A question we often see in forums is “Why would someone move into an HOA that has no amenities”? This frequently asked question shows that facilities are a big reason why individuals decide to join a community association.
HOA amenities are important. So is knowing how to properly manage them. To help with that, board members need to have tools to help them. Having an HOA amenities reservation system will save you time and stress. It helps the board efficiently manage community areas better, and it helps residents book amenities fairly.
1. What is an HOA Amenities Reservation system?
An HOA Amenities Reservation System is a tool that allows residents to find and book amenities online. The board of directors can add amenities to the portal and establishes rules of usage. It allows the board to manage and approve reservations with ease, it will help massively with amenity reservations. It also gives all homeowners an equal chance to enjoy their community’s facilities.
2. How does it work?
An online reservation system must be simple easy to use. It’s specially designed for board members and homeowners. The two profiles will have different permissions in the platform. For example, the board of directors can:
- Create and categorize amenities
- Upload images
- Manage, approve, or reject reservations
- Establish rules of usage
- Personalize rules (allow one or more residents to use it at the same time)
- Insert notices (eg. Barbecue park closed in April for maintenance)
- Include best usage practices (eg. Don’t run around the swimming pool)
Residents can:
- Have an overview of all communal spaces available in their HOA
- Easily book an amenity and ensure usage is possible
- Book an area to host a party in just a few clicks
- Receive calendar placeholders and reminders
3. What are the key features of an HOA amenities reservation system?
When you’re looking at different reservation systems, it’s important to think about what features you need.
- Online booking: A reservation system should allow HOA members to easily book amenities online, from anywhere, and at any time.
- Real-time amenity availability: The system should provide real-time information on when your HOA’s facilities are available. That way users can see when facilities they’d like to book are available.
- Automated notifications and reminders: The system should be able to send automatic notifications by text, email, and push notifications about their reservations. This reduces the risk of no-shows and improves communication overall.
- Reporting: The system should be able to generate reports on facility usage so that you can make data-driven decisions. It also helps you to identify who committed a potential violation.
4. What are the benefits of a facilities reservation system?
Everyone benefits from using a tool that facilitates amenities reservation. We’ve rounded up the most important benefits.
Save time
A reservation system saves management time by automating a tedious manual process, removing paper forms, and focusing on an online system.
For residents, it makes it quicker and easier to book amenities. They can also book amenities from anywhere and anytime. This also makes it easier to enjoy their community’s communal spaces.
Reduce conflicts
It increases frustrations and conflicts when it’s not clear when amenities are already booked or when they’re double booked. When you have a system that doesn’t allow for double bookings, conflicts are reduced.
It also becomes more transparent, as everyone can see when they’re booked without having to request that information.
Decrease no-shows
By using automatic notifications through text messages, app notifications, and emails, it’s harder for people to forget about their bookings. This decreases the number of no-shows, as residents can easily cancel their reservations.
Improve residents’ satisfaction
In an HOA, residents’ satisfaction is important. Letting residents book amenities easily gives them the certainty that they can enjoy their community’s areas when they choose. It also creates a more democratic and fair HOA.
As well as that, it can help reduce conflicts between residents over amenities usage. Without software to regulate reservations, some residents may use some facilities too much. Others can’t use them because they’re always full, for example.
Increase property value & attract new potential home buyers
It might sound obvious, but it is essential to know that HOA amenities increase property value. As mentioned above, they are also a key reason that people choose HOAs. Having a clubhouse, a gym, a pool or even a dog park in your community makes all the difference. Nowadays, people are looking for a home that gives them a lifestyle.
Well-kept, easily accessible amenities provide that for residents. If they’re not well-kept, residents will feel excluded and frustrated.
Holding residents accountable
Making sure communal spaces are well maintained is the responsibility of the board of directors. Having said that, residents are responsible for respecting these areas and not keeping them as they found them. A reservation tool gives everyone visibility on usage. This means that you can easily identify who left trash or didn’t clean the grill. This aspect makes everyone accountable for responsible use and helps the board manage these spaces. This contributes to a well-kept and harmonious community.
It also means that you can identify who booked an amenity and didn’t show up in a couple of clicks. From there, you can take steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future.
Better transparency and data-driven decision-making
In an HOA forum, we read the case of an HOA that decided to remove its tennis court. They did that because of the very low usage and high maintenance cost. A few residents complained about that. According to them, some people still used the tennis court. With a reservation portal, you can easily get this data and see how many times an amenity has been used within a certain time. This is a great help when you need to make decisions around amenities.
Besides, if you notice that a facility is being used frequently you can increase the maintenance budget for it, for example.
Sharing amenities usage data with residents is a good way to provide transparency and explain why maintenance fees are high or low.
Wrapping Up HOA Amenities Reservation System
Poor amenity management is known to create confusion and conflict between residents and the board. Even if the board does its best, it can be hard to keep up with high expectations. An HOA amenities reservation system helps everyone save a lot of time. It decreases frustrations and arguments and increases resident satisfaction and amenity use.
Are you looking for additional ideas on how to manage your HOA efficiently? Check out our article about HOA Software to discover many other life-changing features!
To help you manage your amenities, book a free demo to find out how our amenity reservation system can help your community with that issue, as well as with communication and management.
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