Enquiries, site visits and the funnel
Every person who asks for a bed is an enquiry with where they came from, what they want and who follows them up. Plan a site visit, book a bed straight from the enquiry, or close it with a lost reason, and see which sources fill your beds.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- Calls and walk-ins are written on scraps of paper, and half of them are never called back.
- You pay a broker and a listing site, and cannot tell which one brings the residents who stay.
- A visit is promised for Saturday and nobody at the desk knows about it.
- You lose people to the PG down the road and never learn why.
How it works
- The desk adds an enquiry under Stay > Front Desk > Enquiries, or in the staff app. Give the name, phone, email, gender, college or employer, and where they came from.
- Under Looking for, note the property, room type, category, move-in date, stay in months and budget. Handled By names who follows it up.
- Enquiries move across the board: New, Contacted, Visit Planned, Booked. Contacted records the first call.
- To plan a visit, set the Site Visit date and time and press Plan Visit. The handler gets a to-do for that day; Visited closes it.
- Book a Bed opens the free beds for the enquiry's hostel, room type, gender and dates. Booking one fills in the name and login from the enquiry and marks the enquiry Booked.
- If the person goes elsewhere, choose the Lost Reason and press Lost. Reopen brings a lost enquiry back.
- Stay > Reporting > Rooms and Residents > Enquiry Funnel shows enquiries by source against their status.
Everything it does
An enquiry
- Contact: name, phone, email, gender, College / Employer
- Source: Walk-in (the default), Phone, Website, App, Google / maps, Social media, Referral, Broker, Campus / employer tie-up, Other
- Referred By for a referral, Broker for a broker
- Looking for: hostel, room type, category, Move-in, Stay (months, 0 for open-ended), Budget
- Handled By: the person who added it, to start with
- A note, and the history of every change with who made it
Following up
- Statuses: New, Contacted, Visit Planned, Booked, Lost
- The board shows the open steps as columns even when empty; lost enquiries are kept off it
- Each card shows initials, hostel and room type, the move-in date and the next follow-up
- Plan Visit needs a date and time and puts a meeting to-do on the handler's list
- Lost needs a lost reason; a lost note is optional; Reopen sets it back to Contacted
- Lost reasons come ready: Too expensive, Location, No bed available, Chose another hostel, Facilities / food, No reply. Edit them under Stay > Configuration > Rooms and Residents > Lost Reasons
From enquiry to booking
- Book a Bed searches free beds for the enquiry's hostel, room type, gender and dates
- The new stay takes the name, the email or mobile as login, the category and the college or employer
- Saving the booking marks the enquiry Booked and links it
- Enquiries from the public page arrive by themselves with the source Website (Scale, or the public page added to Growth)
- Add to Waitlist puts the enquiry in line for a bed (Scale)
Lists and reports
- Board, list and pivot views; filters Open (the default), Mine, Booked, Lost
- Group by source, hostel, lost reason or month
- Enquiry Funnel: a pivot of sources against statuses, under Stay > Reporting
- The dashboard counts open enquiries, visits planned and bookings this month, and has a chart of enquiries by source
Who uses it
Front Desk / AccountsAdds enquiries, calls back, plans visits and books beds, on the web or in the staff app.
Hostel ManagerFollows the open enquiries and reads the funnel by source and lost reason.
OwnerSees from the funnel which sources and brokers bring residents.
Other hostel staffCan read enquiries in the staff app; only the front desk adds them and books.
Where you use it
- Web: Stay > Front Desk > Enquiries, Stay > Reporting > Rooms and Residents > Enquiry Funnel, Stay > Configuration > Rooms and Residents > Lost Reasons
- Web: in SmartMy Stay the app menu is named Stay and Hostels is named Properties; forms, fields and messages still say Hostel
- The SmartMy Stay Staff app: Enquiries under the Front Desk menu. It has Call, Book a bed, Mark contacted, Plan a site visit, Mark visited and Mark lost. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Public page (Scale, or added to Growth): the enquiry form fills Enquiries by itself
- Not by WhatsApp or email: enquiries arriving by message are typed in by the desk
What you control
Settings
- Lost reasons: six to start with
- Source of a new enquiry: Walk-in to start with
- Handled By: the person adding it, to start with
Notifications
- No message to the person who enquired; the desk calls or writes
- The handler gets a to-do for each planned site visit
- Once a bed is booked: Hostel Booking Confirmed goes to the new resident and any guardians
Questions
Is this in the Starter plan?
Yes. Enquiries, site visits, lost reasons, booking from an enquiry and the funnel are in every plan. The public page enquiry form comes with Scale, or as an add-on on Growth; the waitlist comes with Scale.Can we see which broker brings the most residents?
Yes. Name the broker on each enquiry, then group the enquiries by broker in the list, or read the Enquiry Funnel by source. Brokers' commission is not worked out here.Does the person get a message when we plan the visit?
No. The visit is a to-do for the person handling the enquiry. Confirm it with the visitor by phone.Can we stop two staff calling the same person?
Each enquiry has one Handled By, and the Mine filter shows each person their own. The history shows who did what.Related features
STAYSBed booking without double bookingSearch the free beds for any dates, room type and gender, and book one in a few clicks. The system refuses a second booking of the same bed for the same days and names who holds it.ENQUIRIES, BOOKINGS, WAITLISTWaitlist with bed offers by emailPeople who want a bed when you are full wait in line, by property, room type, gender and dates. Every hour the system looks for a bed that fits, offers it to the first in line by email for a set time. The desk books it when they accept.PUBLIC PAGE AND ONLINE BOOKINGA public page for each hostelEach property you choose gets a public web page with its photo, amenities, room types, rent from, the beds free today and an enquiry form. Enquiries from the page land in your desk's list with the source Website.PUBLIC PAGE AND ONLINE BOOKINGOnline bed booking with paymentVisitors of your property's public page press Book now, choose a move-in date and get a bed at once. The deposit and booking fee are invoiced on the spot and paid online; a booking not paid within your hold hours is released.PORTAL AND APPSThe staff app for wardens and the deskSmartMy Stay Staff puts the front desk's and the caretaker's day on a phone. The desk searches residents, books beds, checks residents in and out, and takes rent with a receipt number. Wardens and caretakers approve leave, mark residents out and back, and take a roll call even without signal, where the property keeps one. Any of them can press SOS to call the other staff for help.REPORTSOccupancy, move-out and vacancy reportsFive reports show where your beds stand and where they are going. They are occupancy now, occupancy night by night and residents with their length of stay. Then move-outs by month with the reasons, and the beds that will come free. The Enquiry Funnel shows where new residents come from and where you lose them.
See it with your own beds and rent plan.
Tell us how many beds and properties you run. We will show you a booking, a month of rent and a move-out, set up the way your PG works.