
Forms are inherently rigid. They have fixed fields, dropdown menus, and mandatory options that force tenants to categorise their issue before they've even described it.
But real maintenance problems don't fit neatly into categories. Is a boiler that's making strange noises but still producing hot water a "heating" issue or a "noise complaint"? What category is "there's a weird smell coming from under the sink"?
The result: tenants either guess at categories (leading to misrouted issues) or select "Other" (defeating the purpose of categorisation). They write minimal descriptions because the form doesn't prompt them for the details you actually need.
And critically, forms can't ask intelligent follow-up questions. They can't say "you mentioned no hot water — is the heating working?" or "can you see any error codes on the boiler display?"
That back-and-forth happens later, manually, by your team. The form didn't save time; it just delayed the conversation.
What tenants actually want
When a tenant has a problem with their home, they want:
To describe it in their own words, not squeeze it into a form
To use a channel they already have on their phone
Immediate acknowledgment that someone received their message
Guidance if it's something they might be able to fix themselves
Updates on progress without having to chase
A conversation, not a transaction
None of this requires a dedicated portal. In fact, a portal often gets in the way.
The alternative: meet tenants where they are
The average UK adult checks WhatsApp dozens of times a day. They don't check your tenant portal.
What if maintenance reporting worked like any other conversation? Tenant messages "no hot water" via WhatsApp or email. They get an immediate response asking relevant follow-up questions. They share a photo of the boiler display. They provide their availability for a contractor visit. Done.
No app to download. No password to remember. No form to fill in. Just a conversation on a channel they already use, available whenever they need it.
This is what conversational maintenance reporting looks like. And it solves the adoption problem because there's nothing to adopt — tenants are just messaging, like they do with everyone else.
Why conversational beats forms
Better adoption
You don't need to convince tenants to use WhatsApp. They already use it for everything. There's no behaviour change required, no training, no "please remember to use the portal" reminders.
When reporting a maintenance issue is as easy as texting a friend, tenants actually do it.
Better information
A conversation naturally gathers more detail than a form. When AI asks "can you see any error codes on the display?" tenants answer. When AI asks "is this affecting just hot water or heating as well?" tenants clarify.
By the time your team sees the issue, it's fully documented: description, photos, error codes, tenant availability, initial troubleshooting already attempted. No follow-up calls needed.
Immediate response, always
Conversational AI responds instantly, 24/7. A tenant reporting a problem at 10pm on Sunday gets the same immediate acknowledgment and intelligent follow-up as one reporting at 10am on Tuesday.
That instant response — the feeling that someone is dealing with it — eliminates the anxiety that drives tenants to call instead.
Guidance that resolves issues
Many maintenance reports are for problems tenants can actually fix themselves: low boiler pressure, tripped electrics, appliances that aren't actually broken.
Conversational AI can walk tenants through diagnostic steps in real time. If the tenant repressurises the boiler and the heating comes back on, the issue is resolved in minutes without a contractor visit or any involvement from your team.
If the guidance doesn't resolve it, the AI has already gathered the information needed to dispatch a contractor efficiently.
Tenants feel heard
There's something fundamentally different about a conversation versus a form submission. Tenants feel like they're communicating with someone, not submitting a ticket into a void.
That perception translates into satisfaction. Tenants who feel heard are less likely to chase, less likely to complain, and more likely to report issues early rather than letting them escalate.
You don't have to rip out existing systems
If you've already invested in property management software, you don't need to abandon it. Conversational intake can feed directly into your existing systems — issues arrive fully documented, ready to be actioned, logged in the same place as everything else.
The difference is how the information gets there. Instead of hoping tenants log into a portal, you meet them where they already are.
Measuring the difference
If you're considering a shift from portal-based to conversational reporting, track these metrics:
Submission volume by channel: Are more issues coming through the new channel?
Information completeness: Are you getting photos, error codes, availability without asking?
Follow-up rate: How often does your team need to contact the tenant for more detail?
Time to first response: How quickly does the tenant receive acknowledgment?
Tenant satisfaction: Survey before and after — do tenants feel the process is easier?
Agencies that switch typically see dramatic increases in digital reporting and significant reductions in phone calls, because the alternative channel actually works.
The portal isn't the problem — friction is
Tenant portals fail because they add friction to a process that should be frictionless. They ask tenants to change their behaviour, learn a new system, and trust that forms submitted into a void will be acted upon.
Conversational reporting removes that friction entirely. Tenants message in a way they already understand, get immediate intelligent response, and receive updates without chasing.
The technology to make this work exists today. The only question is whether you keep fighting for portal adoption — or meet tenants where they already are.
Lanten replaces portal friction with natural conversation. Tenants report issues via WhatsApp or email, AI gathers complete information and provides troubleshooting guidance, and your team receives fully-documented requests ready to action. Book a demo to see how it works.
