Savoy Online Application — Testing Pilot

What we are doing, and why

We have rebuilt the rental application inside our own website. Until now, someone browsing The Marcus had to leave our site for the ResMan portal, find the unit again, and apply over there. That handoff is where we lost people, and once they crossed it we could not see anything.

Now the whole process lives on our site, which means we control it and we can finally see it. We will be able to:

See who starts an application and never finishes, and how far they got.
Follow up with those applicants and prompt them to complete it.
Alert the on-site team when applicants are abandoning the process.

The Marcus is a demo property for this pilot. Nothing you enter is live and none of it syncs to ResMan. It all gets deleted. Invent everything: names, addresses, employers, income, dates. Do not spend a second being accurate.

Wear two hats. You are one of the most experienced leasing people we have, so tell us where this fails an applicant or a site team. But also play the least experienced prospect you can imagine: on a phone, in a hurry, has never rented before, does not know what a guarantor is. Where would they hesitate, get stuck, or give up?

This will be our first outward-facing resident portal. It matters that we get it right before anyone outside the company sees it.

You will play two people. First the primary applicant, using your work email. Then your own roommate, using your personal email (roommate). Keep them straight and the whole flow works.

First, tell us what you are working on

Fill this in before you start. It attaches to everything you send and is how we reproduce what you hit. More detail is better.

Your phone

Browser on your phone

Your computer

Browser on your computer

Anything else worth knowing

Stage 1

On your phone

Most applicants are on a phone, so we start there.

Open The Marcus marcus-staging.vercel.app · opens in a new tab

Open this on your phone. Reading this on a computer? Text yourself the link.

1.1Open the site above on your phone

1.2Browse the floor plans and use the filters

Bedrooms, rent and square feet. Watch: can you still reach the filters once you scroll?

1.3Tap See Units, pick a unit, choose a lease term

1.4Read the fees

Due today, due before move-in, and monthly. Watch: does it add up, and would a first-time renter understand what they are paying and when?

1.5Tap Apply Now

This takes you to the Live at Savoy application page, which is where the application itself lives.

1.6Fill in Contact, Identity, Household and History

Contact step — use your work email. That makes you the primary applicant, and it is the address the resume link comes to.

Household step — add yourself as your own roommate. Add a co-applicant using your personal email (roommate) and a different last name, something fun. That is the person you will play in Stage 3.

✓ Done when: your work email is on the Contact step and your personal email is sitting in Household as a co-applicant with a different last name.

1.7Stop after History

Do not go any further on your phone. Put the phone down and leave the application exactly where it is.

Why you are stopping here. Real applicants start on a phone and finish somewhere else. Stage 2 is that handoff, and it only tests anything if you genuinely leave the application unfinished.

Stage 2

Move to your computer

Picking the application back up on a different device.

2.1Go to your computer and open a browser

Leave your phone alone for now.

2.2Go to The Marcus site on your computer

marcus-staging.vercel.app — the same link as above.

2.3Find the “Already started, or joining a roommate?” button

It is in the footer of the property site, and again on the application page. Watch: was it easy to find? A real applicant only remembers The Marcus, not the name of the site the application lives on.

2.4Enter your work email

You are the primary applicant here, so this is the work email you started with on your phone.

2.5Check your email, click the link, and verify your information carried over

Watch: does it land you exactly where you left off on your phone, with everything you typed still there?

✓ Done when: the application opens on your computer showing the work you did on the phone.

2.6Complete Income, Contacts and Review

2.7Put the computer away, pick your phone back up, and request the link again

On your phone, use “Already started, or joining a roommate?” with your work email once more, and open the fresh link. Your phone still remembers its own older copy, so this is how you pull down what you just did on the computer. Tell us whether the newest version came through.

2.8On your phone, tick the agreements and pay the application fee

Check the amount first. As the first applicant it should be $175: a $75 application fee plus a $100 administration fee, which is charged once per home.

✓ Done when: the application is submitted from your phone and you see the confirmation.

Use this card — it is the only one that works

Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
Expiry: 12 / 34
CVC: any 3 digits
ZIP: any 5 digits

We are in test mode, so a real card is simply declined. No money moves either way.

Stage 3

Apply again as your own roommate

Roommate applications are common and we have never handled them ourselves before.

3.1Check your personal email (roommate) for the invitation

This is the address you added as a co-applicant back in step 1.6. You are now playing that person.

3.2No invitation? Go to the site and request one

Open The Marcus, find “Already started, or joining a roommate?”, and enter your personal email (roommate).

3.3Watch your personal email for the invitation to arrive

Check spam too, and tell us if that is where it landed.

3.4Complete the application as the roommate

Same first name, the fun last name you invented in 1.6. Everything else can be fake.

3.5Check the fees

As a joining roommate it should be $75, with no administration fee — that one is charged once per home and the primary already paid it.

✓ Done when: the total reads $75, not $175.

3.6Pay with the test card and submit

Same card: 4242 4242 4242 4242, 12/34, any CVC, any ZIP.

If you have the patience

None of this is required. It is where the interesting findings usually hide.

Being difficult on purpose

Press Next with fields empty. Does it tell you clearly what is missing?
Enter nonsense: a bad email, a one-digit phone, a birthday in the future.
Go back several steps with the chevrons, then forward again. Is everything still there?
Add a second co-applicant and a guarantor, then remove one.
Close the browser completely mid-application, then come back.
Use the browser's Back button instead of the wizard's own buttons.
Refresh the page in the middle of a step.
Open the application in two tabs and edit in both.
Flip to airplane mode for a moment while typing, then back on.

Reading and money

Change the lease term on a studio. Do the rent and monthly total move together?
Add a co-applicant, then check whether your total changed. It should not.
Read the deposit wording. Is it clear you are not paying it today?
Turn on larger text, or zoom in a couple of steps.
Rotate the phone sideways on a few screens.

After submitting

Request a link again. You should be told the application is locked, but still be able to add a roommate.
In that mode, try to change something other than the roommate. It should not let you.
Request a link with an email that has no application at all.

Already known — no need to report

The cookie banner appears twice, once on each site. Two different domains cannot share the answer.
Apple Pay and Google Pay may not appear. They need a card saved on the device.
“Join a roommate” does nothing unless that person was already added to an application. That is deliberate, so the form cannot be used to find out who has applied.

Online Application Testing Pilot