RentCafe Senior Living Portal

Father’s assisted living location changed to this app and it is a big mistake. The app is NOT user friendly if you use and IPad or IPhone. I have not been able to click the pay button because it is very low on the window and does not allow you to scroll down further to have the access to it. Not to mention their service fee for Debit and credit are a bit absurd.

App forces me to go to email to get a code. Any other 2FA would be simpler. But this app doesn’t need 2FA in the first place. It’s not like anyone can steal funds through RentCafe. Also, RentCafe runs on my Mac but in a painfully small iPhone-sized window that cannot be enlarged. It is so small that I cannot read the text.

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.