In commercial real estate (CRE), tenant satisfaction is increasingly viewed as a key driver of occupancy rates, lease renewals, and asset value.
Today’s occupiers expect well-maintained, responsive, and comfortable work environments. To meet those expectations, CRE professionals must proactively gather insights from those who interact with the building on a daily basis—your tenants.
Tenant observations offer a direct, real-world view of what’s working, what isn’t, and where improvements can be made. Here are 15 types of observations every CRE team should collect and act upon to enhance operational efficiency, tenant involvement, and long-term value.
Maintenance Requests and Feedback
Tenants are often the first to identify maintenance issues—from leaky taps and broken door handles to HVAC malfunctions and flickering lights. Their observations not only help resolve problems promptly but also offer trend data that may indicate deeper, systemic issues in the building. Logging and categorising these requests over time allows property managers to identify recurring faults, prioritise preventative maintenance, and better allocate maintenance budgets.
Cleanliness and Hygiene Concerns
Cleanliness is a baseline expectation in shared commercial environments, particularly in the wake of heightened awareness around hygiene. Observations about unclean washrooms, overflowing bins, or dusty shared spaces can highlight service delivery gaps. Tracking cleanliness feedback also enables benchmarking against service level agreements (SLAs) and helps property teams maintain standards during high-traffic periods or after tenant events.
Temperature and Climate Control Issues
When tenants raise concerns about being too hot or too cold, it’s rarely just a comfort issue—it can be symptomatic of poor zoning, malfunctioning thermostats, or inefficient energy management. These observations help engineers fine-tune building management systems (BMS) and improve energy efficiency. Over time, they also contribute to occupant wellness, productivity, and overall satisfaction with the space.
Noise Disturbances
Noise complaints can be linked to construction work, operational equipment, HVAC systems, or adjacent tenants. Repeated noise-related observations may indicate structural or layout challenges that impact acoustics. Addressing these concerns promptly helps maintain a professional working environment and can prevent disputes between tenants sharing walls or floors.
Security Concerns or Incidents
Feedback about broken access control systems, poor lighting in stairwells, unauthorised entry, or unresponsive security personnel signals potential threats to tenant safety. Documenting and investigating these observations is critical not only for compliance and duty of care but also for preserving tenant confidence. Patterns in security-related feedback can guide investments in surveillance, access control, and patrol services.
Accessibility Issues
Tenants may highlight obstacles that prevent full accessibility for employees or visitors with disabilities, such as non-compliant ramps, faulty lifts, or poorly positioned signage. Addressing accessibility concerns is not only a legal obligation under regulations but also an important element of inclusive design and responsible property management.
Wi-Fi and Connectivity Feedback
Modern tenants expect seamless connectivity throughout their workspace. Reports of slow internet speeds, dropped connections, or network dead zones should be taken seriously, particularly in co-working or multi-tenant environments. These observations can signal the need for improved infrastructure, more robust service-level agreements with providers, or investment in backup systems.
Signage and Wayfinding Confusion
Feedback regarding difficulty locating offices, amenities, or emergency exits often points to deficiencies in signage and wayfinding design. These issues can cause frustration for both tenants and their clients. Collecting this type of observation helps inform better directional signage, map updates, and even layout improvements that enhance the overall navigability of the space.
Amenity Usage and Suggestions
Tenant observations about gyms, lounges, breakout areas, or bicycle storage—whether underutilised, overcrowded, or lacking key features—can guide decisions on how to adapt or improve amenities. Furthermore, tenants may suggest new services such as wellness rooms, EV charging stations, or additional food options. This feedback supports a more occupant-centric approach to asset planning.
Waste and Recycling Issues
Concerns about overflowing bins, improper waste separation, or unclear recycling procedures can reveal operational gaps and sustainability challenges. Tenant observations help identify whether waste management processes are effective, and they also provide an opportunity to increase recycling rates through clearer communication and improved infrastructure.
Lighting Complaints
Inadequate or inconsistent lighting—whether in car parks, corridors, or workspaces—can affect safety, productivity, and overall tenant experience. Observations about dim or flickering lights may also highlight underlying electrical faults. Capturing this feedback helps ensure that lighting is both functional and aligned with best practice design for health and comfort.
Pest Sightings
Pest-related observations—such as rodents, insects, or bird infestations—should trigger immediate investigation, as they represent a serious health and safety risk. Even isolated sightings can escalate quickly if not addressed, and they can negatively affect your reputation with both current and prospective tenants.
General Wear and Tear
Observations around peeling paint, damaged flooring, or worn furniture, while seemingly minor, contribute to the overall impression of the asset. Consistently high standards of maintenance and presentation support tenant satisfaction, brand image, and leasing appeal. Monitoring wear-and-tear feedback allows for proactive repairs before they evolve into costlier refurbishments.
Energy or Water Waste Observations
Tenants often spot signs of inefficiency that may otherwise go unnoticed—such as lights left on overnight, taps that never stop dripping, or heating systems operating during warm weather. These observations support environmental performance goals and can lead to tangible cost savings when used to inform audits or system upgrades.
Suggestions for Improvement
In addition to reporting problems, tenants often provide constructive suggestions for improving the workplace environment—whether it’s adding more plants, hosting tenant networking events, or providing lockers for cyclists. Encouraging this type of feedback fosters a collaborative atmosphere and gives tenants a sense of ownership in shaping their space.
Conclusion
Capturing and acting on tenant observations is no longer just good practice—it’s a strategic imperative for CRE professionals who want to retain tenants, maximise asset value, and deliver modern, responsive spaces. By developing structured processes and digital tools for observation collection, property teams can turn qualitative feedback into actionable data.
Regularly engaging tenants in this way not only improves day-to-day operations but also strengthens the long-term relationship between occupiers and landlords—resulting in higher retention rates, lower vacancy, and better portfolio performance.
If your organisation is looking for a 360° tenant experience tool to involve all employees, service providers and tenants to improve the quality of your operations, have a look at the 30-day free trial of Falcony | Tenant Portal:
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.
