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The future of property management is automated, but could it soon be robotic?

The future of property management is automated, but could it soon be robotic? Figure AI recently unveiled Helix, a next-generation Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, enabling humanoid robots to see, understand, and perform tasks in real-world environments.

At TIDY, we specialize in cleaning and maintenance automation—leveraging AI to streamline scheduling, vendor coordination, and quality control. But could humanoid robots like Helix take automation even further?

Let's explore what this breakthrough means for the future of property management automation.

What Is Helix?

Helix is an AI-powered humanoid designed to perceive, reason, and interact with physical environments in a way that mimics human decision-making. Unlike traditional robots, Helix integrates vision, language, and action into a seamless process, allowing it to:

  • Recognize objects & understand their purpose
  • Interpret complex environments & navigate spaces
  • Follow commands & make autonomous decisions
  • Physically handle household items

This technology is a major step forward in the field of robotic automation. While current AI-driven solutions (like TIDY) already automate cleaning schedules, vendor management, and quality control, robots like Helix introduce the potential for physical execution of these tasks.

How Could Robotics Enhance Property Management?

For property managers, AI-driven automation is already revolutionizing operations. TIDY helps streamline cleaning and maintenance, ensuring seamless turnovers, quality control, and proactive issue detection. But robots like Helix could take automation to the next level:

  • Automated Housekeeping – Robots could physically clean, restock inventory, and perform quality checks
  • Proactive Maintenance – AI-powered robotics could detect and address minor repairs before they escalate
  • Damage Reporting & Prevention – Smart AI could document and alert property managers about guest-related damages instantly
  • Hands-Free Vendor Coordination – While TIDY automates scheduling, robotic AI could execute tasks alongside human teams

While robots won't replace human teams anytime soon, they could become a valuable extension of automation platforms like TIDY—offering property managers greater efficiency, reliability, and scalability.

The Future: AI + Robotics in Property Management

At TIDY, we've always believed in the power of automation to enhance property management. The advancements in AI-driven robotics hint at a future where:

  • Routine cleaning & maintenance could be managed with minimal human intervention
  • AI-powered quality control ensures every job meets high standards
  • Human teams + AI systems work together for optimal efficiency

Figure AI's Helix is a glimpse into that future, and we're excited to see where it leads.

Conclusion

The integration of AI and robotics holds immense potential for the future of property management, promising increased efficiency, reliability, and scalability.

We're thrilled to roll out TIDY 5.9, a release packed with fixes that smooth out the rough edges and features that give Pros and Property Managers more control than ever. At TIDY, we're obsessed with making your day-to-day easier—whether that's speeding up key pages, refining job management, or adding a little linguistic flair to the Pro experience. Let's dive into what's new and improved as of February 21, 2025!

What's New in TIDY 5.9

Features That Empower Pros and Clients Alike

Multilingual Pro App

Pros can now choose their preferred language directly in the app! We've rolled out support for English (EN), Spanish (ES), Portuguese (PT), Russian (RU), French (FR), and Dutch (NL)—because clear communication shouldn't be limited by borders. More languages are on the way, so let us know what you'd like to see next!

Block Completion Without Required Fields

Property Managers, you're in the driver's seat. With this new setting, you can decide whether Pros can complete jobs without filling out all Custom Fields. Need every detail captured? Turn it on. Prefer flexibility? Leave it off. It's your call.

Fixes That Keep Things Running Smoothly

We've tackled some pesky bugs that were slowing you down or tripping you up. Here's what we've ironed out:

Future Jobs Now Visible

Jobs scheduled for future dates weren't showing up on the Pro app calendar. Fixed! Now Pros can plan ahead with confidence.

Faster Page Loads

The Invoices and Reservations pages got a speed boost—less waiting, more doing.

Pro Signup Simplified

No more "Validation failed: Url suffix please enter at least 6 characters" errors when adding a private Pro. It's smooth sailing now.

Job Requests in Order

Sending job requests? They'll now follow the correct sequence—no more mix-ups.

