When prospective residents compare the communities in which they’re looking at available homes, neighborhood amenities can “ice the cake” with special options that join the list of decision-making factors. Your tennis courts, marina, pool, or multi-function clubhouse may not be the primary reason that a new homeowner opts to buy in to your community, but these amenities provide an extra enticement. That’s why it’s essential to make amenity reservations as easy as possible—for residents and homeowners association administrators alike.
If your current reservation method involves sign-up sheets and manual processes, isn’t it time to take advantage of all the features that a modern amenities feature can offer you? Think how much simpler your job would be with an online process that you can monitor, oversee, and modify with ease. Amenity reservation software makes the entire process efficient and hassle free.
Establish your parameters
For starters, the best HOA amenity software gives you a straightforward interface through which to define how you make these community features available to your residents.
What’s the maximum duration of an individual reservation? Look for software that enables you to set the length of time that a single reservation can last, from partial or multiple hours on up to a full day.
Do you want to provide reminders to help residents stay on track with their reservations? Your HOA amenity software should enable you set these as an automatic feature, at varying intervals before the start of the reservation period.
How about requiring a digital signature to complete a reservation? Robust amenity software can make this important formality a part of the process.
In short, you want software functions that anticipate the way you want your reservation process to operate, and provide the features to make that a reality.
Blackouts and blockouts
Most community amenities need periodic maintenance during times when they’re unavailable for reservations. To allow for pool cleaning and clubhouse touchups, you need the ability to designate specific days and hours as off limits. Likewise, if you offer regularly scheduled workout classes, tennis clinics, or community swim periods, you’ll want to mark those as events and block out the time slots they occupy so private reservations won’t conflict with them. HOA amenity software makes it easy to set up your amenity with these exceptions already in place.
Many communities want the opportunity to scrutinize and either approve or reject each individual reservation for use of its amenities. This helps them ensure that all reservations constitute appropriate use, and that administrators can deflect any requests that fall outside the rules and procedures they’ve established.
In other cases, some amenities may qualify for automatic approval of all reservation requests. That’s another versatile option that the best amenity software packages offer you.
Read and sign
The easiest way and an ideal time to distribute rules and policies for amenity use comes during the reservation process. After all, if the resident must download the policies to complete the reservation, you’re at least certain that you’ve conveyed this information. Here’s where your HOA amenity software can give you a hand, with options that include mandatory file downloads.
Likewise, your amenities feature set can require that residents complete a form to specify their intended use of the facility or answer any specific routine questions that you pose before you allow reservations to proceed. This aspect of the process also draws on community management software’s custom forms features, through which you can create online documents that accept the answers to structured questions through a series of input fields.
Free (or not) and easy
Amenity use can be a free benefit of community residence, requiring only a reservation to access and use these features—or, depending on the nature of the amenity, it may carry a usage charge in conjunction with that reservation. Regardless of which way you set up your amenities—free, paid, or a mixture of both—your amenity software should accommodate your needs with a thoughtfully detailed setup procedure. You’ll also want to be able to specify whether the charges apply to each overall event or each individual attendee.
Look to modern, intuitive HOA amenity software for comprehensive management of your community’s special features. With amenity reservation software from HOA Start, you’ll always know who’s using your amenities and what type of event they’ve planned—and you can collect any required payments directly through online billing. It’s all part of our secure online platform for easy administration of community assets.
