Integration and Ease of Use

Hotel Effectiveness should be called Hotel Efficiency as the information we input from the Night Audit Entry to the Scheduler, to the Gameday to the 5 minute Daily Labor Check In keep our managers from manually calculating minutes and allows them time to do other tasks. Companies who are not using this software are really missing the boat and causing unnecessary work in a world where CPOR rules the day. We have this software integrated with our proprietary back office software and it is amazing to see everything in one place, for someone like me who is over 11 properties. We have recommended this to other hotel ownership groups and will continue to do so.

Pros

Hotel Effectiveness is able to integrate with a variety of software; this has allowed my company to seamlessly view labor without having to log in to a time clock server and run reports. We are able to train our team members from Night Audit to General Managers in one day on how to navigate the system. Labor monitoring a simple RED/GREEN System (truly does not get any easier than that). The training provided on-line is an added benefit to those who may want to get to know the system further. We use the entire suite and have had no issues when we onboard new properties/ team members to our company.

Cons

If I had to pick one item it's the salaried team members (who clock in and out) auto flow against the labor plans. We called support and were shown a work around.

Hotel Effectiveness

I love Hotel Effectiveness. I have been using it for years with two different hotel management companies. It is a high quality tool for our hotels.

Pros

Hotel Effectiveness is a great labor tracking tool. It makes daily review of hotel labor quick and easy. I love the myriad reports you can generate to break down the labor numbers.

Cons

I wish there was more functionality for myhotelteam.com. They should be able to switch shifts and more on the site. It should have its own app too.

All-around strong product, saves management time

The main benefit for Hotel Effectiveness has been increased control over labor costs. This product, for at least 80% of users (with 50+ employees), would probably pay for itself. When combined with a production schedule, we are able to see which employees are falling short of expectations, meeting expectations, or exceeding expectations, with hard data.

Pros

Ease of use - simply go to the website and check employee hours, potential for overtime, and missed "punches". Particularly for the housekeeping department, days won't end at an exact time, so being able to monitor in real-time employee hours helps with middle of the week adjustments to maintain high labor efficiencies.

Cons

My only complaint with Hotel Effectiveness would be it's "export" capabilities. A user is required to go through a reports tab, rather than the daily labor check-in, to have a spreadsheet that can then be converted to excel. Lot's of other managers at the resort are either forget how to do this (since it is not frequently done by all department heads), or never learned in the first place.

not intended for stay over properties

I never liked due the property lay outs and occupancy neither the fact of extended stay properties and the fact of no getting reports easy to read for a supervisor as far as the ones for Hilton. I have worked on 2 different properties and honestly never used since it never worked out for my properties.

Pros

easy to upload and saving time I don't really have much that I could like

Cons

I don't like that is hard to give the same amount of rooms even when I have done all the things possible to do so, A property like this is hard to have someone do 11 check outs plus stay overs or having someone do 30 + stay overs due the amount of people per room and long stay guest I believe the system set up would work great for a non extended stay properties

Excellent!

Pros

Love that I can do a daily labor check in and see all the associates easily in one place. Excellent for keeping track of days off and requests off. Easily add gratuities and bonus incentives. Can't think of any easier way to keep track of so many associate requests and hours.

Cons

That I have to scroll to the top to see the time card when I click on someones time card the start their last name is at the bottom of the alphabet. Honestly that is very insignificant in the great number of on that HE does for our property!!

HE is Great!!!

We are solving hotel labor issues using HE. It is giving Global a better picture of how our labor costs are impacting us. The reports assist us in knowing clearly where we can make adjustments. It also assists in monitoring labor costs for budget purposes.

Pros

I love the ease of functionality with this software. Everything is right at your hands.

Cons

There is not anything that I dislike about this software... If something exists I have not located it.

How awesome is this!!

My experience was a bit scary at first not knowing if I could correct my errors and just trying to operate the system. After a tad bit of repetitive practice I now am teaching the software to my colleagues.

Pros

The software allows me to easily access the database for everyday use. Tracking hours and making the proper adjustments is also what I like.

Cons

I'm not able to pull up everyone's schedule (I may not have access). However when another manager ask me to complete task for them I'm not always allowed to accommodate them.