Hourly Time Details Report

Filtering by Pro in this report wasn't working as expected. It does now—get the insights you need, fast.

Photo Syncing Stuck? Not Anymore

Jobs with multiple photos were hanging on the Syncing page. We've cleared the jam for seamless uploads.

Why This Matters

Our mission at TIDY is to save you time and reduce frustration, whether you're a Property Manager juggling dozens of properties or a Pro keeping everything spotless. With 5.9, we've focused on speeding up workflows (hello, faster pages!), fixing what's broken (goodbye, syncing delays!), and adding features that adapt to how you work—like language options and customizable job completion rules.

What's Next?

We're not slowing down. TIDY 5.9 is a stepping stone to even bigger things—like more language support, deeper reporting tools, and continued performance tweaks. Got feedback? We'd love to hear it! Drop us a line about how we can make the app even better for you—whether it's the calendar, reports, or something else entirely.

Try TIDY 5.9 Today

Update your app or log in to see these changes in action. From faster load times to a more global Pro experience, TIDY 5.9 is here to help you work smarter, not harder. Thanks for being part of the TIDY community—we're excited to keep building with you!

Improved Preventative Maintenance Tools to Control Maintenance Schedules

TIDY has been helping people manage their preventative maintenance schedules for a long time. Now, we've upgraded our tools to make them even more powerful and flexible in the way that you schedule them.

The key improvements are:

  • More Customization Options: You, as a customer, now have more control to get things set up exactly the way you want. Prior to this, we had ways to generate AI suggestions and get per-property-suggested maintenance schedules. But now, you can specify all the details about the tasks you want done, the schedule and frequency, the properties and items the maintenance is associated with, and more.
  • Concierge Support: We know setting these things up can be quite complex. So, as always, we recommend using our concierge team to do this for you. Simply talk to them, tell them what you're looking for, and send them any existing schedule plans in any format. We'll go ahead and get it all loaded into the system for you, so you don't have to worry about a thing.

One of the great parts about using TIDY is that it's super powerful but also super easy to use, thanks to the power of our concierge team.

Try using preventative maintenance schedules today, and let us know how we can help you improve the cleaning and maintenance of your properties.

TIDY has made it easier than ever to get messages from all your pros into the TIDY app. And now, we have a new ability to get guest or tenant messaging into the app as well. This allows you to coordinate all your cleaning and maintenance-related communication in one spot.

Here's how it works:

You can generate a "smart number" for either your guests, your pros, or both. Creating a smart number is easy - just go to the "Messages" section of your app and click the "Smart Number" button. This number is unique to you and your set of properties.

When someone texts this number, the messages will come through into Tidy's "Messages" section. From there, you can take action - schedule maintenance, schedule cleaning, coordinate with your pros, etc.

This feature is particularly powerful for guest or tenant emergency maintenance handling. You can set up workflows where our concierge can handle these incoming texts from your guests or tenants and coordinate the cleaning and maintenance with your pros according to your custom rule set.

For pros who may be less inclined to use the software, the smart number allows them to communicate with you via their preferred channel - text messaging. As messages come in, you can set up workflows to have our concierge help manage them.

In the near future, we will have AI tools to help automatically suggest tasks based on these incoming messages. Our hope is that over time, you'll be able to train agents to communicate on your behalf, always following your rules and priorities.

TIDY's smart numbers now enable you to more effectively handle emergency maintenance situations with guests or tenants and communicate with pros who are less prone to using the software.

TIDY is the ultimate tool to help you coordinate your cleaning and maintenance with your entire team. Try TIDY today.

TIDY is celebrating its 10th-year anniversary this year and is excited to announce the release of version 5.0. This latest version represents a significant leap forward in property cleaning & maintenance, driven by our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.

