Running a small business often requires the owner to do the majority of the work. As you know, this is no different in Hospitality, whether it is a guesthouse in the countryside or a backpackers in a bustling metropolis. To make your life easier and your business run smoother we have put together a digital toolkit made up of Hospitality apps, web portals and websites specific to the hospitality industry. All of which will help you increase efficiency so you can focus on what is important, growing your business.
ClockInstant
Category: Staff Time-Tracking
Type: App & Web Portal
Cost: Between R18 and R49 per employee per month
ClockInstant is South African made development to enable you to monitor your staff timesheets. It is a financially savvy choice to fingerprint biometrics and takes out the issue of installations and hardware. It works by putting a tiny Bluetooth-enabled beacon at your gathering point, office or work site. The staff, at that point, check in utilizing the ClockInstant application on their smartphones. When they check in, the manager or payroll clerk can see their timesheet through the ClockInstant portal. Staff clock out and the system ascertains their time worked and splits it into ordinary time and overtime.
Wave Apps
Category: Accounting software
Type: Web portal
Cost: Free
Wave accounting is a bookkeeping software bundle that can enable you to keep your company running productively and, much like your hotel or B&B, accounting for all the ‘big sheets’ you are bringing in. It permits you connect to your bank account and after some time will begin to automatically categorise costs for you. A key element is their invoicing tool which encourages you make perfect, branded and professional invoices to issue to your customers. Reporting at year end is a breeze as they automate the creation of your income statement, balance sheet, cash flow report and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The best part is that the product is free to use for small buisnesses like yours.
Airbnb
Category: Sales (CRM)
Type: Web portal
Cost: Free
Airbnb has risen to become the most used booking engine which now boasts over 150 million users on their platform. It is free to list and with your target market within a few clicks of renting your guesthouse, lodge or B&B, why wouldn’t you use it? As the property owner/marketing manager, you’re in full control of your availability, prices, house rules, and how you interact with guests. Airbnb take a nominal 3% service fee used to cover the cost of processing the payments and is automatically deducted from the pay out to the host.
Buffer
Category: Social Media Management
Type: Website
Cost: $15/month
I am sure you implement various strategies and techniques to market your hotel, guesthouse or B&B. But nothing beats word of mouth. These days a lot of word of mouth marketing happens through the social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. Buffer is a really impressive tool that helps you manage all of those platforms in one place. It allows you to schedule posts, analyse their results and engage with your community.
If you want to try out a similar platform for free check out Hootsuite or Social Bakers
ClockWork App
Category: On-Demand Hiring
Type: App
Cost: 13% of wage
ClockWork is a South African designed and created mobile app that helps you find verified and dependable blue collar staff for your hospitality business at short notice. It comes as an iOS or Android application and after a short registration process, you can round out your job details and peruse through a variety of talent in your company’s vicinity.
The jobseekers on the platform are ranked by experience points which they gain by doing remarkable work through the app. Once the jobseeker is employed, he/she accepts the position and you can convey any job subtleties through the application’s chat interface. Finally, once the jobseeker has finished the work, you can rate and review them. The payment of their wage is then processed into their bank account so you never need to carry money again.
The platform has jobseekers in the hospitality industry including those that are housekeepers, porters, runners, waiters, baristas, maintenance workers, housekeepers and more.
Hospitality Marketplace
Category: Industry News
Type: Website
Cost: Free
Hospitality Marketplace is the go to place for any hospitality professional to keep in the know. It features news from around South Africa from new developments of hotels and restaurants as well as staff appointments and awards. Make it part of your daily routine.