Great tool for labor effectiveness

Pros

The ease with which it is to use it. The system is self explanatory and finding specific details you may need is a piece of cake.

Cons

At first it may be difficult to find specific things but once you spend a bit of time on it - everything is there.

Easy Peasy Labor Review

Overall our company enjoys the experience with HE.

Pros

The 5 minute daily check is AMAZING and allows managers to control labor much more efficiently.

Cons

After the website change, the formatting appears to be off a bit.

Hotel Effectiveness

Keeping track of time and overtime. Telling my employee how many hours they have help them stay on track.

Pros

I can fine out the hours of my employee quickly. When schedule I can see what hours I have and where to use them more effectively

Cons

Sometime it slow and I have to use Google or it won't work. Navigation can some rime be difficult and if I miss a day I find it hard to catch up

Hotel Effectivness makes labor management easy!

It is significantly easier to manage labor, labor costs, and problomatic employees. It is also an easy way to offer praise to employees that and finishing quickly. I can see the issues on the computer and then further investigate or have a one-on-one to see why somebody is struggling to make a very reasonable time. This answers a lot of questions that we could never answer at a previous hotel.

Pros

I use this to track housekeepers daily time as well as productivity. In the morning I enter their assigned rooms to clean and can see an expected end time which helps monitor productivity during the day. I can plan my day out better when I know how long it will take to finish at the max. I can also see customized times for special cleaning projects and factor that in, in the morning. In the afternoon I fill out another option which is their actual cleans, the work that was completed. This assists in making sure every room sold the night before was either cleaned or serviced. This aligns with our time clock machine so the next day I can track how quickly or how slowly each housekeeper worked. I can see if they finished an hour ahead of time or if they milked the clock and stayed longer than it would take to do the amount of work they actually completed. I am also able to see the budgeted hours for that day or week as well as each employee (as well as department) average time per room. There is another formula built in for supervisors, managers, laundry, etc. All of the people whos jobs cannot be seen on paper but more so their efforts and time on the clock. It is very easy to follow and fill out each day. I also have a daily check in where I review the prior day and can add notes about why we were over or under in hours so that my manager and even the owners can see the trends.

Cons

There are really no downsides to the software IF you are trained on all of the options. When I first began I was taught on the fly by somebody who did not understand it too well. I was only using about 15% of the capabilities the website has to offer. Once an upper manager came in to train me on it I caught on within an hour and was able to maximize my experience.

Hotel Effectiveness Review

Overall pretty good.

Pros

Overall, the system is fairly simple to use. I love the "assume user" feature as this has helped troubleshoot user questions. I have not had to use technical support, which is always a good thing. They layout is fairly simple.

Cons

In time and attendance, it would be beneficial to be able to search an employee instead of having to select from a long list. I use the control F function to locate the employees, but it would be easier if the system allowed for it. The system seems to work most effectively with Chrome (which I love), but Internet Explorer users have a difficult time using it. Customizable reports are a bit complex to build, this could be simpler.

Opportunity

I would save neutral. I have worked wit other systems that seem to be ore flexible with setting parameters that work for our type of need or business. In addition I have had some issue with support's lack of timeliness in returning calls when we are only given the option to leave a message. There have been some hiccups when setting up first time parameters, told al is taken care of and later find that there are key steps that were not taken or implemented as committed to by support.

Pros

I like the ease of the system as it related to entering data and easy to understand graphs -color coded reporting and data that is provided when dealing with forecasting etc.

Cons

There a few options theta would assist us greatly: 1. Having clocks that are not open for any time punching but rather restricted with grace periods 2 Would be a great option to be able to schedule people and have HE work with time clock and create grace periods so that it's not a "free for all" punching system.

Excellent overall time keeping system!

Labor usage and management; better tool to review overtime/approaching overtime; scheduling functionality and time keeping are very user friendly and intuitive.

Pros

What I like most about Hotel Effectiveness is the ease of use; user friendly, reporting and scheduling capabilities are very useful and efficient.

Cons

There really are not any cons for me when using this software. If I have to mention something, it would be that when you do need to speak with someone from customer support, you need to email them versus having the ability to reach a live person directly; which can create some lag time. However, the service provided is excellent.

