When HH Red Stone ranked 10th nationally in J Turner Research’s 2025 ORA® Student Housing Power Rankings, it accomplished something noteworthy: competing successfully against operators managing portfolios many times its size.

The rankings, which analyze online reviews and resident feedback across multiple platforms, placed HH Red Stone alongside industry giants like Cardinal Group (ranked 3rd), Greystar (4th), and Peak Campus (5th). These competitors manage tens of thousands more beds than HH Red Stone’s approximately 10,000-bed portfolio.

“We’re honored to be ranked among much larger operators while staying true to our commitment to deliver institutional-grade service at a boutique scale,” says Teddy Abdelmalek, Senior Vice President of Business Development at HH Red Stone.

What ORA® Actually Measures

The ORA® (Online Reputation Assessment) rankings provide objective, data-driven insights into how management companies perform from the resident perspective. Unlike subjective industry awards, ORA® analyzes actual resident reviews and ratings across platforms to evaluate performance in categories including maintenance responsiveness, staff interaction, value, amenities, and overall experience.

For investors and property owners, these rankings provide transparent insight into which management companies actually deliver on their commitments. “It’s one thing to claim you’re resident-focused,” Abdelmalek notes. “It’s another to have residents validate that through their experience and explain it in reviews.”

Beyond the Top 25 Student Housing Manager rankings based on ORA scores, J Turner Research also recognized managers through the 2025 Einstein Best of Awards across the five areas of on-site operations most valued by residents: Customer Service, Communication, Cleanliness, Maintenance, and Security. Powered by J Turner Research’s Einstein text categorization tool and proprietary artificial intelligence, Thought Analysis, the Einstein Best of Awards go beyond star ratings to identify the companies setting the standard for operational excellence in student housing.

Based on more than 12 million reviews, HH Red Stone stood out in a highly competitive national field. The company outperformed several larger operators, ranking #1 in Communication, #3 in Cleanliness, #3 in Maintenance, #8 in Customer Service, and #19 in Security. The results reinforce the company’s strong resident-first operating approach and highlight the consistency of execution across the operational areas that matter most to students.

The Boutique Advantage

While larger operators benefit from economies of scale, brand recognition, and institutional resources, HH Red Stone demonstrates that smaller, focused operators can deliver superior resident experiences through intentional operational discipline.

“We compete with operators managing significantly larger portfolios, but our focus on quality over quantity allows us to deliver superior resident experiences,” Abdelmalek explains. “We’re not managing properties just to collect fees. We’re managing them as if they’re our own.”

This philosophy extends from HH Red Stone’s history. The company spent a decade exclusively managing HH Group’s owned portfolio before launching its third-party management vertical in 2024. That ownership mindset carries forward into every third-party relationship.

“When you’ve been an owner-operator, you understand what actually matters versus what just looks good on paper,” Abdelmalek observes. “You make different decisions about staffing, maintenance, resident communication, everything.”

Functional Hospitality in Practice

HH Red Stone’s operating philosophy centers on what Abdelmalek calls “functional hospitality,” treating residents as the ultimate stakeholders rather than just customers paying rent.

“We have a saying: our residents are our CEO,” he explains. “If you treat them with the same attention you’d give ownership during a property visit, everything else falls into place. Your reputation, your retention, your resident satisfaction scores, all of it.”

This approach manifests in operational details that larger operators might overlook. Staff know residents’ names, remember family details, and maintain genuine relationships. Response times prioritize speed because prospects and residents need answers, not just eventually but immediately. Maintenance quality reflects respect for residents’ homes, not just contractual obligations.

“The way you make people feel on your property dictates how your asset performs,” Abdelmalek states. “That’s not me just saying that, that is what the data speaks to and we see it validated in these rankings.”

Implications for Owner Selection

For property owners evaluating management companies, the ORA® rankings offer important signals beyond portfolio size or brand name. HH Red Stone’s top 10 placement alongside much larger operators suggests that operational quality and resident focus matter more than scale alone.

“Owners increasingly recognize that bigger doesn’t always mean better,” Abdelmalek notes. “They want partners who will give their properties genuine attention, who understand owner alignment means sharing both risks and rewards, and who measure success by outcomes, not just activities.”

This resonates particularly as HH Red Stone expands its third-party platform, having recently closed on property near Yale University. The company’s selective growth approach prioritizes partnership quality over portfolio size.

The Competitive Advantage of Caring

In an industry where technology platforms and amenity packages often dominate competitive positioning, HH Red Stone’s ORA® ranking validates a different approach: consistent execution of fundamentals with genuine regard for resident experience.

“This recognition reinforces our belief that doing the fundamentals consistently every single day, treating residents with genuine respect, and maintaining accountability to ownership creates sustainable competitive advantage,” Abdelmalek concludes.

For an industry where online reviews increasingly influence leasing decisions and property values, HH Red Stone’s top 10 ranking demonstrates that resident satisfaction isn’t just good ethics. It’s good business. Additional details appear in the full announcement of HH Red Stone’s J Turner Research recognition.

Teddy Abdelmalek is Senior Vice President of Business Development at HH Red Stone. HH Red Stone is the property management arm of HH Group, managing approximately 10,000 beds across multiple asset classes including student housing, multifamily, affordable, and mixed-use properties nationwide. After a decade of exclusively managing HH Group’s owned portfolio, the company launched its third-party management vertical to serve other owners with the same institutional-grade approach it applies to its own assets.