CompanyPricing

Why You Should Integrate Guesty and TIDY for better Cleaning and Maintenance

August 11, 2023

Welcome to our exploration of making cleaning and maintenance better with Guesty and TIDY. TIDY is here to help you manage properties more efficiently. In this content, we'll look at smart ways to handle cleaning and maintenance. We'll use the tools inside Guesty and also show you how TIDY's advanced solutions can fit right in.

Before we continue, here's something important: While TIDY and Guesty collaborate closely, it's important to recognize that all trademarks associated with Guesty remain their sole property. For a comprehensive understanding of these strategies, we recommend consulting directly with Guesty.

TIDY has a strong history in using technology to improve cleaning and maintenance. Our mix of AI software and personal service has automated over a million tasks in almost ten years. We've partnered with many different companies, like Guesty, and that's given us a solid grasp of property managers' challenges.

Webinar Cleaning and Maintenance on Guesty  

What is Cleaning and maintenance?

Cleaning and maintenance encompass a range of tasks that property managers handle to ensure the smooth operation of their properties. These tasks fall into four main categories: maintenance and repairs, property inspections, cleaning, and outdoor services. While some of these tasks may coincide with guest stays, the focus often centers around turnovers – the process of preparing a property for new occupants.

Particularly in the realm of short-term rentals, cleaning plays a prominent role due to the frequent turnovers. Every property manager, regardless of their rental type, engages with cleaning tasks. This vital aspect of property management is sometimes underestimated, especially in larger short-term rental setups. With a traditional vendor, a long term rental property, let's say it's a turnover: If a cleaner doesn't show up for half a day, that's okay. With short term rentals, that can be an unworkable scenario for you.


The Cleaning and Maintenance process/workflow.

Property management encompasses a spectrum of tasks, including maintenance, inspections, and outdoor services. Yet, cleaning remains a focal point, especially pronounced in short-term rentals where turnovers drive cleaning needs. Nearly every property manager engages in cleaning tasks, an aspect sometimes understated, particularly in larger short-term rentals. Cleaning and maintenance function hand in hand, contributing significantly to guest satisfaction.

Our approach to this process involves shifting from a strategic perspective to detailed execution. We explore Guesty's capabilities, identifying where it excels, where it falls short, and how it bridges gaps. This insight provides a snapshot of property management's multifaceted nature. Structured workflows are crucial for effective management. Each property manager crafts a unique workflow, necessitating a customized toolkit to match. Task assignment varies – straightforward for internal teams, more complex for external vendors requiring streamlined communication. Reliability, in particular, takes center stage, especially considering the stringent requirements of short-term rentals. Unlike long-term rentals, where minor disruptions may be manageable, the imperatives of short-term arrangements demand consistent performance.

TIDY + Guesty cover the complete cleaning and maintenance process

Managing property maintenance involves several key steps, including handling reports, billing, and ensuring smooth accounting transactions. Here, we outline the process steps, highlighting the division of responsibilities between Guesty and TIDY. When we delve into the specifics, we find a synergy between TIDY and Guesty, where each excels in certain areas. The collaboration between the two results in a complete cleaning and maintenance process. Let's break down the steps into sub-steps, distinguishing between tasks predominantly carried out by TIDY and those handled by Guesty.

Guesty offers an impressive array of tools, particularly in guest management. However, when it comes to the intricacies of maintenance, TIDY takes the lead. While TIDY's expertise lies in the nitty-gritty of maintenance, we acknowledge there may be gaps in other aspects. It's important to note that TIDY's specialization doesn't imply a broader toolkit than Guesty's. Guesty provides a rich set of tools, but our focus lies in deepening the cleaning and maintenance process.

Setting up workflows

Setting up vendor priorities

Guesty's focus lies in vendor setup for accounting purposes. Vendors can be configured to receive payments from a trust account, offering potent accounting benefits. On the other hand, TIDY centers on streamlining workflows. It involves determining which vendors to prioritize and automating request processes. “So which vendors do you want? What do you want to prioritize?”

The synergy between Guesty and TIDY becomes evident when considering payment flows. TIDY can handle payments, seamlessly integrating with accounting in Guesty. This unified approach simplifies operations, even encompassing future considerations like credit card support.

