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The following are the Latchel updates for the week of September 21, 2026.
Next Week: Autopilot AI Launch WebinarAutopilot AI is our upgraded Autopilot product for customers who want the strongest AI in maintenance — and it’s launching Tuesday, September 30 at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET.What’s included:
  • AI support across every resident and vendor message
  • Warranty management
  • Smart Estimates — better numbers, faster
  • Preventative maintenance suggestions
  • Outbound voice AI

Register to join us for the launch!

There’s a prize drawing, too! Four winners will each score a free month of Autopilot AI.Registering earns you one entry — every step after that adds another, so the best odds go to whoever registers, shows up, and brings people along.Did you know? You can offer residents added services — filters, drain packs, pest control kits, lockout reimbursement — through Resident Benefits, and control exactly how they’re presented. See what’s possible below!

Resident Benefits Guides

Explore the benefits Latchel provides to residents and how they support residents satisfaction and retention.

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New Features

  1. A Paper Trail for Your Payment & Service Provider Settings
If someone opts a property in or out of a payment setting, flips a toggle, or changes a threshold, you can now see exactly who made the change and when — right in your company, portfolio, or property activity log. No more guessing who touched a setting or when it happened.
  • What’s covered: Preferred Service Provider Payments, Latchel Service Provider Dispatch & Payments, the Vendor Network (LVN) toggle, and the invoice auto-approval threshold
  • Card removals, too: if a card gets removed in Stripe, that now shows up in the log for every company, portfolio, and property that used it — previously it just disappeared with no record
While you’re checking your settings, here are some of the help guides to help you manage your service providers.

How to Add & Manage Service Providers

Step-by-step guide for onboarding and maintaning service provider profiles.

How to Opt-Out of Latchel Contractor Network

Remove your company from Latchel’s network dispatching.

How to Opt-In to the Latchel Contractor Network

Join Latchel’s vendor network for broader coverage.
  1. Get Bids From New Service Providers with Thumbtack
Running short on service providers in an area? Our new partnership with Thumbtack puts a wider bench of local pros right inside your workflow — no jumping to another app to go find help.
  • Where to find it: if your auto-queue comes up empty, we’ll automatically suggest looking for a pro on Thumbtack. You can also start a search any time from the Other Actions menu on a work order that doesn’t have a service provider assigned yet
  • Get real quotes, not just names: answer a few quick questions about the job — we’ll pre-fill what we can — then message one or more nearby pros for quotes, right from a new Thumbtack tab on the work order
  • Grow your network as you go: liked how a pro handled the job? Add them as a preferred service provider once it’s done, so they’re easy to bring back next time
We’re rolling this out midweek this week — reach out to success@latchel.com with any questions in the meantime.

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Resolved Bugs

Vendors Can Add Notes to Work Orders Again
What was happening:A handful of service providers stopped seeing the Add Note option under Provide Work Order Update on their assigned jobs — it just wasn’t there, with no error message. That meant vendors couldn’t leave notes on a job for PMs and owners to see, breaking a documented communication path.
What’s fixed:Add Note is back for every affected vendor, so service providers can once again document updates directly on the work order.

Shoutout!

 Shoutout to Metropolitan Real Estate for flagging that their vendors were running into this!

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Special Announcements

Want Early Access to AI Messaging? Later this week, we’re launching AI Messaging — and looking for a few PM companies to beta test it before the wider rollout. With the upgraded messaging experience, any time a resident or service provider texts in, Latchel AI handles the response. Residents and service providers can schedule work orders, create invoices, leave a review, and more — directly from the conversation thread. Message history logs automatically to the work order, so you’ll always have full visibility. After a two-week beta, AI Messaging goes live for all Latchel customers.
Want to be among the first to try it? Reply to this email and we’ll get you set up.

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What Should Latchel Build Next? You Decide.

Every year, our roadmap gets shaped by property managers who took 60 seconds to tell us what’s missing. We’re finalizing 2027 priorities soon — and this is the last easy window to have a say.

Submit your idea!

Feature requests, pet peeves, “why doesn’t Latchel just—” moments — all of it goes straight to the team deciding what gets built next.

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Interested in learning more about Latchel’s products? Book a meeting with us.

Get a Demo

Last modified on October 2, 2026