How Hotel Oderberger Berlin Became 89% More Productive with Flexkeeping

How a hands-on hotel director modernized housekeeping, drove efficiency gains, and yielded a 333% ROI with Flexkeeping. 

When Tini Diekmann stepped into her role as Hotel Director at Hotel Oderberger Berlin, she drove digital change in sales, distribution, and guest communication. But one department was still stuck in the past: housekeeping.  

So she did what few hotel directors do: she showed up at 6:45 AM to work alongside the housekeeping team. What she found was a system built on printouts and constant recalculations. Managers were manually assigning rooms, counting nights to determine linen changes, and rewriting lists throughout the shift. 

»It was like living in the middle ages.«

That morning made it clear for Tini. Housekeeping deserved the same level of technology as every other department. That’s why she chose to implement Flexkeeping, a Mews company. 

€515 saved monthly in room allocation. 

Before Flexkeeping, room distribution took 60–70 minutes every morning. Guest lists were printed from Mews, marked by hand, and continuously updated as checkouts changed. 

Now it takes 10 minutes.  

That’s an 85% reduction in time spent on room assignment, freeing up 30 hours every month. Time that used to disappear into admin work now goes back into quality checks, team support, and guest experience. 

With roughly 20 cleaners rotating through shifts, Flexkeeping also removed staffing guesswork. Managers simply select who’s working that day and assign rooms automatically, without having to reshuffle or double check throughout the day.  

70% faster task communication.

Before Flexkeeping, collaboration was slow and fragmented. Reception called housekeeping, then housekeeping called maintenance. And because the hotel has basement corridors with poor reception, calls often didn’t go through. 

»Before it was reception to housekeeping to maintenance. Now it’s reception straight to Flexkeeping, for everyone to see in real time.«

Tasks are now created and delivered instantly within the platform. Housekeeping and maintenance teams see requests immediately, complete them faster, and even attach photos for clarity. Task communication is 70% faster than it was before Flexkeeping, and automatic updates alone save the team 4 hours every month.  

For Maria Gentzel, Front Office Manager, quick task creation has been the greatest impact of Flexkeeping so far:  

»It makes daily work so much easier. The biggest advantage is being able to create tasks at short notice during the day and set rooms to Eco mode.«

89% more productive, significantly less stressed.

Tini expected hesitation when rolling out a new system. Instead, the response surprised her. Her team was happy to have a tool that could help iron out the kinks in their workflow. And they adapted far faster than expected.  

Housekeeping managers adopted the tool within days. Thanks to the app’s simplicity, cleaners followed quickly behind, despite language barriers across the team.  

For Charly Kirschenbaum, Assistant Front Office Manager, the ability to create tasks instantly was a game-changer: 

»To be able to create a task without having to check who is working, look up phone numbers, or wait to see if someone answers. That’s extremely practical.«

Once adopted, the impact of the tool was felt immediately. For example, cleaners used to have to walk reception to check room statuses. Now they see it live on their phones and move right away. Not only are they able to get more done faster, but they feel far less stressed and confused on-the-job.  

Tini says the biggest stress reduction was felt at the front desk. They used to leave guests waiting while they tried to reach housekeeping by phone. Now everything is updated live, for all departments to see right on their device. Tasks are solved faster, guest complaints drop, and everyone feels more in control. 

The result: an 89% productivity boost across the entire operational team.
  

Sustainability gains without guest pushback.

Flexkeeping also helped Hotel Oderberger strengthen its sustainability strategy. The hotel shifted linen changes from every 3 nights to every 4 nights. Tini expected complaints, but none came. 

»Nobody even noticed. We’re saving so much linen. It’s crazy.«

They’ve also eliminated daily printing completely, saving countless sheets of paper each month. Since Flexkeeping automates everything now, managers don’t have to calculate linen changes by hand anymore.

»Before they were calculating linen changes with pencil and paper. Now it’s automatic.«

A smart investment with a 333% payoff.

With 70 rooms and an average 80-83% occupancy, Hotel Oderberger runs lean. Flexkeeping allows them to handle high volume without adding staff. In a tight labour market, Tini sees this as a major win. A 333% ROI win, to be exact.  

»It just makes sense economically. You save so much staff time and stress.«

For Tini, the biggest operational improvement is clearly the distribution of rooms. So much so that she’s already rolling Flexkeeping out to their second property, on day one of PMS implementation. How does that team feel about the incoming tech? According to Tini: 

»They're counting the days until we implement Flexkeeping.«

One tool to streamline thousands of tasks.

In the first 5 months after implementing Flexkeeping, Hotel Oderberger automated and digitized thousands of housekeeping tasks, maintenance repairs, and guest requests. For a property that used to operate with paper, the transformation has been significant.  

»We’re really happy. We’re saving so much time. Our staff are happy. It’s a cool tool.«

Want to see the same results for your property? Book a demo to see Flexkeeping in action.