Version 5.0 has been rewritten considerably with the following goals in mind:

  1. Human-in-the-loop workflows: Use our concierge for a fraction of the cost to do human tasks, automating everything as an extension of your Ops team. Automate tedious human tasks seamlessly, extending your operations team's capabilities and efficiency.
  2. Improved UI: We've revamped the UI to offer a comprehensive view of your properties, empowering you with advanced schedule views, streamlined search functionalities, and improved filtering options. Managing multiple properties has never been easier.
  3. Speed: The app runs on average faster, and in some cases, even faster. This enhanced speed translates to quicker task completion and heightened productivity.
  4. 24/7 Free Emergency Issue availability: Create a Smart Number for guests/tenants, and they can text in to report an issue. Our concierge team will create the issues or job requests following your custom rulesets. Available 24/7 at no additional cost.
  5. AI "Magic SMS": You can use your own Magic Number to communicate with pros, having all that communication flow into the TIDY app. If you discuss scheduling or other changes, you can set it up to have us automatically update your account for you, using AI that understands what you are talking about and taking action on your behalf.

Over many property managers automate the cleaning and maintenance process, allowing them to save time spent by ops teams.

TIDY's latest updates help with the 3 key areas of cleaning and maintenance management:

  • Turnovers - We have long been good at helping you automate turnovers. Our UI and speed improvements are designed to help make these workflows easier.
  • Emergency Maintenance - Our new "Smart Numbers" allow you to easily have guests or tenants message in emergency needs. You can then set up triage steps, and we can help automate the actual steps to resolve the maintenance in accordance with your schedule. As they make requests, tasks can get automatically added to your task management tool.
  • Regular Maintenance - Our new tasks system makes it easier to track all the tasks for your property management, have everything visible to all parties. You can even assign tasks to the Concierge to have us automatically take actions on your behalf.
  • Preventative Maintenance - Now you can set up almost any kind of preventative maintenance schedules. As tasks come due, they can be automatically added to your task management board for resolution.

With each category of cleaning or maintenance, you can let us know how you want things done, and we can help to automate it. With TIDY 5.0, we can automate more than ever.

If interested in learning more, here are 3 blog posts on key features that have been updated:

Tidy's new task management tools make it easier than ever to manage the cleaning and maintenance of your properties. Tasks have been upgraded in Tidy for a more visual interface. Now you can use this Kanban-style board to organize all of your tasks.

When a pro reports an issue or a guest reports an issue, these can be automatically and instantly loaded into the "Reported" section of your task tab. Then, as you approve them for a work order, you can move them to the "Approved" category.

Once a task has been approved, you can assign it to somebody on your team or assign it to our concierge to handle. When you assign it to the concierge, our team can see that task and work to get it done. There are plans to add more transparency and clarity about how this works in the near future.

You can see the status of all the tasks, as well as the statuses of all the jobs associated with the tasks and other relevant information.

The key difference between tasks and jobs is that tasks are things for the property management team themselves to do most of the time, while jobs are typically something you'd have a pro do, whether that be an employee or a vendor that's working on site.

The goal of the new tasks system is to make it very visually easy to see everything that's going on, whether the concierge is helping you out or you're doing it yourself, and to make it easier to handle more complex tasks. For example, you can have a turnover task that consists of an inspection, followed by handyman work depending on the results of the inspection, as well as cleaning before the guest or tenant is finally able to arrive.

All of these powerful solutions are available via the TIDY app.

TIDY was founded at the end of 2013 with the vision of transforming the trillion-dollar cleaning and maintenance industry through software and hardware innovation. Despite the industry's immense size and importance, software and hardware played practically no role in 2013. TIDY saw an opportunity to address the significant challenges faced by consumers, businesses, and property managers in ensuring efficient and effective cleaning and maintenance.

Phase 1: Software and Prediction AI (2013-2022)

In its initial years, TIDY focused on developing lightweight, user-friendly software solutions to track vendor history and streamline facility management. Unlike traditional enterprise-oriented software, TIDY aimed to create an intuitive and accessible platform for residential properties and rental property managers.

TIDY also recognized the probabilistic nature of the industry and built predictive models to estimate the likelihood of job completion, vendor reliability, and optimal scheduling based on ecosystem data. This combination of software and probabilistic AI occupied TIDY for its first eight years, with ongoing refinements and feature additions planned for the next few years.

