Solutions/Guesthouses and mini hotels
Guesthouse and mini hotel management software: a lean front desk, rooms that run themselves
TingStay brings the room operations of large hotels to guesthouses and mini hotels: see which rooms are occupied, rooms switch off power when guests go out, housekeeping gets the task as soon as the guest checks out, and one receptionist can cover several floors or properties.
What takes the most time
- Rooms rented off the books
- Night-shift staff rent rooms by the hour without recording them; the owner only sees the electricity bill go up.
- Hourly rentals are hard to bill
- Check-in and check-out times are written by hand, and the guest and the receptionist are often tens of minutes apart.
- Reception on duty around the clock
- One person works the night shift just to hand over keys and check guests in: high wages for little work.
- Empty rooms still use power
- Guests check out and forget to turn off the AC and water heater, and corridor lights run all day.
- Not knowing whether a room is cleaned
- Reception has to call housekeeping before checking in a new guest.
- Guest registration every night
- Guests arrive late, and a missed or late registration means a fine per guest.
How TingStay handles it
Hourly and nightly rentals
Each room has its own rental mode. Check-in time comes from the first door opening and check-out time from when the guest leaves the room, so there is nothing to dispute.
Detect occupied rooms with no booking
If a door opens or someone is present with no stay on record, the owner gets an alert on the phone with the time and room number.
Rooms that run themselves
Power turns on when the guest enters, the AC switches off when they go out, loads are cut at check-out. It does not depend on the habits of guests or staff.
Live room map
Occupied, to clean, cleaning, ready, incident. Housekeeping gets the task as soon as the guest leaves the room.
One receptionist, several properties
The remote front desk issues door codes and receives alerts for several floors and properties. No one needs to staff the desk at night.
- See plans
Suggested plan
Start plan: hourly and nightly stay calendar, automatic door codes, housekeeping, no-booking alerts. Upgrade to Pro when you need inventory, staff management and profit and loss per room.
Also in TingStay
- Inspection at check-out, record damage and missing items
- Extra services: drinks, minibar, laundry
- Holiday and weekend rates per room
- Instant smoke, heat and water leak alerts
- Guest registration from stay dataAdd-on
- Automatic bank transfer reconciliationAdd-on
In practice
A day at a 15-room guesthouse with nobody at the desk overnight
Example of a guesthouse with both hourly and overnight guests. Reception works during the day and gets alerts on the phone at night.
10:00
Hourly guest
Reception creates an hourly stay, and the door code is generated for exactly that time window. Check-in time counts from when the guest opens the door.
12:30
Hourly guest leaves
Door closed, nobody inside: the stay ends, the hourly charge is based on the actual time, and cleaning is assigned automatically.
14:00
Room cleaned
Housekeeping marks it done with a photo, and the room map switches to "Ready".
21:00
Overnight guest checks in
The guest opens the door with a personal code. Power in the room turns on automatically, and the AC has already cooled the room.
01:30
Alert for room 204
Room 204 is occupied but has no stay. The owner gets the alert on the phone right away.
07:30
Check guest registration
The list of overnight guests and actual check-in times is ready for registration before 8:00.
Suggested setup
What each guesthouse room needs
Guesthouses need to keep the cost per room down. The Operations Kit plus a presence sensor is enough to know when a room is occupied, cut power automatically and detect rooms rented off the books.
Hardware, one-time payment
Operations Kit
30.3 - 46.6 million VND per room
Includes installation, excludes VAT. The final price depends on project size.
Also needed
- Presence sensor 4,745,000 VNDTo know whether a room is occupied, even when the door is closed.
- TTLock door lockKeep the existing lock if it is a TTLock.
Software, paid monthly or yearly
Start plan
149,000 VND per room per month
Paid yearly: 1,250,000 VND per room per year.
Start plan: hourly and nightly stay calendar, automatic door codes, housekeeping, no-booking alerts. Upgrade to Pro when you need inventory, staff management and profit and loss per room.
Getting started
From site survey to launch, measured in days
Site survey
An engineer visits the unit and checks the existing electrical panel, air conditioners, door lock and power and water meters.
1 day
Design and quotation
Choose the kit, the panel layout and the positions of keypads and sensors. The quotation is based on the actual number of units.
2 hours
Installation
Mount the control enclosure, run the bus cable and wire the devices in step with the interior fit-out. Once the infrastructure is ready, one installation crew finishes each unit in no more than 1 day.
Up to 1 day per unit
Configuration and testing
Register the unit on TingStay, load the scenes, test every device and the loss-of-internet case.
Same day as installation
Handover and training
Train the operations team on the Console and the apps, and hand over the device documentation.
Half a day
Frequently asked questions
Can a guesthouse that rents by the hour use TingStay?
Yes. The rental mode is set per room: hourly, nightly or monthly. Check-in time is taken from the first door opening of the stay.
How do I find out if staff rent rooms without recording them?
The TingEdge reads the door status and presence sensor of each room. If a room is occupied with no stay in the system, the owner is alerted immediately, with the time and room number.
Do I still need a receptionist?
You still need someone responsible, but not someone at the desk all night. The remote front desk issues door codes, receives alerts and handles issues remotely for several properties at once.
Is it one TingEdge per room?
Yes. Each room with its own lock is one unit in TingStay, with its own TingEdge. That keeps power, status and door codes separate for each room.
Does TingStay handle guest registration?
Yes, with the Guest registration add-on: guest details, documents and the actual check-in time come straight from the stay. Without this add-on, the front desk keeps registering guests as it does today.
Can I keep the door lock I already have?
Yes, if it is a TTLock lock. In the first phase TingStay integrates with TTLock; for other brands you need to replace the lock or wait for TingStay to add the integration.
How much does each guesthouse room cost?
Hardware in the suggested setup (Operations Kit) costs about 30.3 - 46.6 million VND per room, paid once, including installation, excluding VAT, the door lock and the power and water meters. The Start plan software is 149,000 VND per room per month, or 1,250,000 VND per room per year when paid yearly.
Related guides
Start with a few units, scale once you see the results
NEXT HOME engineers survey your units, propose the hardware setup and install TingStay for your first cluster.