Glück Auf Appartements boosts direct bookings | Apaleo Historias de clientes

Glück Auf is a multifaceted real estate company based in Germany, operating across property rental, management, brokerage, and development. A key pillar of their business is Glück Auf Appartements, where fully furnished, comfortable apartments can be booked by both business travellers and guests for short and long stays.

Currently, Glück Auf Appartements manages a portfolio of around 125 apartments across twelve locations in the Ruhr area and Cologne. With stylish interiors and a welcoming atmosphere, their properties are designed for guests who value more than just a place to stay and seek a true home away from home.

We spoke with Stefan Sponheuer, who has been working as the Operations Manager at Glück Auf Appartements since last September. From the start, Stefan played a crucial role in the transition from their previous PMS. He shared with us how switching to Apaleo’s open property management platform allowed the team to automate key processes which significantly increased operational efficiency.

Challenge: Manual handling of payments and invoices

Glück Auf Appartements is run by a small team of three, including Stefan. Working with such limited resources meant that it was essential to choose a property management system (PMS) that could genuinely support and streamline their operations.

But their previous PMS often fell short of this goal. Key processes like accounting, bank transfers, and invoice creation or correction were either overly complex, poorly supported, or only possible through third-party tools. These third-party tools also frequently suffered from integration issues, leading to fragmented workflows and recurring time-consuming manual tasks.

One of the biggest time drains for Glück Auf Appartements was the manual effort required to process payments, especially for online bank transfers and prepayments made via Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Whenever a guest transferred money via an online bank transfer, the staff had to manually retrieve the payment data from the banking interface and update it in the system before the transaction could be finally booked.

On top of that, sending invoices was also a completely manual process. Each invoice had to be individually created, emailed to the guest, and often revised. These repetitive tasks didn’t just consume valuable time; they also increased the risk of human error and created a bottleneck in day-to-day operations.

Solution: Seamless payment automation with Apaleo Pay and the integration of straiv for a modern guest experience

By switching to Apaleo and using Apaleo Pay, Glück Auf Appartements was able to fully automate its payment processes. Manual reconciliation is now a thing of the past; payments are automatically processed and booked without any staff intervention. At the same time, guests benefit from a smoother and more flexible payment experience, with access to modern payment methods like PayPal.

"Payments are one of our most critical parts when it comes to operations. That’s why it was so important for us to handle everything directly within the PMS rather than relying on an external provider. Third-party tools often come with long communication chains. Even though we haven’t encountered any problems yet, it is necessary for us to have a direct line to support, without having any delays or middlemen,” Stefan commented.

Also, thanks to the seamless integration of straiv with Apaleo, Glück Auf Appartements has successfully automated the most important touchpoints along their guest journey – from booking confirmations to digital check-in and check-out, all the way through to the automated invoice delivery.

Result: 90% automation of the guest journey and significant time savings

With these automations enabled by Apaleo Pay and straiv, Glück Auf Appartements is now able to respond much more efficiently to last-minute bookings. Payment links get automatically sent to guests, who can then pay in just a few clicks using their preferred method. In return, they automatically receive their invoice and access code for the booked apartment. Also booking or invoice changes can be made quickly and intuitively, often in just a few seconds.

Those efficiencies add up: the team now saves around 10 hours per week on payment processing alone, plus another 10–15 hours through the automation of invoice handling. The impact is thereby clear on both sides: not only has the operational overhead dropped significantly, but the guest satisfaction has also improved, leading to an 11% increase in direct bookings within just a few weeks of launching Apaleo.

Challenge: Lack of centralised oversight made managing multiple properties inefficient

Having multiple apartments spread across various locations, Glück Auf Appartements was in need of a PMS capable of providing a clear, centralised overview of all apartments. That’s something their previous system couldn’t deliver as it lacked the infrastructure to centrally manage and structure all apartments in a streamlined way.

If for example, a guest wanted to book at a location with multiple apartments, the staff had to manually log in and out of each apartment just to check the availability. Even guest data, especially for corporate bookings, couldn’t be stored centrally. In the case of repeat or corporate bookings, guest information thereby needed to be re-entered manually for each stay.

Solution: Full, real-time overview of all apartments across every location

By switching to Apaleo, a platform built with multi-property functionality, managing apartments became significantly easier and more efficient for the small team of Glück Auf Appartements. With just one click, the team now gets a complete overview of all apartments at a given location. The single, centralized view thereby displays real-time occupancy, availability, and pricing, eliminating the need to log in and out of individual units just to access that kind of basic information.

Stefan and his team also built a custom tool with Retool and integrated it into Apaleo, enabling them to manage guest data centrally, especially for corporate bookings. As a result, guest information no longer needs to be entered manually or duplicated across properties. On the contrary, his data is now instantly accessible across all locations. And even better: the company revenue can be tracked across the entire portfolio, making financial reporting and controlling much more straightforward.

Result: Over 40 hours saved per week, and 11 properties launched in just 2 weeks

Apaleo’s centralized multi-property functionality gives Glück Auf Appartements a clear, real-time overview of all apartments across every location. Managing bookings and reservations thereby goes faster and easier, without the need for repetitive tasks like logging in and out of the individual locations. The result: a streamlined operation that saves the team up to 40–50 hours every week.

Even more impressively this functionality enabled Glück Auf Appartements to onboard 11 properties, comprising around 122 units, in just two weeks.

Stefan also highlighted how smooth and intuitive the onboarding with Apaleo was, staff members without any prior hospitality experience could get up and running in no time.

“In nearly 15 years in the hotel industry, I’ve never seen anything like it, nor with trainees or with new hires. The ease of getting started with Apaleo is truly unique,” Stefan shared.

Looking ahead: Scaling with full automation in sight

Switching to Apaleo marked the beginning of a new growth phase for Glück Auf Appartements. Their aim is to scale up to 350-400 apartments over the next few years, with a clear focus on fully automating the guest journey using tools like make.com and digital lock systems.

Beyond that, the team is focused on automating even more of their operational workflows. For example, unconfirmed reservations will be automatically removed after a defined period. Maintenance tasks will also be fully tracked digitally; when they were performed, what was done, and by whom.

To top it off, Stefan described Apaleo as a strong, well-structured backbone that enables them to automate and adapt flexibly as they grow.

“Switching to Apaleo was a real game changer for us, and we’re excited to continue growing together. Now we have the freedom to say: ‘The foundation is solid – and wherever we see additional needs, we simply bring in the ideal partner.’ The integration takes just seconds, and the Apaleo Store gives us a wide range of options without being too overwhelming,” Stefan added.