Ask a rental owner how many hours they work in July and they will laugh. Ask how many of those go into things that repeat the same way every day, and they will think a little longer.
We did that sum for a typical example. It is not a measurement at a real property. It is an estimate with assumptions we state openly, so you can swap in your own numbers. It came out close to 10 hours a week, split across three jobs.
The example
- 6 apartments, July.
- You sell on Booking.com, Airbnb and by phone or your own website.
- 12 new bookings a week, 3 changes or cancellations, 10 departures.
- One cleaner, whom you coordinate with by phone and messages.
1. Channel manager: about 3.5 hours
Without a channel manager, every booking on one channel means closing the same dates by hand on the others. The sum:
- 12 bookings × 2 other channels × 4 minutes = 96 minutes
- 3 changes or cancellations × 2 channels × 4 minutes = 24 minutes
- Copying each booking into the notebook or Excel: 12 × 3 minutes = 36 minutes
- Price and minimum-stay changes on 3 channels: 3 × 20 minutes = 60 minutes
Total: 216 minutes, about 3.6 hours.
With the Bookmatrix.com channel manager, availability, prices and restrictions go from one calendar to every channel through Channex. Booking.com and Airbnb reservations arrive on the calendar by themselves, with the guest, the dates and the price. What is left is changing prices once, in one place. And something that cannot be measured in minutes goes away too: the fear of a double booking. More in Double bookings: why they happen and how they stop.
2. Housekeeping app: about 2.25 hours
Every morning someone has to tell the cleaner which apartments check out, which stay, which needs a linen change. And every afternoon someone asks "is number 4 ready?".
- Daily schedule by phone or messages: 7 days × 15 minutes = 105 minutes
- "Is it ready?" calls: 10 departures × 3 minutes = 30 minutes
Total: 135 minutes, 2.25 hours.
In the housekeeping app the cleaner logs in with a PIN, sees which apartments have a departure today, because the list follows the calendar, and taps "clean" when done. You see it at once, wherever you are. No app-store install needed; it opens in the browser.
3. Automations and email templates: about 4 hours
Every booking brings the same messages: confirmation, deposit request, directions, check-in details the day before, a thank-you and review request afterwards.
- Confirmation: 5 minutes
- Payment request and receipt: 4 minutes
- Directions and map: 5 minutes
- Check-in details: 3 minutes
- Thank-you and review: 3 minutes
20 minutes × 12 bookings = 240 minutes, 4 hours.
With automations and the Email Manager you write them once, in as many languages as you need, and choose when they go out: on confirmation, three days before arrival, the day after departure. Name, dates and balance are filled in automatically. Every send is logged, so you can see what went to whom.
The total
3.6 + 2.25 + 4 = about 9.9 hours a week. That is the number in the title.
Three honest remarks:
- The minutes are estimates. Some people close dates on an extranet in two minutes, some in six. Use your own.
- The hours follow the bookings. With 6 bookings a week instead of 12, the sum gives about half. In August, more.
- Not all the work goes away. Unusual questions, complaints and checking prices stay with you. What goes is the copying and the repetition.
Three apps or one?
You can find a channel manager, a housekeeping app and an email tool from different companies. In Bookmatrix.com they are three parts of the same system, on the same calendar, and they are included in every plan. For rentals the plan starts at €180 a year plus VAT. Details at bookmatrix.com/pricing.
We do the setup: we enter the apartments and prices, connect the channels, create the cleaner's PIN and the email templates.
Want us to run the sum with your own numbers? Start the free 14-day demo with your own rooms at bookmatrix.com/demo, no card needed. Or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. You can also call us at +30 2351 151525.