Automatic Booking
After you have synced data, you can enable automatic booking, which means that TIDY can automatically book turnover cleanings on your behalf after your guests leave.
- Automatic Booking works after the end of a synced event. For rental guests it is the "check out" day.
- The "Start No Earlier Than" time is the earliest someone could arrive to do the job on the check out day. Most clients pick the check-out time for this.
- The "End No Later Than" time is the latest time someone could complete the job on the check in day. Most clients pick the check-in time for this.
- Automatic booking will start sending requests to your pros when a turnover is within 30 days. This is because we found that pro schedules change too much outside of this range anyway. But you don't need to take any action for automatic booking to start searching, it is automatic.
- The first available time after checkout is always marked as preferred. We know for rental property managers, you always want someone out right away when possible so that if a guest is ready to check in early they can be accommodated. That is why this time is always marked preferred. However, as this is not always possible, we have other settings in place.
- For same-day requests of 4-hour cleanings, there needs to be a minimum window of 5.5 hours between the earliest possible start time and the latest end time. This ensures the system has enough time to schedule the job on the same day.
- "Max Days After Checkout" is a feature to only allow jobs to be booked close to checkout. First, note that automatic booking will only send a job request that will be between the check-in and check-out of guests. All pros are also automatically notified that you prefer the cleaning as soon as possible after checkout. So even if this number is large, most jobs should be done shortly after checkout. You can use Max Days After Checkout to make it so that even if guests are booked far apart, you will only search within a shorter timeframe. There are several options to select from, between 0 and 4. We know most customers would like things turned over on the same day, but restricting to only that day means no other job will be automatically booked. The default and recommended value is 4, to ensure you have the maximum chance of a pro accepting the job at all. If lowering it to below 4, we recommend making sure your rates are high enough and we recommend ensuring you have added multiple pros as options (in addition to having TIDY help find new pros). This gives you the maximum chance of someone being available for a more narrow window. Here are some examples.
- If set to 0, you only allow pros to see/accept a job between checkout and check in on the same day.
- If set to 1, pros can only accept jobs between checkout and the next day.
- If set to 4, pros can accept jobs after checkout and checkin of the next guest (up to 4 days later.
Here is a high level overview:
Once set up, when we get synced events from something you integrated, we will automatically create a Job Request. This Job request will have:
- Follow the priority you set in your "My Pros" priority list.
- Be booked to start no earlier than your "Start No Earlier Than" time on the check out date.
- Be booked to end no later than your "End No Later Than" time on the following check in date or the "Schedule Jobs No Later Than Date", whichever is earlier.
The "Schedule Jobs No Later Than" date is a limit on how far after a check out a job can be Automatically booked. The options are:
- The same day as the checkout
- 1 day after checkout
- 2 days after checkout
- 3 days after checkout
- 4 days after checkout
Generally speaking, we recommend having as much flexibility as reasonable for your situation, understanding the tradeoffs. Almost everyone wants the same day as checkout by default, however this may mean you are less likely to get the pro you want or the rate you want. Adding flexibility can help improve these!
NOTE: By default we always tell pros that your preferred time is right after checkout.
Example of Automatic Booking
You sync your Airbnb calendar. You set up your automatic booking settings with a Start No Earlier Than time of 11am (30 min after your check out time) and a End No Later Than of 2:30pm (30 minutes before your check in time). A guest books for Jan 10 - Jan 13. We automatically create a Job Request to your pros in the priority you set to start no earlier than Jan 13, 11am and end no later than Jan 17, 2:30pm (4 days after check out). Next, someone books for Jan 7-9. We then automatically create a Job Request to your pros to start no earlier than Jan 9, 11am and end no later than Jan 10, 2:30pm (before your next guest checks in).
If a guest cancels a reservation via an integration, the synced "Guest Reservation" will be canceled on our side and reflect in the app. Sometimes, a job request may have been created or accepted in between the guest reservation. At this time, we do not automatically cancel jobs that were created via automatic booking on our standard plan. You must do this via a Concierge Action. Here are the issues that some people have mentioned:
- Sometimes, they want to keep the jobs and get the cleaning anyway to keep the relationship with the pro good.
- Sometimes, they do skip canceling a job if there is a cancellation fee.
- Sometimes, they want to cancel job requests if not accepted yet, job keep jobs if scheduled.
- Sometimes, the job is still the only job scheduled between two existing guest reservations, and keeping the appointment is desirable.
NOTE: Once a guest checks in, our integration system considers the reservation 'active.' Due to this, any cancellations made after check-in are not automatically synchronized or reflected in your account. Depending on the integration, a new reservation will be automatically created, reflecting the new reservation data.
So here is the information we need to create a good, clear Concierge Action for your needs.
- The triggering event:
- Do you want to trigger this when a guest reservation was cancelled?
- Do you want any delay on the action? For example, wait until within 7 days to ensure that the guest reservation is not rebooked, so you don't need to bug the pro again?
- The action to take:
- Do you only want jobs automatically booked via the integration cancelled?
- Do you only want jobs of a certain type cancelled (e.g. cleaning)?
- Do you want to cancel the job regardless of timing? (e.g. do you want to cancel it even within 24 hours, or if you would incur a last minute cancellation fee from the pro?
- Do you want to cancel even if they are already there actively doing the job?
- Do you want any exceptions for certain pros? Or have this universally apply?
Please ask our Concierge to set this up for you, providing as much information as possible.
Sometimes, you may have jobs scheduled via Automatic booking when there is no guest expected. However, then later a guest books during that timeframe. What TIDY will do is automatically update any job requests to match the new records. But if someone has already booked a confirmed job, we will not automatically cancel the job. You must do it online or in the app.
For example, you have a guest booked between the 1st and 3rd and the next guest from the 8th to the 10th. Automatic booking may find you a cleaner for the 4th. Now, if a guest were to book you from the 3rd to the 8th, you have 2 issues that may need solving.
(a) You need a cleaner out on the 3rd and the 8th.
(b) You may need to cancel the cleaner on the 4th.
With Automatic Booking enabled, TIDY will automatically solve (a) by creating job requests for the 3rd and 8th. We will NOT automatically cancel any jobs automatically, as in some cases people wish to keep the appointment.
We have plans to add more options here soon, please let your account manager know what you would like to support.