How to rent out several apartments without losing track

What gets harder as you add apartments

• Calendars. Each apartment is listed on several channels, and occupancy has to match everywhere.
• Check-ins and check-outs. One day can bring several changeovers at different addresses.
• Cleaning. A housekeeper needs a clear plan: where, at what time and for which arrival.
• Access. Every apartment has its own lock codes, intercom and Wi-Fi.
• Money. Prepayments, deposits and expenses get mixed up, and it becomes unclear which apartment is profitable.
• Team. A manager and housekeepers come on board, and each of them should see only what is theirs.

One calendar for every apartment

Managing several properties rests on a shared booking calendar, with apartments as rows and days as columns. It shows every booking, free dates and occupancy a week or a month ahead. Every booking, whether from a channel, by phone or from your website, goes in here and nowhere else.

This makes it easier to find a free apartment for a guest’s request, relocate a guest when needed and plan cleaning.

Channels and direct bookings

The more apartments you have, the more it pays to list them on several channels. But blocking dates by hand in every dashboard is unreliable and leads straight to double bookings. A channel manager links the shared calendar to the channels, and a new booking’s dates are blocked on the others automatically.

Direct bookings from returning guests and referrals are more profitable than channel bookings. Enter them in the calendar straight away, not after payment, and use a booking engine for requests from your own website.

One check-in standard

Create a card for each apartment with the address, entrance, intercom and lock codes, Wi-Fi network and guest instructions. Then check-in does not depend on the owner’s memory, and any team member can send the guest the right details.

Use the same check-in and check-out times for all apartments, for example check-in from 14:00 and check-out by 12:00. This simplifies the cleaning schedule and guest communication.

Cleaning between guests

Cleaning is planned from the check-out: as soon as a guest leaves, the apartment must be ready for the next arrival. If a new guest arrives the same day, that cleaning becomes urgent.

• Assign a housekeeper to each apartment.
• Give the housekeeper the address, access details and changeover time in one task.
• Ask for a photo report after cleaning: it confirms the apartment is ready and records its condition after the guest.
• Check the work and send the task back if needed.

Team and access

Once there are many apartments, the owner usually hands bookings to a manager and cleaning to housekeepers. Access should then be limited: the manager works only with assigned apartments, and housekeepers see only their own tasks. Financial reports stay with the owner.

The activity log shows who created or changed a booking and when. That settles disputes within the team.

Tracking money for each apartment

To see which apartment performs better, track revenue and expenses separately for each address.

• Bookings. Nightly rate, total, prepayment, deposit and balance.
• Expenses. Cleaning, supplies, repairs, utilities, internet and rent if the apartment is sublet.
• Metrics. Revenue, occupancy, average booking value and average length of stay for each apartment and for all of them together.

Recurring expenses such as rent and utilities are best set up once so they are charged automatically.

Guests and repeat stays

As apartments multiply, so does your guest base. Keep each guest’s contacts and stay history: returning guests are easier to recognise and offer a free apartment directly. Notes about problem guests help you avoid hosting them again.

When to move from a spreadsheet to a system

A spreadsheet and the channels’ dashboards cope while you have one or two apartments. It is time to move to dedicated software if:

• you have three or more apartments, or list them on two or more channels;
• managers or housekeepers are involved in the work;
• you have to reconcile bookings across several calendars;
• it is unclear how much each apartment earns.

How it works in Glavbook

Glavbook brings all your apartments into one booking calendar. Bookings from connected channels and direct guest enquiries are collected there automatically, and occupied dates are blocked on your other sales channels.

• Each apartment’s card stores photos, access details, Wi-Fi, check-in instructions and cleaning rules.
• Cleaning tasks are created automatically from check-outs and marked urgent before a same-day check-in. The housekeeper gets the task in the mobile app and attaches up to six photos, and the owner approves the work or sends it back.
• A manager sees only assigned apartments, and a housekeeper only their own cleaning tasks. Every booking change is saved with the staff member’s name.
• The booking card tracks the prepayment, deposit and balance, expenses are kept for each apartment, and analytics shows revenue, occupancy and results by property.
• The guest database keeps stay history, and the shared Glavbook blacklist warns you about problem guests.

More about the calendar on the page “Booking calendar”, about cleaning on the page “Housekeeping”, and about managing apartments on the page “Short-term rentals”.

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