Gluck Auf Appartements: building the foundation for growth

Overview

Gluck Auf Appartements operates 125 serviced-apartment units across 11 properties in 5 cities throughout Germany’s Ruhrgebiet and Cologne. Operations Manager Stefan led a digital transformation to escape a legacy setup of Excel sheets and WhatsApp groups that left no room to scale. With Sweeply as the main task-management tool, integrated with the Apaleo PMS, the team built operations that can grow with the business.

Challenge

Gluck Auf wanted to expand in all directions, but its legacy setup left absolutely no room to scale. Many processes still ran on complicated Excel tables or pen and paper, with communication scattered across numerous WhatsApp groups, regularly causing errors, miscommunication, unsatisfied guests, frustrated staff, more work, and less revenue. The few apps in use were complicated and didn’t communicate or integrate with each other. Worse, complicated workflows had made every staff member highly specialised in certain aspects of operations, which made covering for absences and onboarding new hires difficult. The team wanted to simplify workflows while making them scalable for future expansion.

Approach

Gluck Auf implemented Sweeply as its main communication and task-management tool for housekeeping and maintenance. Assigning tasks and cleaning schedules became easier and more reliable, with the team knowing exactly what needed doing, when, and where, and cleaning progress trackable in real time so guests could be given better room-readiness estimates without extra staff contact. The ability to customise units, rules, and categories let the team adapt quickly without needing support. Sweeply integrated with Apaleo, the source of truth for all reservations and data: check-ins, check-outs, and amendments sync in real time to trigger the right workflows and give staff the booking context to set up extra beds, prepare a baby package, or meet special requests, with cleaned-room status flowing back to Apaleo in turn.

Results

Efficiency improved across all teams, with day-to-day routines becoming far more predictable and less error-prone, significantly reducing missed tasks and last-minute rushes. Because all teams work from the same real-time information, internal communication improved and back-and-forth dropped, letting the team focus on execution instead of coordination and resolve issues faster. Guest satisfaction and team spirit both improved, and the automated guest journey saved hours of work per week. Most importantly, the expansion ceiling that started the journey is gone: operations no longer depend on irreplaceable specialists, workflows are simple enough for new hires to learn, and systems talk to each other rather than creating more work.