RentCafe Senior Living Portal

The passwordless update sends a 6 digit code to your email address. Yardi has not taken into account their audience. The average age of the residents at my facility is 84. It’s a major accomplishment for an 84 year old to even attempt to use an app on a phone or iPad. The previous password version recognized face-id and touch-id to bypass the password. This update recognizes face-ID and touch-ID, then asks for your email address to send the code to anyway. The password version had the capability to remember the email address. This version only has the Remember Me option on some units. It looks to me like on my IPhone 16 Pro, it gives me the Remember Me option, then immediately hides it under the Next button, so you never get the chance to set the option. Many of our users don’t want to mess with the app if they have to type in their email address every time. With 84 year olds, dexterity becomes a major issue. Some users get the option to send the code to their phone. I think that works on about 50% of our users devices. Again I don’t have that option on my IPhone 16 Pro. It is identified as a mobile device in the RentCafe master database. I have no problem getting a code on my phone for other apps. Trying to explain to senior residents how to switch to their email app, get the code and get back to the Senior Resident app, becomes a major problem. We are losing a lot of previous users of the app due to the loss of user friendliness in the current version. The app works pretty well once you get access, but many users give up before they get that far. Update: The latest update helps the usability a lot. I was very pleased to see the Remember Me option to remember the email address login is now working again. Having to retype their email address every time residents logged into the app caused many residents to quit using the app. I’d still like to see the phone option working on all phones. I don’t have that option on an Iphone 16 Pro and the phone option works for all other apps that I have with a phone option for sending a code. There are still too many steps for a senior resident to log in. I had to prepare step by step instructions with screenshots just to show people the easiest way to log in. Pulling the code out of the code email and putting it at the top of the keyboard for one click to enter the code on an Iphone also helps, but that process is more reliable with the phone option. I’d still like to see Face Recognition or Touch-ID bypassing the code process like it did with the password version, which made it very easy for a senior to login reliably.

Account creation is painful. Once you have an account the app signs you out frequently so every time you open the app you must log in again! The app doesn’t allow a username/password combo and doesn’t support passkeys so you’re left with the slow and annoying otop code to email option. I tried the Sign in with Apple option but it said the email address doesn’t match even though my AppleID is using the same email as I use in the app. Once you login I’ve had problems where the Events Calendar randomly isn’t visible. I’m not a senior and work in IT. If I have this much frustration with an app designed to be used my seniors I can’t imagine it gets used much.

I made multiple attempts to log in using correct credentials, reset passwords, and even tried different devices and browsers—nothing worked. I contacted the developer, who redirected me to the property. The property then informed me that none of the residents’ family members are able to log in or use the app either, so this appears to be a widespread issue, not user error. This app is essentially unusable. There is no functional access, no resolution, and no accountability between the developer and the property. Completely ineffective and frustrating.