Phase 2: Leveraging Large Language Models (2022 onwards)

The introduction of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 large language model (LLM) in late 2022 marked a significant shift in TIDY's approach. LLMs enable the automation of more complex tasks by understanding and generating contextual text. TIDY sees immense potential in integrating LLMs with its existing CRM and structured data to enhance workflows and customer interactions.

LLMs can handle fuzzy inputs from the real world, update statuses, and provide personalized enterprise-like workflows tailored to each user's unique requirements. By capturing user preferences and configurations through natural language, LLMs eliminate the need for extensive software setup and customization, making advanced features accessible to a broader user base.

Phase 3: The Future of Robotics (2030 onwards)

Looking ahead, TIDY anticipates the integration of robotics to achieve near-complete automation of cleaning and maintenance by around 2030. The company envisions a human-robot hybrid model, where robots excel at routine tasks while humans handle edge cases and supervision.

TIDY's expertise in coordinating humans, software, and AI will remain relevant in this robotics-driven future. The company aims to be a key player in managing the increasingly complex ecosystem of humans, robots, and remote teleoperators.

The adoption of robotics is expected to drive consolidation in the cleaning and maintenance industry. Companies with the capital to invest in robots and enhance their technicians' efficiency will likely outcompete those with lower CapEx. TIDY sees itself as a central platform for managing these operations, partnering with multiple providers to cover the full spectrum of services.

Conclusion

TIDY's journey from its inception in 2013 to its vision for 2030 and beyond showcases the transformative potential of software, AI, and robotics in the cleaning and maintenance industry. By continually innovating and adapting to emerging technologies, TIDY aims to revolutionize how cleaning and maintenance are managed, ultimately benefiting consumers, businesses, and property managers alike.

We're excited to announce TIDY 5.6, bringing substantial improvements to booking workflows, pro management, and platform reliability. This update reflects our ongoing commitment to streamlining property management and enhancing user experience.

Highlights of TIDY 5.6

Advanced Booking and Scheduling Features

  • Smarter Job Request System: New maximum jobs per day setting for better workload management
  • Flexible Rate Management: Implemented dynamic rate adjustment allowing pros to accept jobs at variable rates, improving booking success rates
  • Upgraded Automatic Booking: Clients can now send job requests beyond 30 days in the future. Previously you had to assign more than 30 days in advance.

Pro Management and Experience

  • Improved Job Naming: Enhanced job naming system prioritizing client names and schedule blocking information, meaning when you set custom names pros will see these more prominently.
  • Better Schedule Visualization: Fixed overlapping jobs in weekly view and improved monthly view performance
  • Streamlined Navigation: Refined booking flow directing users from Pro Page to category selection for more intuitive job creation

Property Manager Improvements

  • Public Job Reports: New feature enabling shareable public links to job reports, perfect for dispute resolution and external communication. Share the link instead of just a pdf.
  • Enhanced Modal Design: Improved confirmation and success modals for a better desktop experience
  • Flexible Rate Requests: New system allowing clients to request pros even with rate differences, with built-in prompts for rate adjustments

Task Management and Inventory Updates

  • Attach Items to Tasks: Add items to tasks.
  • Restocking System Improvements: Introduced new fields and functionality for improved inventory management
  • To-Do List Improvements: Enhanced creation workflow and fixed various task-related issues

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

  • Loading Optimizations: Various performance improvements across dashboard and monthly views
  • Schedule Management: Fixed multiple schedule-related issues including autobooking loops and property filtering
  • Notification Reliability: Resolved in-app notification display issues and SMS support challenges

We're continuously working on making TIDY more efficient and user-friendly. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance the platform based on your valuable feedback.

Enhanced Job Request Workflows

We've overhauled our job request system, making it more accessible and flexible:

  • Improved Accessibility: Find "Job Request Workflows" (formerly "Pro Priorities") in the Automations section for easier access.
  • Flexible Pro Grouping: Create more nuanced job distribution flows, combining individual pros and groups.
  • Customizable Settings: Adjust cutoff times to fine-tune how long pros have to accept jobs before the request moves down the list.
  • Smarter Auto-Assign: Auto-assigned pros who cancel a job are now skipped, allowing the request to move to the next available pro smoothly.
  • Toggle Auto-Assign in UI: Previously the Concierge had to set this up for you.

