Laundry with bags, pickups and charges
Residents ask for a laundry pickup from the portal or the app. The caretaker counts the pieces, and the bag is tracked until it comes back. At delivery, pieces beyond the month's free pieces go on the resident's hostel dues by themselves, less any credit for missing or damaged clothes.
PLANSScale only
Why it matters
Laundry is one of the most argued-about services in a hostel. A resident says six shirts went and five came back, the caretaker's notebook says five, and the bill at month end is a guess. In SmartMy Hostel each bag has its own number, the pieces of each item and service, and the person who collected and delivered it. Missing and damaged pieces are noted at delivery with a credit if you give one. The charge comes from your price list, after the month's free pieces. It lands on the resident's hostel dues, and a message says what was charged.
The problem it solves
- Residents leave clothes at the desk and nobody knows whose bag is whose.
- The caretaker keeps the count in a notebook, and the month-end laundry bill is disputed.
- A shirt goes missing, and there is no record of how many pieces went in.
- Bags sit ready for a week because nobody told the resident.
How it works
- On the hostel's Laundry tab, tick Laundry Service, the pickup days, the cut-off time, the turnaround days and the free pieces per month.
- The owner or administrator sets the price per piece of each item and service. This is under Hostel > Configuration > Rent and Charges > Laundry Prices, for one hostel or all.
- The resident asks for a pickup from the portal or the app, with the pieces of each item. A bag asked for after the cut-off goes to the next pickup day.
- The caretaker opens the bag under Hostel > Services > Laundry, corrects the count and clicks Collect. The Ready By date is set from the turnaround.
- When the laundry is back, click Ready. The resident is told to collect it.
- At handover, count with the resident, note missing or damaged pieces and any credit, and click Deliver. The charge goes on the resident's dues and the resident gets a message with the amount.
Everything it does
Items, services and prices
- Services: Wash, Wash and iron, Iron only, Dry clean
- Eleven items to start with: Shirt / T-shirt, Trousers / Jeans, Shorts, Kurta / Top, Saree / Dress, Innerwear / Socks. Also Towel, Bedsheet, Pillow cover, Blanket, Jacket / Sweater
- Every starting price is 0: set your prices before you switch the laundry on, or pieces are delivered free
- A price for one hostel wins over a price for the Entity, which wins over a price for every Entity
- An item and service with no price line is not taken; the filter No price yet shows prices still at 0
Hostel settings
- Laundry Service: off to start with
- Residents Ask from the Portal / App: on; off means only staff record bags
- Pickup days: Monday to Sunday; none ticked means every day
- Cut-off Time: 09:00; 0 means until midnight
- Turnaround (days): 2
- Free Pieces per Month: 0 (none)
- Remind About a Ready Bag After (days): 2; again every 2 days, three times at most; 0 means no reminder
A bag from request to delivery
- Steps: Requested, Collected, Ready, Delivered, or Cancelled
- A bag number, the resident, room, pickup day and Ready By date
- Pieces per item and service, at the price list's price
- A walk-in bag can be recorded as Collected straight away
- Pieces can be corrected until the bag is ready
- A resident has one bag waiting for pickup at a time and can cancel it until it is collected
- Who collected and who delivered, with the time
Charge at delivery
- Pieces within the month's free pieces are not charged; the cheapest pieces are the free ones
- Free pieces count by calendar month, from the day the bag was collected
- Missing and damaged pieces per line, a note and a credit taken off the charge
- With billing, the amount goes on the stay under the Laundry charge head and onto the next invoice
- A cancelled bag is never charged
Reports
- Hostel > Reporting > Daily Life > Laundry: pieces and amounts by hostel, item, service, resident and month, as a pivot, graph or list
- Bag filters: Open, To collect, In the laundry, Ready, Delivered, Late, Ready, reminded, Missing or damaged
Who uses it
ResidentAsks for a pickup, follows the bag and sees what was charged.
GuardianSees the bags and the price list; only the resident asks for a pickup.
Warden / Caretaker and Front DeskCollect, mark ready, deliver and cancel bags of their hostels.
Hostel ManagerDeletes bags made by mistake and reads the laundry report.
Owner / AdministratorSwitches laundry on per hostel, sets its rules and keeps the items and the price list.
