19. November 2025

200 apartments, one source of truth: how BOOK-IT brought clarity to multi-property operations

How a 200-apartment operation in Germany replaced scattered tools with centralised housekeeping and maintenance management.

The challenge: running 200 apartments across multiple properties

Sebastian Gietl, CEO of BOOK-IT Apartments, runs a family-owned serviced apartment brand in Erlangen, Germany. With over 200 apartments spread across multiple properties, his operation faces the kinds of challenges that keep hospitality managers up at night.

The apart-hotel model adds another layer of complexity. Unlike traditional hotels, BOOK-IT's guests expect independence: longer stays, less frequent service, and quick responses without a 24/7 front desk to coordinate. This means housekeeping and maintenance have to function autonomously. But the tools they used to use weren't built for that reality.

When every system lived in its own silo

"Time consumption on the team lead level was increasingly high due to a scattered software landscape and multiple interfaces," Sebastian explains. "Some things were checked in the PMS, others in the task manager app."

Before Sweeply, BOOK-IT's operations were split across disconnected tools. Team leads spent hours checking the property management system for some information, a task manager app for other details, and coordinating through chat messages for everything else. "Without a real-time sync, there was a necessity to update lists manually on a regular basis," Sebastian says.

As a result, "communication tasks were excessive," he notes. "Instead of assigning within a system, the task was just communicated via chat."

This operational friction went deeper than wasted time. As is common in the hospitality industry, BOOK-IT's team changes regularly. Many of its staff members do not speak fluent German or English. 

Training new staff meant walking them through multiple disconnected tools – and hoping nothing got lost in translation, both literally and operationally.

The solution: One platform, full visibility

Sweeply gave BOOK-IT what scattered tools couldn't: a single, centralised platform for all housekeeping and maintenance operations.

"Sweeply helped us especially to have a centralised source of truth for all things maintenance and housekeeping," Sebastian says. "This allowed all teams to have a better insight into the status at the different properties, and therefore decreased the necessity for team leads to be present and communicate with their team members all the time."

Sweeply also integrates with Apaleo, BOOK-IT’s PMS, creating a seamless flow of data between reservations, cleanings, and operational tasks. With everything synced automatically, the team can trust that apartment statuses, check-outs, and special requests are always up to date without any manual updates or cross-checking.

Built for operations without a front desk

Without a front desk to triage requests, housekeeping and maintenance teams needed real-time visibility to act independently. "Since we work without a 24/7 front desk, it allows our housekeeping team and the maintenance team to support and realise the wishes of the guests as fast as possible without calling people all the time, or going through different layers of communication," Sebastian explains.

Sweeply's real-time task management gave everyone, from housekeeping to management, visibility into what needed to be done, what was in progress, and what was completed. Everyone could see the same information at the same time.

For BOOK-IT's multilingual team, Sweeply's color-coding and language support made onboarding faster regardless of language proficiency. "The onboarding process for new team members is just way quicker, since Sweeply uses colour coding and supports different languages," Sebastian says.

The results: 30% less communication, more time for what matters

The impact showed up in both hard numbers and everyday relief:

Time back where it counts

BOOK-IT's housekeeping team lead saw an immediate reduction in the time spent on coordination. "Our team lead in housekeeping was very happy to reduce the amount of work she dedicated to communication by easily 30%," Sebastian shares. "For us, that’s 30% more time to use for developing our processes and experience further."

Thirty percent. That's time that used to go toward coordinating with team members, checking in with other departments, and keeping everyone aligned, now going towards improving operations and guest experience.

Less stress, more clarity

Beyond the time savings, the change in daily operations mattered just as much.

"Having a centralised overview of tasks and work in progress increased the peace of mind for housekeeping team leads massively" Sebastian says. Team leads could finally see the full picture without physically being on-site or constantly checking in.

And it wasn't just leadership who benefited. "It also gave team members transparency on workload and tasks." When everyone knows what's expected and can see progress in real time, the entire operation runs more smoothly.

Guests feel the difference

BOOK-IT was already delivering strong service before Sweeply. But the system added reliability that guests notice.

"They can be sure that the likelihood of us forgetting something they asked us is way lower, and we will execute it way quicker," he says. "The overall quality of our service will improve since order and certainty of processes are part of Sweeply's DNA."

A partnership that understands apart-hotels

One of the reasons the transition worked so smoothly was Sweeply's ability to adapt to BOOK-IT's specific needs.

Apart-hotels operate differently from traditional hotels. Long-term bookings don't follow the same cleaning schedules as short-term stays, and that distinction needed to be reflected in the system.

"We differentiate long-term bookings also in terms of cleaning from short-term bookings, so we needed to make sure this was reflected in Sweeply," Sebastian explains. Sweeply's team worked with BOOK-IT to customise the platform accordingly.

"The housekeeping team and our project manager Denys were very happy with how professionally Sweeply helped us in the onboarding process," he says. "We had one or two requests for our long-term bookings that they realised for us, which was a big relief."

That kind of responsiveness matters, especially when you're trying to standardise operations across 200 apartments without losing the flexibility your model requires.

What BOOK-IT gained

BOOK-IT's story isn't about a dramatic turnaround. Instead, it's about removing friction that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

The difference shows up in time saved, stress reduced, and confidence gained. Team leads have better visibility. Staff know what's expected. Guests get faster, more reliable service.

In other words: when your tools match your operational model, everything else gets easier.

Ready to simplify your hotel operations? Book a demo and see how Sweeply can bring clarity and calm to your daily workflows.