Latest news with #HqO
Business Wire
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
HqO Appoints Kunal Lala as EMEA Leader, Accelerates European Growth Strategy
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HqO, the world's leading real estate experience platform, announced today that it has appointed Kunal Lala as Senior Managing Director—a key step in accelerating the company's growth and customer partnerships across EMEA. This strategic hire reinforces HqO's commitment to deliver a global platform that directly addresses both tenant and investor needs. This appointment positions HqO to deliver scalable operational excellence as markets continue to evolve and change in response to rising tenant expectations, operational demands, and regulatory changes. Lala brings deep experience in the real estate industry and served as Head of Sales and Partnerships at Spaceflow, where he refined the company's go-to-market, sales, and account management strategies. In his new role, he will lead HqO's expansion across EMEA, execute the company's European roadmap, provide in-person support to clients, and continue to build strong relationships across the industry. 'The European market, in particular, represents tremendous growth potential for HqO because the CRE market there is increasingly focused on creating workplaces that foster connection and creativity, recognizing that today's tenants expect more than simply spaces in which to work,' said Chase Garbarino, CEO of HqO. 'Kunal's leadership will help us scale our footprint throughout Europe, where the market is primed for integrated solutions that meet tenant expectations and business outcomes.' Today's announcement builds on HqO's continued investment in the EU, including the acquisitions of Office App, Symbiosy, and Leesman — the global leader in measuring and analyzing employee workplace experience. These strategic acquisitions have expanded HqO's product capabilities, data insights, and local market expertise, laying the groundwork for continued growth across the continent. Recent deployments—like Central Park in Dublin, Campus Boulogne in Paris, and Airport Plaza in Brussels—showcase how tenants now use the HqO mobile app to seamlessly connect with high-value amenities, personalized services, and a dynamic community calendar, transforming how they engage with their workplace. Other recent milestones include the successful mobile access roadshow, which engaged customers across EMEA and demonstrated HqO's commitment to client success through hands-on demonstrations of its NFC-based mobile access capabilities. "We're at a tipping point in commercial real estate, where the winners will be those who understand that experience is the new currency of value. There has never been a more exciting time to help shape the future of European real estate with HqO, as commercial real estate owners and operators across the region are recognizing that the workplace of the future is human-centered, digitally connected, and operationally intelligent,' added Lala. From local flexible workplace requirements to ESG-driven operations, HqO is focused on delivering tools that align with the top priorities of EMEA CRE owners and operators: Flex Space Enablement: As flexible leasing and hybrid work reshape real estate in Europe, HqO supports landlords with tools to manage memberships, bookings, billing, and access—all in one place. Seamless, Connected Workplace Experiences: Tenants expect more than access—they value convenience, personalization, and a sense of community. HqO's platform enables intuitive navigation of spaces, amenities, and services across the portfolio. Smart Buildings & ESG Performance: With rising pressure to meet environmental targets and run buildings more efficiently, HqO supports landlords with smart building solutions that optimise performance and align with ESG goals. The announcement also builds on HqO's spring product release, which introduced the industry's first unified platform that connects tenant and investor lifecycles—driving smarter decisions, stronger relationships, and operational excellence at scale. About HqO: HqO is leading the transformation of the way people experience real estate. Through its Real Estate Experience (REX) Platform, a powerful and dynamic suite of applications and services, HqO has powered 1 billion square feet at over 1,500 properties across 32 countries. The world's most innovative organizations rely on HqO to drive operational excellence by maximizing and boosting tenant and employee acquisition, retention, and engagement.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
HqO launches platform to link building operations, tenant experience and financial outcomes
This story was originally published on Facilities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Facilities Dive newsletter. Real estate experience firm HqO today launched a system of record for customer experience in commercial real estate, which the company says will help empower property owners and operators to drive long-term asset value. HqO's new platform aims to address challenges resulting from disconnected data and systems by consolidation building operation and tenant experience insights so that facility teams can create 'vibrant, profitable properties' that provide flexibility, hospitality and measurable workplace ROI, the company said in a Thursday release. Alongside the platform, HqO is releasing its REX Framework, a methodology that aligns experience delivery with financial outcomes, which it says helps organizations create outcome-driven environments 'where every interaction transforms properties and drives tenant satisfaction, operational excellence, and long-term performance.' By connecting three workflows — asset management, tenant lifecycle and building operations — the platform connects the tenant journey to the investor lifecycle and enables teams to set and evaluate key performance indicators across commercial real estate, HqO says. These metrics include net operating income, capital expenditure and return on investment for asset performance; satisfaction and retention for tenant experience; and uptime and efficiency for operations, per the release. 'The smart operators are really developing a methodology for catering to different personas and stakeholders within the customer segment,' Chase Garbarino, CEO and co-founder of HqO, told Facilities Dive. 'They have their investors and they have their the difference between how [different employees] access the office, versus the person who is negotiating the lease and doing the administrative work?' The REX Framework breaks down to five parts — assess, activate, engage, monetize and measure — according to Garbarino. 'First and foremost, when you think about how people assess space, there's been a secular change in the ROI of the workplace,' he said. While traditional commercial real estate assessments take the physical environment and basic occupant survey information into account, they fail to look at the different types of work being done at a particular location, Garbarino said. 'What's the difference between somebody who needs concentration space … versus a scrum team of engineers that are working on a software project, versus [those working] on a hardware project,' he said. 'The set of variables that need to be assessed has gotten dramatically more complex in terms of how people get onboarded.' Once an asset is assessed, HqO then provides owners and operators with AI-powered insights, including lease renewal forecasting, operational planning to improve NOI, and benchmarking performance across assets and regions, to 'activate' properties and drive improvements. Return-to-office trends have pushed flight-to-quality in the office market, driving prime building vacancy levels down and increasing rents in Class A+ and Class A office buildings, but overall vacancy rates remain elevated. This has resulted in decreased rents for lower-class buildings and forced operators of non-prime stock to raise concessions in hopes of attracting tenants, according to a CBRE analysis released in March. As a result, owners and operators could benefit from leveraging tenant experience data to improve asset performance and operations to attract demand, Garbarino said. 'We can't all pay 200 bucks a square foot at Hudson Yards,' he said. 'Most tenants are not going to expect [that] experience, but they're going to expect better than what they had, he said.' As a result, operators are going to have to provide more service offerings that are temporary and mobile, with amenities that are significantly less expensive, he said. 'Where the capital markets are, it's not super easy to completely reposition an E+ asset to make it an A-minus or an A, not even necessarily a trophy [asset]. There's going to need to be some creativity in terms of, ultimately, how they gussy up these assets,' Garbarino said. Recommended Reading Building obsolescence risks can help guide renovation planning: JLL Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
