Meet Stefan, Operations Manager for Glück Auf Appartements.

Glück Auf Appartements operates 125 units across 11 properties in 5 cities throughout the Ruhrgebiet and Cologne, Germany. As serviced apartments, the properties face unique operational demands: longer guest stays, less frequent but more thorough cleanings, and the need to coordinate maintenance and housekeeping without a 24/7 front desk managing every interaction.

Stefan's role puts him at the center of it all. As the driving force behind Glück Auf Appartements' digital transformation over the past few months, his day-to-day responsibilities focus on "ensuring all technical workflows run smoothly and do not create problems for operations." He also works continuously on "streamlining and further simplifying processes and general digitalisation within the corporation."

But before that transformation could happen, Glück Auf Appartements had to face a hard truth about its operations.

The problem: when Excel sheets and WhatsApp groups became a bottleneck

Glück Auf Appartements wanted to grow. But its operations wouldn't allow it.

"As a company, we wanted to expand our business in all directions," Stefan explains. The challenge was that "our legacy setup left absolutely no room to scale up."

The operational picture was one that many hospitality operators will recognize: "lots of processes were still done with complicated Excel tables or even pen and paper, and communication mainly in numerous WhatsApp groups. This regularly caused errors, miscommunication, and eventually unsatisfied guests, frustrated staff, more work, and less revenue."

The few digital tools they did have weren't helping. "The few apps we were using were complicated and did not communicate with each other, let alone integrate with each other."

The bigger challenge was structural.

"Due to complicated workflows, all our staff members were highly specialised in certain aspects of operations, which made it difficult to cover for them, if unavailable, but also to onboard new staff members," Stefan says.

Glück Auf Appartements' operations had become too dependent on specific people with specific knowledge. That works fine when you're staying the same size. It becomes a serious problem when you want to grow.

Stefan and the team knew what needed to change. "We wanted to tackle both of these main issues and simplify workflows while being able to make them scalable for future expansion."

The solution: building the operational foundation for growth with Sweeply

Glück Auf Appartements implemented Sweeply as their main communication and task management tool for housekeeping and maintenance teams.

The impact was immediate: "Assigning tasks and cleaning schedules are way easier and more reliable now, reducing errors to a minimum," Stefan says. "Our team knows exactly what needs to be done, when and where."

Real-time visibility changed how the team operated day-to-day. "We are now able to track cleaning progress in real-time and give guests a better estimate of when their room will be ready without the need for further communication with our staff on-site."

WhatsApp scrolling? No longer a problem. "Documentation of issues and tasks lost-and-founds saves us lots of time scrolling through WhatsApp."

And critically for a growing operation, Sweeply gave Glück Auf Appartements the flexibility they needed to adapt quickly. "Being able to customise units, rules, and categories in Sweeply lets us quickly adjust it to our needs without the need to go through support (although the Sweeply support is amazing!)."

Sweeply and Apaleo: automation that works

Sweeply integrated smoothly with Glück Auf Appartements' existing tech stack; namely, its PMS, Apaleo.

"Apaleo is the core of our tech stack, our 'source of truth' for all reservations, units, booking notes, and data in general," Stefan explains. "This information is synced with Sweeply in real time."

The quick data transfer means operational changes happen automatically without manual intervention.

"Whenever a guest checks in, checks out, or a stay is amended, Sweeply immediately reflects these changes, triggers the correct Sweeply workflows, and lets staff know."

For housekeeping and maintenance teams, this means they have the context they need to do their jobs well. "Staff are now able to see how many guests are staying in a specific room and their booking notes, which allows them to act accordingly: set up extra beds where necessary, prepare a baby package, or fulfill special requirements mentioned in the booking notes."

The integration works in both directions. "If a room is marked as cleaned in Sweeply it will reflect in Apaleo, which again triggers different workflows among other apps."

"We are now able to have our guest journey fully automated, making our guests' experience smooth and easy, while saving us hours of work per week to focus on other tasks and spending more time on the wellbeing of our guests and not constant problem-solving."

The results: predictable operations and the freedom to expand

The transformation showed up across Glück Auf Appartements' operations.

"We have seen clear improvements in efficiency across all teams," Stefan says. "Our day-to-day routines have become way more predictable and less prone to errors. This has significantly reduced missed tasks and last-minute rushes."

Communication between teams fundamentally changed. "All teams work with the same accessible real-time information, improving internal communication and reducing back-and-forth between teams," Stefan explains. "We are now able to focus on execution instead of coordination and reduce the time it takes for issues to be solved."

The most telling measure? "Empirically, we see that guest satisfaction has improved, and the spirit of the teams involved, too."

And that expansion ceiling that started this whole journey? It's gone.

Glück Auf Appartements' now has operations that don't depend on highly specialised staff who are impossible to replace. They have workflows simple enough that new team members can learn them. They have systems that talk to each other instead of creating more work.

They've built operations that can grow with the business, not hold it back.

Ready to remove your operational bottlenecks and unlock growth? Book a demo to see how Sweeply integrates with your PMS to automate your operations.