Hotel Effectiveness Rocks

I can't thank this company enough for their fast, efficient, pleasant customer service. I adore the entire team - their service and attitude is impeccable!! The product produces labor, ACA, punch, revenue, audit, housekeeping, plus many more reports. Having several hotels - I am able to compare data and identify inconsistencies in a breeze.

Pros

The product is easy to use; it offers online training and Q & As. The data is valuable to the hotel operations and easy to pull. The canned reports are invaluable!

Cons

Completely satisfied - we have no desire to search for other options!!

User Friendly

Having Hotel Effectiveness has eliminated the 'manual' entry of employee timecards. The punches are electronically made and housed within Hotel Effectiveness. So when it comes time to process payroll it is so easy. Just pull a report and it can download all the payroll information into our payroll accounting software.

Pros

The software is very user friendly. It is easy to navigate from page to page. It has 'real time' punches. There is no need to 'wait' or having to manually capture time punches.

Cons

I have no cons about the software at this time.

Easy to Use- Straight Forward to Learn

This is my second hotel working with Hotel Effectiveness. I enjoy the ease of use and find the tutorials very informative. Scheduling is simplified and doesn't experience lag. The option to set up auto-generated reports for to monitor labor offers peace of mind. Great asset to equip your hotel operations team with.

Pros

The software is easy to use. There are a list of tutorials to offering ease of use learning the software. It's very straightforward and user friendly. Scheduling is made efficiently and the program is not heavy to run. Forecasting formulas for allocating labor hours is seamless. Adding users is straightforward. You can add tips, declare tips, bonuses, incentives, PTO, and vacation in a breeze. Allows for employees with multiple coding without manual calculation for rate differentials.

Cons

Although was resolved by customer support; slight challenge coding an employee with a promotion.

Labor Saver

Hotel Effectiveness has helped me greatly with productivity. It's a great tool since I can show an associate how well they are doing with actual, real time numbers/information so they better understand enabling them to have a better grasp on their performance

Pros

I use the software mainly for scheduling and tracking productivity. Hotel Effectiveness takes the guess work out of this process since it tells how many people you need to schedule and what time they should finished.

Cons

There is nothing that I do not like about the software at this time. I think this is so be of how I use it because everything is loaded (forecasting, labor plans etc.) for me, it just utilize it.

Very Pleased!!!

Managers are in better control of their labor. We can more quickly identify labor issues by position or person, whether that is needing to hire more to reduce overtime or not having the tools for employees to effceinently do their work.

Pros

H. E. is easy to use and allows the user the ability to manage you labor cost with the click of a mouse. I also like the timecard feature is easy to view for the manager to see times and total very quickly.

Cons

There is nothing that I do not like about the software.

HE Review

HE is a great way to track our labor productivity in real-time. It also allows us to break down trends with all of the historical data it provides.

Pros

It is so easy to use. I love the details reports. There is a lot of information you can break down.

Cons

I am not in love with the new format. I wish MyHotelTeam.com had more functionality. Like allowing associates to swap shifts via the site. It also needs an app for associates to access quickly on their smartphones.

Great Management Tool

Our experience has been fantastic. They have been great to work with

Pros

I like the industry specificity. I like the mobile aspect. I like the daily reports. I like that Plan fluctuates by occupancy and revenue. I like the ease of use. I like the excellent service. I like almost everything about it and encourage everyone I meet to use it.

Cons

only one complaint - it does not prohibit Meal Period violations, which is an issue in California

Great tool for keeping payroll

We utilize this software to keep track of all housekeepers restaurant staff and front desk staff. It shows a great snapshot of places where we have challenges and where we can save to increase profit

Pros

The streamline of the last update is smooth. The information once updated shows the changes clearly.

Cons

The next update should have in it the changes should be in real time. When putting in termination dates, or adding a name should be instant.

Easy to Use

Great Benefits are the Game Day Process for the housekeepers which keeps them up to date with their Minutes per Occupied rooms cleaned. The 5 mins labor check in helps me see who is getting close to overtime.

Pros

It is very user friendly system, and helps me keep up with MPOR , Revenues and Time Keeping.