Where you use it
- Web: Hostel > Services > Laundry (bags, as a list or board). Hostel > Configuration > Rent and Charges > Laundry Prices and Laundry Items. Hostel > Reporting > Daily Life > Laundry, and the hostel's Laundry tab
- Resident portal: Laundry, with the next pickup, the free pieces left, the price list and the bags
- The SmartMy Hostel app: Menu > Daily life > Laundry, to ask for a pickup and follow the bags. The app is built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- The SmartMy Hostel Staff app: Menu > Services > Laundry, to collect, take a bag at the desk, mark ready and deliver. The app is built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Not built: an outside laundry vendor's login, or paying for laundry separately from the hostel dues
What you control
Settings
- Laundry Service: per hostel, off to start with
- Residents Ask from the Portal / App: on
- Pickup days: none ticked, so every day
- Cut-off Time: 09:00
- Turnaround (days): 2
- Free Pieces per Month: 0
- Remind About a Ready Bag After (days): 2
Notifications
- Hostel Laundry Ready: to the resident when the bag is ready
- Hostel Laundry Delivered: to the resident, with the amount charged and the missing or damaged pieces
- Hostel Laundry Waiting: to the resident while a ready bag is not taken
- Hostel Laundry Late: to the wardens of the hostel, once. Sent when a bag was not collected on its pickup day or is not ready on its day
- Channels: in the app and by email. WhatsApp and SMS come from your message credits, and app push once the apps are in the stores
- Each goes out at once; a person can switch off a channel such as email for themselves, never the event, and in-app notices always arrive
Questions
Can we give each resident some free washing every month?
Yes. Set Free Pieces per Month on the hostel. At delivery the cheapest pieces are free first, and only the rest are charged.How is laundry billed?
At delivery, the charge goes on the resident's hostel dues under the Laundry head and appears on their next invoice. The resident gets a message with the amount.What if a shirt does not come back?
At delivery, note it as missing on its line, add a note and give a credit if you want. The credit is taken off the charge, and the resident sees the note.Can residents ask from their phone?
Yes, from the portal or the SmartMy Hostel app. The app is built and in testing, not in the app stores yet. Untick Residents Ask from the Portal / App if only staff should record bags.We do not want laundry in one of our hostels.
Laundry is switched on per hostel. Leave Laundry Service unticked there.Do we have to use the starting list of items?
No. The owner or administrator adds your own items and archives those you do not take. Then they set a price for each item and service.Related features
BILLINGRent bills raised each periodEvery night the system adds the rent that has fallen due, puts the open charges on invoices and sends them to whoever pays. When a resident gives notice, moves room or leaves early, rent already billed is corrected with an adjustment or a credit note.BILLINGResident statement and yearly rent receiptPrint a resident's statement of every charge, invoice and payment, with what is due and the deposit held, in one click. Residents who claim rent in their tax return get a yearly rent receipt as a PDF. Both download from the portal and the app.PORTAL AND APPSThe resident appSmartMy Hostel is the phone app for residents and their parents or guardians. It has the stay, leave, documents, room change and notice to vacate, an inbox of what the hostel tells them, and an SOS button. With hostel billing and daily life it adds dues with Pay, notices with polls and attendance.PORTAL AND APPSResident and guardian portalResidents and their parents or guardians sign in on the web and see the stay. They upload documents, ask for leave or a room change, and give notice. With hostel billing they also see their dues and pay, download the statement and rent receipts, read notices and check attendance.PORTAL AND APPSThe staff app for wardens and the deskSmartMy Hostel Staff puts the warden's and the front desk's day on a phone. Wardens approve leave, mark residents out and back, and take the night roll call, even without signal. The desk searches residents, checks them in and out, takes payments and records inspections, incidents, late entries, visitors and meter readings. Any of them can press SOS to call the other staff for help.REPORTSDues, collection and daily-life reportsReports for the money and the discipline of each hostel: unpaid invoices by age, and what was invoiced, collected, waived and still due. Also electricity by room and by resident, roll-call attendance, late entries and incidents.
See it with your own blocks and classes.
Tell us how many hostels and students you have. We will show you an allotment, a leave request approved by a parent and a night roll call, set up the way your hostel works.