Setting up Scheduling Preferences

Now, let's focus on configuring your scheduling preferences, a critical aspect of the process. Guesty offers an automated assignment feature, allowing you to assign individuals or teams to specific tasks programmatically. This is effective when dealing with employees, streamlining assignments based on time and roles.

TIDY, on the other hand, employs a more intricate approach. It involves advanced vendor workflow preferences, enabling the submission of requests to vendors for acceptance. TIDY's system supports automation, even facilitating the creation of multiple job types. For reference, while Guesty terms it "more tasks," TIDY designates them as "more jobs," aligning in conceptual framework.

Additionally, TIDY introduces the concept of a "concierge task." This empowers our human-AI combination, allowing us to handle specific tasks on your behalf.

Efficient Inventory Tracking 

Currently, Guesty lacks inventory tracking capabilities, which is well-suited for short-term rentals. TIDY empowers you to track items like toiletries, soaps, shampoos, and more. Your team, whether cleaners, inspectors, or staff, can seamlessly update inventory levels. This functionality extends to creating workflows, including alerts for low stock items. Customized workflows ensure timely actions when supplies run low.

Proactive Preventative Maintenance with TIDY

While Guesty currently offers limited preventative maintenance features, TIDY excels in this domain.

With TIDY, you can easily input your assets and their respective models, such as refrigerator details. Leveraging this information, we can establish standard maintenance schedules or align with your customized schedules. This approach ensures you receive upcoming maintenance alerts.

Assign Jobs

Efficient Job Requests to Vendors

Sending job requests to vendors, especially external ones, requires strategic handling. Guesty's job assignment works well for teams, but not as seamlessly for outside vendors, which is often the case for property managers. TIDY, on the other hand, offers versatile workflows for job requests. You can request tasks, set start and finish times, and even receive a probability estimate through AI. This estimate considers multiple factors like pricing, timing, location, and historical performance of pros. This ensures you craft effective requests, considering the complexities of real-world operations.

Managing expectations is crucial. While everyone desires swift service, realities like post-checkout timing and vendor availability may vary. Crafting flexible workflows to accommodate these challenges is essential, and that's where TIDY steps in.

Find New Vendors

TIDY offers a distinct capability in sourcing new professionals, a subject previously alluded to and briefly discussed in the course of this presentation. This involves matching suitable professionals to your specified preferences and criteria. Our expansive network comprises our own team, fellow professionals within the network, and various software offerings. We possess access to a substantial pool of professionals spanning the entire United States, affording us the ability to address a diverse array of job requisites.

Our integration is designed to seamlessly accommodate your existing professionals or introduce new ones, thereby ensuring a smooth job execution process. 

Enable jobs

Automate Access

Automating access control shares similarities between Guesty and TIDY. Both systems facilitate granting codes to team members for property entry and coordinating with guests. Guesty leans towards guest location and coordination, while TIDY emphasizes external parties.

In practice, a combined approach might be necessary for comprehensive automation, utilizing both systems to optimize property access.

Climate Control

TIDY offers the ability to set preferences for temperature adjustments. Whether it's maintaining a cooler temperature in a mountain house or ensuring comfort during work, TIDY lets you create rules that seamlessly regulate climate settings.

Tracking onsite work

While Guesty mainly focuses on vendor accounting, TIDY steps in to fill the gap by offering comprehensive real-time job tracking.

With TIDY, the process becomes seamless. Job requests allow you to monitor acceptances and follow the progress in real time. You gain visibility into milestones as tasks unfold, all presented on a map along with status updates, timing, and ongoing communication with both vendors and guests.

Efficient Communication

When it comes to communication, Guesty excels in guest interaction, while TIDY specializes in vendor communication. TIDY offers a shared inbox tool that allows seamless communication through chat or platforms like Slack. This ensures effective information flow to professionals, often via SMS.

Guesty's inbox tool is remarkable for guest coordination and channel synchronization. It highlights reservation details and enhances data visibility. TIDY, however, directs focus towards you, with distinct threads centered around customers and job-related conversations. Job-specific communication threads in TIDY streamline discussions, facilitating easy reference to task-related details. 

Automated Notifications

Automated notifications play a vital role in staying informed and responsive. Guesty offers limited options like status updates and guest/team member notifications. 