We're thrilled to announce the release of TIDY 5.4. This update brings significant improvements to our desktop UI, job request workflows, and overall system performance, reinforcing our commitment to innovation in property cleaning and maintenance management.

Highlights of TIDY 5.4

Revamped Desktop UI: Faster, Sleeker, and More Efficient

The cornerstone of this release is our completely redesigned desktop UI. We've focused on creating a more intuitive, responsive, and visually appealing interface that streamlines your property management tasks:

  • Speed Boost: Experience an average 17% improvement in page loading times across the application.
  • Universal Search and Navigation: Effortlessly find pages, help articles, pros, or properties without leaving your current view.
  • Seamless Context Switching: Accomplish more without the need to navigate away from your current page.

Note: An additional speed update is on the horizon, promising near-instantaneous page loads for many sections of the app!

Pro Settings and Performance Upgrades

  • Streamlined Pro Management: New filters and bulk settings options in the pro settings page for efficient management.
  • Faster CSV Exports: Bulk data exports are now 50% quicker.

Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes

  • Notable UI Changes:
    • Concierge section moved to the top bar for easier access
    • Help section reorganized at the top for better usability
    • Added "what's new" to make it easier to track updates.
    • "Job Request Workflows" (formerly "Pro Priorities") is now in the Automations section instead of the Pros section.
  • Bug Fixes:
    • Resolved issues with old invoices appearing in the pending section
    • Updated notification history for improved accuracy
    • Enhanced SMS error handling
    • Fixed duplicate entries from integration data
    • Various mobile design improvements

Looking Ahead

As we continue to evolve TIDY, we're excited about upcoming features, including customizable "No Earlier Than" settings in job request workflows, slated for release later this month.

TIDY 5.4 represents our ongoing commitment to automating all of your cleaning and maintenance needs. Whether you're handling turnovers, emergency maintenance, regular upkeep, or preventative care, TIDY is here to streamline your operations and boost your productivity.

We invite you to explore these new features and share your feedback. Your input is invaluable as we continue to refine and enhance TIDY to meet your evolving needs.

Thank you for your continued trust in TIDY. Here's to making property management smarter, faster, and more efficient than ever!

We're thrilled to announce the release of TIDY 5.3, packed with exciting new features and improvements designed to enhance your productivity and streamline your organizational workflow. Let's dive into what's new and improved in this latest version.

1. Monthly Calendar View: A Broader Perspective

Get ready to see the bigger picture with our new monthly calendar view. This feature offers a bird's-eye view of your schedule, allowing you to:

  • Plan and visualize tasks across a wider timeframe
  • Identify patterns and manage your time more effectively
  • Easily spot busy periods and quieter days

2. Bulk Export and Import: Manage Data with Ease

Working with large volumes of data has never been simpler. With our new bulk export and import feature, you can:

  • Export to-dos, inventory, and reservations in bulk
  • Import large datasets quickly and efficiently
  • Streamline data migration and backup processes

3. Audit Logs: Enhanced Debugging for Integrations

Troubleshooting just got easier with our new audit logs feature. Now you can:

  • Track sync events from integrations
  • Quickly identify and resolve issues
  • Ensure smooth operation of your connected systems

4. Improved To-Do Page: Tackle More Tasks Efficiently

We've revamped the to-do page to handle larger task lists with ease. Enjoy:

  • A cleaner, more intuitive interface
  • Improved navigation for multiple lists
  • Enhanced sorting and filtering options

5. Speed Improvements: A Smoother User Experience

TIDY 5.3 brings significant performance enhancements, including:

  • Faster page load times
  • Smoother transitions between sections
  • Improved overall responsiveness

6. Simplified Inventory Management

Adding and managing inventory items is now more straightforward than ever:

  • Streamlined item entry process
  • Improved categorization and tagging
  • Enhanced search and filter capabilities

Wrapping Up

TIDY 5.3 represents our commitment to continually improving our ability to help with larger number of properties and more complex workflows.

