Ritz-carlton Vs. Reality: Assisted Living A Work In Progress As Operators Adapt To New Consumer Base

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Assisted living residents of today and tomorrow desire high-quality health care services, larger units and lifestyle amenities – and they want it at a cost they can reasonably afford.

Assisted living operators have historically offered either high-quality health care and trendy lifestyle amenities or more middle-market or affordable services, but not both. Staffing, the cost bases of projects and other operational hurdles mean that many senior living operators on the higher end of the acuity spectrum, such as assisted living, are stuck at a cost floor that is already too high for some older adults.

And yet, this is what residents want and will expect as they age. According to Marlena Hemenway, chief experience officer at The Geneva Suites, operators must grasp that society has catered to the boomers throughout their entire lives.

“We need to understand that assisted living is going to have to change with what they want,” Hemenway said. “They want what they want, and they want you to do what they want.”

As tough as it may be to do, finding the right balance among those market forces is a high priority for operators such as Denver-based OneLife Senior Living. The boomer generation in particular has embraced trends like fast-casual eateries, wellness treatments and more customization, and they won’t give that up just because they need more care.

“The assisted living residents coming in today are the skilled residents of 10 years ago, and so they’re coming in with comorbidities, they’re coming in needing help with more ADLs, but they’re also coming in with this Ritz-Carlton experience that they want,” said OneLife CEO Dan Williams this week at RETHINK, an event co-hosted by SHN and sister publication Skilled Nursing News, focused on the future of skilled nursing and assisted living. 

While it’s easy to say that boomers want it all, and there is surely some truth in that statement, the reality that is shaping up on the ground in senior living communities actually tells a more nuanced story. For instance, the incoming generation of residents may want and even pay for high-end amenities that they actually never utilize, Williams and other executives I spoke with at RETHINK told me. And Hemenway described the appeal of more residential care models that emphasize a homelike atmosphere and purpose-driven lifestyle versus a more resort-like or hospitality-forward environment.

In this members-only SHN+ Update, I analyze panels from our RETHINK event and data on older adult preferences and offer the following takeaways:

• What new data says about older adults’ current preferences for unit size, amenities and costs
• Why assisted living is still a “work in progress”
• How operators are shifting their services to appeal to boomers

Bigger units, more lifestyle services, lower cost

As NIC Founder and Nexus Insight Fellow Bob Kramer told me many years ago, the boomers will not be happy with the “three hots and a cot” approach of senior living’s bygone years. Recent data shows they will desire much more.

For years, operators debated whether health care or hospitality approaches would better suit the generation. But now, I believe operators have arrived at the conclusion that the boomers actually want both health care and hospitality at the same time.

In 2025, assisted living units with three or more bedrooms carried an average occupancy rate of 88%, “hinting that preferences in independent living may be bleeding into assisted living as residents transition through the continuum of care” and “suggests increasing resident preference for more spacious accommodations, even among residents requiring assistance,” wrote NIC Senior Principal Omar Zahraoui.

A 2023 survey from ASHA and ProMatura Group revealed that boomers desire communities that maintain their independence and self-sufficiency. Indeed, among the most “notable shifts” in consumer preferences among baby boomers “is a desire for active and engaging lifestyles,” wrote Trilogy Health Services Division Vice President Anthony Wilson last year.

“Unlike some previous generations, who may have viewed retirement as a time for relaxation and leisure, baby boomers are seeking opportunities for continued growth, learning and adventure,” he wrote. “Flexibility and customization when it comes to their living arrangements is a clear expectation among prospective residents. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all retirement communities.”

Some operators, like Juniper Communities, are developing strategies that use technology as a way to meet desires for both customization and more lifestyle services. For example, Juniper uses data to customize certain lifestyle services through its Catalyst wellness program with a belief that “the consumer today is very different than most of us think,” CEO Lynne Katzmann told SHN.

Cost is also top of mind for the boomers, even as they exist today as the wealthiest generation of Americans according to median net worth. On the higher end of the cost spectrum, an “increase in wealth more than offsets the increase in rent” for residents, said NIC MAP CEO Arick Morton during a webinar in May. But even so, the industry “can’t just raise prices endlessly,” Morton said.

“Even if penetration increases, affordability limits are very real for about a third of the population,” he added.

As I see it, assisted living operators have a tough road ahead of them in meeting the expectations of the boomers. And perhaps most worrying of all, companies may not know they are failing to meet those expectations until it’s too late, or they might find themselves one-upped by new options entering the market.

During the panel at RETHINK, Longevity Senior Living President and CEO Carl Hirschman pointed out that a company today could well buy an older building and watch it fill up, only for residents to leave for shinier, newer communities down the road.

“You can buy something that is functionally obsolete and potentially get it full, just because people don’t have an option,” he said. “But as soon as development starts happening again, that building is going to empty out, and you’re going to have to go down to your price point in order to fill it up.”

Assisted living ‘still a work in progress’

When it comes to the evolution of assisted living, OneLife’s Williams is the first to tell you that the company’s efforts are “still a work in progress.” In 2025, OneLife is trying to build a model that offers residents multiple dining options, activities, wellness and all at a cost that doesn’t break their bank account.

“We’re still seeing the first brunt of baby boomers, they really haven’t hit yet. So we really just don’t know too much, at least in my opinion, about exactly what they’re going to want,” he said.

Common logic dictates that senior living companies might strive to create communities with everything a prospective resident would ever want – and that might not actually be the right approach. During RETHINK, the panelists spoke of an interesting phenomenon where residents may desire an amenity or service while they are touring a community, only to never use it once they move in.

Hirschman compared the trend to buying a Porsche that can drive 200 miles per hour, but never driving it anywhere near that speed.

“People want that ability, but all of that costs money … and they don’t want to pay more money,” Hirschman said.

Williams shared an anecdote of a resident who chose a OneLife community because it had a pool.

“I said, ‘Oh, that’s great. You’re going to do water aerobics, you’re going to swim,” Williams said. “And she said, ‘Oh, no. Nobody’s ever going to see me in a bathing suit at this age.’”

Longevity takes the approach that operators can still offer incoming residents many of the things they want, within reason. Like Juniper’s Katzmann, Hirschman believes the key to attracting the boomers will lie partly in services that increase their number of healthy, active years, not just lengthening their lives.

“They’re used to doing chair yoga, and we’re … going to actually do real progressive resistance training to increase muscle mass, help reduce falls and increase bone growth,” he said.

Geneva Suites is a residential senior living operator, and Hemenway said it’s not always feasible to build communities with the exact amenities residents want, such as bistros or pools, given the small footprint involved in the residential model. That is why the company is rooted in the Montessori method, a philosophy meant to give residents more purpose and autonomy over their daily lives.

“It could be as simple as helping us put the silverware away because they like sorting or making sure the plants are watered because that gives them joy,” Hemenway said. “The more we get into what those boomers really want and what gives them meaning … I think that’s where we’re going to have a lot of success.”

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