How Does
Task Center Work?

Managing housekeeping assignments, maintenance activities, inspections and all the other tasks to get a property ready for your guests is a significant undertaking. Tasks can include general cleaning, carpet cleaning, pet sprayings, restocking supplies, linen deliveries, pool or hot tub cleanings, needed maintenance, inspections, etc. All must be accomplished between the time one guest departs and the next arrives. Typically the scheduling for these tasks starts a week or more before your guests are actually due to arrive, most times with little more than a departure list and a clipboard for help.

All property management programs can identify departing properties. Some may even be able to create work assignments. Ordinarily that's where their capabilities end. Basically, property management systems are a combination of reservation and accounting systems. If there is a housekeeping component it is normally very limited and poorly supported. The reason is simple, housekeeping is an extremely small part of a property management system and an even smaller part of the revenue generated by the system for its developers. The result is that housekeeping gets little attention from either developers or support personnel. Sound familiar? The bottom line - until Status Tracker - housekeeping's been pretty much on its own.

Status Tracker's Task Center finally provides property managers with a comprehensive system and the tools to help them. Task Center is specifically designed for the identification, assignment, cost, and tracking of all the tasks necessary to guarantee your guests arrive at a property you're proud of. Status Tracker automatically creates all necessary task assignments in a fraction of the time you currently spend scheduling. In fact it's so quick you can schedule Saturday's assignments on Friday, instead of starting on Monday. This avoids the constant time consuming adjustments and changes during the week as your reservations mature and crew availability changes.

Status Tracker identifies properties needing attention, by current status, or by importing a list from your property management system - your choice. Status Tracker's unique task pre-assignment capabilities automatically identify and create all the tasks needed. These tasks are instantly assigned to the right personnel and loaded into Status Tracker's Task Workbook with estimated times and associated costs.

In the Task Workbook, assignments are easily adjusted based on last minute changes in availability, workloads, estimated task time, costs, etc. If a crew has too many 'back to backs' or estimated time exceeds what you think they can reasonably handle, a single button click re-assigns the task to a different crew. It's that simple to organize the entire workday. When you're satisfied with the day's assignments, Status Tracker automatically creates worksheets with customizable checklists for housekeepers, inspectors, etc. Each worksheet has all the information necessary to accomplish the tasks, and shows the crew estimated task time and even the status settings to report progress. If you like, it can even show what they will get paid.

Now that we have our assignments let's get to work. As we all know, the best plans don't always go the way we thought they would. Crew's call in sick or arrive late. Guests sometimes 'trash' properties. There goes your plan! Don't worry, tasks can be reassigned with a button click and Status Tracker's color coded displays continuously update crew progress throughout the day. Ahead is Green, behind is Red. If a crew is 'in the red' a quick phone call to the property will let you know if you need to reschedule and adjust resources to get things back on track. No other system provides this level of minute-to-minute insight into what's really going on out there in the real world.

Status Tracker provides the tools and information you need for cost efficient management of the tasks assigned to your crews. Status Tracker also remembers all task assignments and how long they took. This information is available both as on-line reports and as Microsoft Excel files that can be downloaded to your computer. These files provide an auditable record of 'Time on Task'. They also provide a history of crew performance, and the actual time required to accomplish tasks and ready properties. This information can be used to refine future task schedules and is invaluable for later review and analysis. As always, Status Tracker provides you with the information you really need, where and when you really need it.