We're excited for you to explore these new features and improvements. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions as we continue to evolve TIDY to meet your needs.

At TIDY, we're constantly innovating to make property management more efficient and hassle-free. Our latest update brings a host of new features and improvements that will revolutionize how you manage your properties and work with your pros. This was a broad ranging release, focused on helping property managers based on their feedback. Please keep the feedback coming, and let's dive into the exciting new capabilities now available to you!

1. Supercharged To-Do Lists

We've completely overhauled our to-do list functionality, making it more powerful and user-friendly than ever before:

  • Enhanced Before and After Photos: Pros can now easily capture and upload before and after photos, providing you with visual proof of their work.
  • Customer Editing Capabilities: Property managers can now add or edit information uploaded by pros, allowing you to correct errors or add photos that may have been sent separately.
  • Multiple Photo Uploads: Custom fields now support multiple photo uploads, giving you more flexibility in documenting the work done.

2. Real-Time Syncing and Updates

Stay on top of your properties with our improved syncing process:

  • Instant Updates: Changes made by pros are now saved and available to property managers in real-time, ensuring you always have the most up-to-date information.

3. Flexible Pricing Management

We've made it easier for you to adjust your service pricing:

  • Simpler Price Changes: Property managers can now effortlessly update prices for their services, allowing you to stay competitive and responsive to market changes.

4. Enhanced Booking and Scheduling

Managing your property cleaning and maintenance schedule has never been easier:

  • Improved Calendar View: Our enhanced calendar now allows you to go backwards in time, making it simple to review past jobs and plan future ones.
  • Streamlined Booking Process: We've improved the booking flow for recurring plans and private pros, saving you time and reducing errors.

5. Advanced Task and Workflow Management

Take control of your property management workflows:

  • New Task Types: We've introduced new task types to cover all aspects of property management.
  • Workflow Triggers and Filters: Create custom workflows based on specific addresses or pros, automating your processes even further.

6. Improved Pro Management

Find and manage your pros more effectively:

  • Enhanced "Find New Pros" Feature: Discover and onboard new pros with our improved search and vetting process.
  • Simplified Delegation: Assigning and delegating tasks to pros is now more straightforward than ever.

7. Robust Communication Tools

Stay connected with your team and clients:

  • Chat Suggestions: Our new AI-powered chat feature suggests responses for common scenarios like rescheduling or cancellations.
  • Enhanced SMS Notifications: Keep everyone in the loop with our improved SMS notification system.

8. Streamlined Payments and Billing

Managing your finances just got easier:

  • Improved Invoice Handling: We've enhanced our invoicing system to reduce errors and streamline the payment process.
  • Better Dispute Resolution: Our updated dispute handling process helps you resolve issues quickly and fairly.

9. Powerful Integrations

TIDY now works seamlessly with more of your favorite tools:

  • Enhanced Third-Party Integrations: We've improved our integrations with Guesty, Lodgify, and Smoobu, making it easier to manage your properties across multiple platforms.
  • AI-Powered Concierge: Our new AI features help automate guest communications and property management tasks.

10. Improved Reporting and Analytics

Make data-driven decisions with our enhanced reporting capabilities:

  • Comprehensive PDF Reports: Generate detailed reports on your property performance and pro efficiency.
  • Enhanced Inventory Tracking: Keep track of your supplies and equipment more effectively with our improved inventory management system.

11. Speed

We continue to work to make the app faster and more responsive for customers. We made updates to over 10 pages which improved the speed by over 50%. We always have more work to do here, so let us know what feels sluggish to you and we will keep making improvements.

These exciting new features and improvements are designed to make your property management experience with TIDY more efficient, flexible, and powerful than ever before. We're committed to continually enhancing our platform to meet your evolving needs. Try out these new features today and take your property management to the next level with TIDY!

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