What is the best way to manage documentation and records for your hotel?

What is the best way to manage documentation and records for your hotel?

We at Propertyhero.ai often are asked for ways to improve hotel operations, and frequently asked questions come up pertaining to hotel documentation and records, so we thought a short article on the topic will help our hotel customers. Documentation and records are key to managing operations at a hotel by making hotel operations by 1) avoiding violations and fines, 2) creating accountability and documentation trails, and 3) helping with preparing for the quarterly management meeting. Let’s start with the most critical being avoiding violations and fines.

Documentation to Avoiding Violations and Fines

Hotels have many permits and licenses: boiler permits, fire alarm permits, licenses, trash & waste disposal permits, food and commissary licenses, pool licenses, elevator permits, and more. These often need to be displayed and must have the originals in the front office. Misplaced permits are common, and so are stolen permit displays in places like elevators. A best practice is to have the digital version of the permits and license in the cloud to avoid lost or damaged documentation. Propertyhero.ai hotel solution has a secure Amazon cloud storage solution for such documentation that is accessible in seconds from the web and mobile phone to avoid fines from impatient inspectors. Further, renewing these hotel licenses and permits in a timely manner is vital. With many hotel permits and licenses expiring on different dates tracking when to renew these are a major chore. With this, digital hotel document solutions like PropertyHero.ai allow the hotel managers to create reminders and reoccurring tasks that are assigned to key staff, and email and SMS them, well before the permits expire so they can be properly renewed ensuring you stay in compliance. This leads to the next point which is creating accountability with your documentation.

Documentation to create Accountability

Having a clear document trail creates accountability in a hotel. From work orders to filing receipts, and having manuals for appliances, and permits on hand everything inside a hotel can benefit from having documentation. Digitally assigned and recorded tasks and work orders help management avoid having the “told you to do this” conversation with your team. Digital solutions like Propertyhero.ai work order and task assignment trackers help management go back and verify who, what, when, how long, and how much and place a vital level of accountability on hotel team members. Further digital solutions for work orders and task management repeatedly remind team members of overdue or late tasks so they get properly addressed. Having receipts, agreements, and contracts for hotel maintenance and vendors’ jobs further helps keep hotel employees and vendors honest. For example, Propertyhero.ai digitally stores these and retrieves all documents associated with a work order, task, maintenance requests, or even hotel assets. Easy access over smartphones to manuals for hundreds of appliances and major equipment is vital to productivity and avoiding mistakes. As mentioned digitally storing and retrieving permits and licenses is vital for compliance, avoiding fines and major liability. Lastly, quarterly management meetings can benefit dramatically from streamlined access to documentation.

Documentation to Streamline Quarterly Management Meetings

Quarterly hotel management meetings are vital and often stressful events. Streamlining preparation for these meetings can be dramatically improved with a modern digital document management system. Having cost and time tallies on 1) maintenance work orders, 2) general tasks, 3) forecasting upcoming expenses greatly helps in the preparation of these meetings, and 4) helping with accounting. For example, most paper-based work orders require the maintenance department head to physically tally costs for labor, materials, and vendors from their paper trail taking several days and often is fraught with errors. PropertyHero.ai maintenance and work order tracker take seconds to tally these costs for a given period or year across a single or multiple properties. General hotel tasks from cleaning a soiled carpet, to replacing a damaged tv cost time and money, and with a digital documentation system, these can be compiled quickly. Upcoming expenses like planned elevator repair and major appliance or equipment replacements must be remembered and accounted for, and with a forward-looking digital document management system like Propertyhero.ai, these can be accounted for in seconds. Finally, with all the costs and forecasts in hand, the accounting department will greatly benefit in their end of year tasks.

In all, a properly documented hotel helps dramatically in the management of hotel operations and maintenance, helps keeps employees accountable and productive, and supports in preparing for quarterly hotel management meetings.