Cons

The clock that is used for the employees to clock in and out, has had to be replaced 3 times in 2 years since i have been at this location with Duke Hospitality

Helpful Tools

Pros

Hotel Effectiveness has a number of very helpful tools that help track the productivity of your employees versus revenue goals/budget that you have set for your business. I also love the overtime tracker that makes it easy to keep an eye on potential extra expenses.

Cons

I don't dislike any of the software as of yet but I'm still exploring all of it's capabilities.

Love it !!!!

A great tool to hold everyone accountable managers and associates included.

Pros

The ability to send each associate their own schedules and communicate the reasons for accepting time off and not accepting.

Cons

Not able to add multiple job codes for communication for schedule what happens is if someone has two job codes then we cannot email or text info to them.

Enormous amount of reports that can be generated

Pros

Easy to navigate. Schedule can work with your budgeted forecast. OT reports on a daily basis as well as missed punches.

Cons

That we are not able to sync this software with her biometric clock in order for employees not to punch in early before their 30 minute lunch. This would help us tremendously to avoid meal penalties for our employees and company.

Hotel Effectiveness Review

I love it. It is easy to use and provides a lot of excellent information

Pros

It is so easy to use. There is a ton of information you can glean from all of the reports they provide.

Cons

I am not a big fan of the site format change. I would like the MyHotelTeam.com site improved. Associates being able to swap shifts would be nice. Also...there needs to be a smartphone app for MyHotelTeam.com.

This is about Hotel Effective

Helping the business save.

Pros

Its the best I ever used it help you keep up with who is over in they hours and how many hours you should work for the amount of work you have.Also it help to know who you can have too leave early on a not so busy day. Its the best I love it.

Cons

that it cant tell you everything about .

Provides Overall Value

Great for scheduling and monitoring and including the ability to reduce overtime. Allows you to be proactive if used daily.

Pros

Monitoring performance to the established standards.

Cons

There is room for error in that the established standards may not tie into budget. Caution!

Hotel Effectiveness makes payroll easy

Correct clock-in and clock-out time for each employees.

Pros

The increase of free time of doing payroll. No more pencil and paper. No more keeping up with employees time of Clock-in and Clock-out. I like the option to be able to view previous payroll`

Cons

Sometimes we have a problem with getting the finger to enroll.

Great platform

Pros

Covers from initial time input data to labour calcuation and budget with comparision . Scheduling is a plus side.

Cons

In time and attendance, when you select Time Card and Employee towards the bottom of list you again have to scroll up the page to view the deatils on the time card.

Efficient, Easy to Use, Easy to Monitor

Watching labor hours is very easy, and benefits the company (less overtime) as well as the employee (even amount of hours for all on slower weeks). More accurate accounting, by being able to "code" hours to different departments. For example, housekeepers help maintenance paint one week, it is very simple to re-code the department for those hours worked.

Pros

Overtime alerts, planned hour reports, very easy to use. When certain employees are having attendance issues, it takes less than 2 minutes to print out their time sheet.

Cons

I wish we were able to export our company budget to load up on Hotel Effectiveness, I feel like some of the more advanced features are not easy to set-up (minor complaint!).

Great Product

They are responsive when I have questions and were willing to add functionality for us. Easy to train to team members and drive profits.

Pros

The ease of use and ways to find any areas where we are over spending in labor, immediately.

Cons

At this point there is not anything I do not like about the product

HRD

Better control of overall payroll hours/dollars and departments/employees with challenges are easily identified.

Pros

The ability to track overtime, missed punches and adjust schedules to avoid overtime. Schedules that don't vary can be copied from one week to the next. Comments can be entered as explanation of variances and use by managers can be tracked.

Cons

Our operations schedules need to be prepared as we did prior to Hotel Effectiveness, then entered into Hotel Effectiveness. Our prior schedule file allows for manual adjustments to arrivals/departures/etc for a more accurate schedule based on forecasted business.

Very useful

Pros

I like the daily review at a glance that the night audit creates and sends to us daily. I like the comparison options. At a glance I can see occupancy, ADR, Out of Order, etc... wonderful chart - I go to it first thing every morning.

