A Canadian company just launched a chatbot that answers questions tenants may have about a property using artificial intelligence.

Developed by the British Columbia-based real estate startup LetHub, the River chatbot can book tours, pre-screen tenants and navigate questions that would normally fall upon a property manager during the early stages of the rental process.

LetHub

“Renters can get their questions answered and get pre-qualified directly with the assistant,” Faizan Ali Khan, LetHub’s founder and CEO, told Inman. “In a typical rental company, a leasing agent would have to do all of that by picking up the phone.”

A recent MBA graduate from the University of Victoria, Faizan thought up the idea for River after realizing that many of the questions tenants ask when they’re starting to look for a place are similar and can be automated with a cloud platform and artificial intelligence. The chatbot replies to prospective tenant’s questions about the place and books tours while redirecting more complicated queries to a human manager.

Faizan Ali Khan | Courtesy of LetHub

“A leasing agent typically spends 70 percent of their day answering questions about the apartment and pre-qualifying people,” Khan said. “We wanted to automate some of that process.”

The software costs vary depending on how many units a building has — someone who manages a building with less than 1,000 units would pay between $500 and $600 a month (between 50 cents and $1 per unit) while those with multiple buildings and more than 1,000 units would get a special discount.

The River chatbot is, according to Khan, a way of pre-screening candidates before advancing to the later stages of renting a place to a tenant. At the moment, he and his team at LetHub are piloting it with a few local rental buildings and hope to get more property managers on board by the end of the year.

“We want everyone from the large property manager to the small landlord to be able to use it,” Khan said.

Email Veronika Bondarenko

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
Only 3 days left to register for Inman Connect Las Vegas before prices go up! Don't miss the premier event for real estate pros.Register Now ×
Limited Time Offer: Get 1 year of Inman Select for $199SUBSCRIBE×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×