TIDY provides a range of event-triggered notifications. From arrivals to bookings, cancellations, and task completions, you receive timely updates. Moreover, TIDY allows you to set custom notifications across various channels or trigger actions, like emailing third parties or generating invoices.

Quality & Reliability

Predicting Last-Minute Cancellations

The reality is that on-time arrival rates in the industry, including cleaning services, hover around 75%. Recognizing this challenge, TIDY is equipped to predict no-shows—a significant concern, especially for time-sensitive tasks like short-term cleaning. Our predictive system warns you of potential no-shows, marked on a map for your convenience. While not infallible, our predictions are often accurate, providing valuable insights to help you navigate these situations effectively.

It's important to note that Guesty does not offer this predictive capability nor does it delve into job tracking data to find solutions. TIDY's approach ensures that you're better prepared to address last-minute cancellations and maintain efficient operations.

Handle Last-Minute Cancellations

Addressing last-minute cancellations requires swift action. TIDY has "standbys," experienced professionals in the vicinity, poised to step in if you're sourcing vendors through us. When faced with a sudden cancellation, prompt response is crucial. Having a standby already prepared ensures you can quickly fill the gap left by the cancellation. This proves especially valuable for urgent situations, such as cancellations occurring just 30 minutes before a task.

Inspect for Quality

TIDY offers versatile options: both in-person and remote inspections. 

In TIDY, in-person inspections are seamlessly integrated into the job booking process, while remote inspections offer unique capabilities. Cleaners can capture before-and-after photos or videos, complete task lists, track inventory, and answer questions—essentially conducting inspections while performing tasks.

Billing & Reports

Payment Settings & Approvals

Guesty's payment rules mainly deal with guests, while TIDY provides a variety of payment options. These include choices like Net 30, credit card payments, automatic approvals, and the option to require approvals.

With TIDY, you have the flexibility to customize payment settings for specific needs. Whether it's for individual properties, groups of properties, or specific vendors, TIDY's straightforward approach makes financial management easy and efficient as part of your property management process.

Invoicing and Receipts

Managing invoicing and receipts efficiently is crucial, especially when different teams require specific content for approvals. While Guesty offers some features for integrating with accounting systems, it may not always extract vendor data in the desired format.

With TIDY, you can automatically send before-and-after job photos to designated email addresses for invoicing purposes. This seamless automation ensures smooth communication and proper documentation after each task, enhancing your property management workflow.

Owner Reports

When it comes to owner reports, Guesty has a stronger suite of options. They offer detailed reports covering income, costs, and more. For users of both Guesty and TIDY, it's advisable to lean towards Guesty's reports, especially if you're looking for a comprehensive overview.

Consider integrating TIDY's data into Guesty for well-rounded owner reports that incorporate insights from both platforms. This way, you get the best of both worlds in your property management analysis.

System updating

Upon completing tasks within the system, there's often a need to update related systems. While Guesty lacks a dedicated mechanism for this, they do provide an API that can be leveraged if your partners work with them. This allows for data synchronization.

On the other hand, TIDY offers a more robust approach. For instance, when a job is completed, TIDY's system can trigger updates seamlessly. Unlike Guesty, which lacks specific events tied to job completions, schedules, alerts, and no-shows, TIDY ensures a clearer and more comprehensive system update process.

Conclusion

When Should I use Guesty Alone?

In summary, Guesty is a solid option for property managers who have a well-established process for job assignments and a reliable team in place. It suits businesses that operate smoothly without facing frequent cancellations or complex job request scenarios. 

If you have a strong network of professionals and handle job sourcing efficiently on your own, Guesty can provide effective support. Its basic task lists are suitable for straightforward quality control needs. 

When Should I use Guesty + TIDY?

Integrating TIDY with Guesty becomes advantageous in several scenarios. If you're working with external vendors or need occasional support, TIDY steps in. It's particularly beneficial for those seeking help in sourcing professionals, enhancing quality control, and achieving time savings through automation. 

TIDY complements Guesty by catering to individuals with higher quality standards or a desire for advanced tools. If you're aiming to streamline operations, focus on guest satisfaction, or bolster your processes, TIDY offers tailored assistance. Create an account today or reach out to our sales team and explore how we can enhance your operations. We're dedicated to optimizing your process, whether or not you choose to utilize our services!

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