Cons

I personally haven't found anything I dislike. I don't use it all that much personally but as stated above like the reports that are created and generated from it.

Easy and A Minor Annoyance

Pros

Easy to access information and to schedule employees

Cons

I wish there was a monthly view of the scheduler. I like to input employee requests off as I get them and I don't like having to go through every week to get to the one I want.

GM at Holiday Inn Express

I have been able to met or exceed in beating my labor costs against my budget and forecasts. I feel more confident in my labor cost and explaining why we were over a day. I can drill down to see trends that may be happening.

Pros

The data that I can see and the information daily of how we are doing with our labor costs. The scheduling feature is fast and easy also.

Cons

Nothing that I can think of. This software has been wonderful to work with.

Hotel Review

Pros

This program is very easy to use. It helps me control costs and is user friendly. For many on my team English is a second language we have seen challenge with other software given the language barrier. With HE it is very easy and visual for all team who use to navigate. Our labor costs have been impacted very positively.

Cons

The forecasting tool can be a bit hard to navigate.

Great Hospitality Analytical Tool

Labor Savings,

Pros

Daily Labor Analysis, Daily, MTD and YTD Revenue Analysis, Effective tool to manage labor hours, Effective tool to reward employees in meeting target minutes

Cons

Reporting need more work, need additional reports to assist in decision making

Great for controlling labor

I am able to control labor, track birthdays and anniversaries.

Pros

I like that it shows a break down of all departments, including hours and wages. It helps me to get ahead of employees who are headed towards OT.

Cons

I wish there was an app for my smart phone.

Hotel Effectiveness

It is a very effective tool to monitor labor hours with the forecasted and budgeted hours.

Pros

Ease of calculation of scheduled man hours and planning for labor wins

Cons

The screen where we input shifts for an associate does not reflect the budgeted hours for that group of users

General Manager

This tool has helped in my housekeeping department the most. Were able to track the minutes per room for each attendant. This is a great tool for productivity.

Pros

All of my labor standards and schedules in one place.

Cons

Updating times. If Im correct it only updates 4 times a day.

Hskp Manager

Pros

HE allows us to better see and control labor with on time, at your finger tip report. HE support is willing to work with us to insure we are able to get full benefits from their programs.

Cons

I like everything is nothing that I don't like

Hotel Effectiveness

Overall, I am really satisfied with the program. It is very convenient and easy to use.

Pros

Ease of making scheduling and being able to copy and past previous week. Being able to add multiple roles for employees.

Cons

when idle or not in use for some time, it does not log you out or give you a warning. If you continue at that point, it does not save anything and you need to re-log back in.

A GOOD PROGRAM

Very good experience.

Pros

It is very easy to use and enter data to keep records for night audit and payroll. It also alerts you if some data is missing.

Cons

I can't say there was anything I did not like.

General Manager

payroll controls. Easy access to see payroll out of line. the multiple daily emailed updates ensures I catch all errors. great tool to gauge success and needs.

Pros

ease to use scheduling features the Daily 5 Minute checklist. Ease to see who out of line with payroll and staffing the late/absence feature ease in reading team comments daily tracking

Cons

scheduler input feature. hard to read F+B covers and revenue

Best labor management tool I have ever known of or used.

This tool allows me to correct labor overages and shortages before they impact the P&L or the service level.

Pros

This is very easy to use and to train others on how to use.

Cons

I cannot think of a issue with this software.

Great tool

Great tool that all departments use daily.

Pros

When the product is teamed up with your time management system it gives great data on how your labor was used for the day, week, etc. I does a great job breaking down the data in more reports than you need but you can find the ones you like easily.

Cons

I do wish it updated faster when corrections are made to the time management system.

Ease of use

Great

Pros

User friendly, lots of tools in this software which helps company.

Cons

Everything is perfect, can't think of anything that could be improved.

Useful and Relevant Timekeeping Option

I have thoroughly enjoyed using Hotel Effectiveness and look forward to learning more about the program.

Pros

Hotel Effectiveness is a very user friendly program. What i especially like is the fact it has training courses that allows you to grow in the use of the program.

Cons

There are one or two reports that can be altered so as to give a better representation of data.