From Dining to Marketing, Active Adult Operators Navigate Shifting Trends 

While the senior living industry is preparing for the baby boomers, active adult operators already are looking even farther down the road.

With a resident base that is usually in their low 70s, active adult operators have for years grappled with the needs and desires of the boomers. Some are even thinking about Gen X, not as so-called adult children but as potential future residents with the oldest Gen X-er now 61 years old.

Active adult operators must navigate a fine line between multifamily and independent living, which is why they are in 2026 debating the role of the product type in everything from whether to offer food to accommodating older adults still working.

To go with, or in some cases go against, these trends, operators have to adjust their activities and lifestyle programming, such as Columbus, Ohio-based Treplus Communities and Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar.

“Now that active adult has been around and established … we have a much more in-tune renter,” Nathan Wetmore, senior director of real estate for active adult at Greystar, said. “Five years ago, you would never think our prospects would look at a conventional property, and while it’s still not desirable to them, they’re aware of it.”

Wetmore, Jane Arthur Roslovic, CEO of Treplus Communities and Anthony Polito, director of operations at Vitality Senior Living, all spoke about the top trends in active adult at the recent Senior Housing News TRENDS Conference in Chicago.

Dishing on dining

Meal or no meal? It’s a question that active adult operators are still openly debating. On one hand, some operators say offering food, especially in a setting with other unit types, can enhance the active adult value proposition. Others who are more critical of the practice think offering a food component only adds to operating costs.

“What happens when you bring in food services is that, now, all of a sudden, your operating costs have increased, and therefore it impacts the cost for the resident ,” Treplus’ Roslovic said.

Some of Treplus’ residents still work jobs to make ends meet and don’t desire to pay for additional services they might not even use at the end of the day.

Brentwood, Tennessee-based Vitality Living takes a different view, although with a different product type. Unlike Treplus, Vitality blends independent living and active adult on the same campus, and the operator can use that scale to extend dining services into active adult. The company currently offers dining services in five of its active adult and independent living communities.

Active adult residents do desire access to food services, and it is in the interest of active adult operators to help facilitate those wants. For example, operators can make it easier for residents to order GrubHub or DoorDash like some hotels already do.

“People want convenience, so I think that being able to provide that as an additional amenity, but still offer the autonomy where it’s not locked-in like in independent living,” Polito said.

Greystar is finding ways to have a happy medium between both practices by offering catering services on site. However, it’s both market- and community- specific, as the operator has a wide variety of offerings with 163 communities across the country and an average resident age of 72. In the end, Wetmore said, it all comes down to cost and what both the operator and resident are ready and willing to pay for.

Boosting active adult awareness

What is active adult? Many prospects still don’t know, and the product type’s national penetration rate is still relatively low.. That creates more room for education.

Active adult operators have not been focusing on changing service offerings either, and instead focuses on connecting residents with services outside of the communities themselves.

While there are challenges with incorporating new programming ideas, Greystar’s size acts as a benefit, and employees can share best practices and new ideas with each other to help raise the ride that lifts all of the company’s boats.

“It’s not about what we’re offering. There’s so much in our world that’s becoming convenient … But making people aware of that, having them come in, speak to our residents and give them options,” Wetmore said.

To help highlight these offerings, operators are embracing marketing strategies centered on empathy and the experiences of family caregivers. Greystar posts long- and short-form videos on platforms like Instagram to achieve that goal.

Treplus is boosting direct resident testimonials to push back against AI usage in marketing materials and showcase authenticity. The company posts on several platforms and in several formats and its residents and prospects are active on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

“It’s almost our version, in this world today, of word of mouth,” Roslovic said. “Authenticity is key with this demographic.”

Leaders with Vitality Living have also posted short-form marketing content – informed by focus groups — to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to showcase the independent lifestyle and value of its communities.

“People are much more apt to believe in the video of the event at the community or the resident referral saying, ‘I love living here,’” Polito said. “Just being as authentic and organic as possible, I think that’s the magic sauce.”