How Merrill Gardens Is Raising The Bar For Senior Living Hospitality With Tech

Senior living operator Merrill Gardens is adopting new technology and finding new ways to engage residents, all in service of making assisted living more hospitality-focused.

That’s according to Chief Operating Officer Jason Childers, who told Senior Housing News the Seattle-based company is working to deliver “the greatest hospitality ever shown” to its residents at every touch point along their senior living experience.

Assisted living has evolved over the years from a “social model of congregate living” to better meet the care needs of residents, Childers said. It’s a common refrain in senior living that today’s assisted living is yesterday’s skilled nursing. But the baby boomers don’t want overly clinical settings, even when they do need a higher level of care.

The company believes that residents and family members desire unique experiences tailored to their wants and needs. That is why the company is focusing on “little extra steps” that make residents feel special. Examples include using technology to collect more information on residents and their families to give them unique gifts and having a chef make and deliver a surprise birthday cake for a resident.

“That’s a huge focus for this year,” Childers said.

Merrill Gardens is powering its hospitality focus with platforms such as TSO Life, Icon and LifeLoop through pilots in a handful of communities.

“We want to be a part of the hospitality economy and really deliver on that,” Childers said. “We think that that can be a differentiator for us in this industry, of being known for going above and beyond in every aspect of what we do.”

Increasing engagement through technology

Merrill Gardens has three tech pilots underway in several of its 61 communities, including interviewing and transcribing resident profiles to align residents with similar interests.

The operator is through its tech pilots gaining visibility into what engages residents, according to Childers. The operator also is using certain tech to streamline the efforts of activities directors and boost efficiency among staffers.

For example, the operator is using TSO Life to record and transcribe new resident interviews with AI that also creates a profile for them. Activities directors can use the information to build programming calendars based on resident interests.

“It helps you identify where interests are changing in your community,” Childers said.

The tech platform also helps the company’s department heads share information with one another. By executing on technology like this, the hope is to help expand on Merrill Gardens’ concept of “unreasonable hospitality” by paying better attention to their wants and needs through customized experiences that are “outside of the ordinary.”

“The better we know our residents and their likes and wants and needs, and the more that we can share that information across the community, the more opportunities we have to create some really customized experiences for people,” Childers added.

Merrill Gardens is piloting the three tech programs across several communities. Later in June, the operator will choose one of the pilots and roll the product out across its entire portfolio, with plans to use it to inform the company’s wider operations.

Merrill Gardens has been somewhat limited in its AI use outside of fall detection systems and utilizing Microsoft Copilot to make policy and handbook information easy to access through a searchable function. The main challenge the company faces with adopting AI technology is simply how fast it is changing and growing.

Instead of adding in new AI options, the attention is turning to its companywide intranet functionality to be “the latest and greatest” so information is easily accessible for staff.

“I think we’re just at the very beginning stages of trying to figure out how to implement this into our operations,” Childers said.

Portfolio-wide, Merrill Gardens is sitting at just over a 90% occupancy rate, including in new lease-up communities, Childers said. Now, the company is seeking to keep that momentum up this year as occupancy and revenue rise. 

“We had really good movement on our market-rate and internal increases,” Childers said. “[We] can just continue to finish out the year strong in those areas.”

Additionally, the company continues to widen its footprint. In May, it announced three new communities had been added in Oregon through a combination of acquisitions and development with Merrill Gardens at Cedar Mill in Portland; Merrill Gardens at Sherwood in Sherwood; and Merrill Gardens at Hillsboro in Hillsboro. The company is acting as the manager for all three of the acquisitions as well.

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