Digital bookings in housing companies – how residents reserved in 2023
Community spaces and shared amenities play a crucial role in the design of modern and diverse residential areas. With this, there is a growing need for functional reservation systems that ease administrative work.
Reservations in One4all’s digital booking calendars during 2023
In 2023, One4all’s electronic booking calendars were used in over a thousand housing companies, with a total of approximately 1.6 million bookings – an increase of about 550,000 from the previous year.
“Property management is already overwhelmed with work, so if, for example, 20 percent of these 1.6 million bookings made in 2023 had resulted a contact with property management, that’s a huge number of calls – thanks to the booking calendar, they were removed from the workload of property management and customer service,” says One4all expert Tomi Hanka.
There are always cancellations and changes in bookings, which residents can independently manage in the electronic booking calendar without burdening property management, customer service, or maintenance. In 2023, nearly 350,000 cancellations were made in One4all’s booking calendars, over 100,000 more than the previous year.
Residents reserve common areas and amenities digitally – anytime, anywhere
One4all’s customers have adopted booking calendars for various communal spaces in housing companies. In addition to traditional sauna and laundry room bookings, calendars are used for reserving spaces like the gym, club room, guest room, and work and hobby areas.
Booking calendars also work well for shared amenities. In 2023, One4all’s customers had access to booking calendars for items such as grills, pianos, window and steam cleaners, hand trucks, ironing machines, and power drills.
One4all’s digital booking calendar operates on residents’ devices, allowing them to independently reserve spaces and amenities, as well as change or cancel bookings – anytime, anywhere. Booking can also be done from the building’s digital notice board. The calendar facilitates the process for the booker and lightens the workload for property management. Real-time booking status is always visible due to its digital nature.
Active use of Kruunuvuorenranta gym with digital booking calendar
In the Kruunuvuorenranta residential area in Helsinki, there is a digital booking calendar for the area’s gym. Ten bookings can be made for each one-hour training session, and the gym is open every day from 6 am to 10 pm. The gym’s booking calendar has been heavily utilized, with a total of 16,358 bookings made in 2023.
“The number of gym users has been surprisingly positive – those numbers have been quite frankly astounding,” says Joonas Siponen, the property manager of Kruunuvuorenranta Palvelu Oy.
Kruunuvuorenranta residential area is managed by Kruunuvuorenranta Palvelu Oy, which recognized the needs of the new and developing residential area. The service company decided to anticipate and avoid potential challenges by introducing digital channels for communication and shared service booking even when the communal spaces were still under construction. The area also features larger spaces for events, which individual housing companies typically cannot provide.
“It’s great to notice that as a service company, we’ve been able to offer residents spaces they’re genuinely satisfied with. It’s wonderful to support residents’ gatherings and hobbies,” Joonas continues.
More communal spaces are planned for the Kruunuvuorenranta area, and residents’ input has also been taken into account – resident surveys were conducted to gather their preferences as part of the planning process. The gym, opened in 2019, will soon be updated, with additional equipment being added.
Property management is responsible for all communal spaces in Kruunuvuorenranta and their management. “The digital booking calendar has been immensely helpful in our work and has made management easier. Having up-to-date booking calendars provides a sense of control over space management, as it allows for much better response to problematic situations. And we can always check the current booking information,” says Joonas.
Access control and payment features can be integrated into the booking calendar
Access control can be integrated into the digital booking calendar to ensure that only the resident who booked the space can access it at the scheduled time.
Payment service can also be added to the booking calendar, allowing residents to handle payments at the time of booking. In practice, the payment is deducted from the resident’s account at the time of booking, but it appears as a pending transaction until then.
If there are many different spaces available in a building, a small fee for their use can even generate some income for the housing company that can then be used for example for organizing a communal gathering. This also fosters a sense of community within the building.
Careful consideration should be focused on the cybersecurity of digital booking calendar. It is as important as when acquiring any other new software.
