In communities with a padel court, the booking system is usually a notebook in the concierge’s booth. In those without a concierge, a WhatsApp group or a sheet of paper taped up next to the lift. In both cases the result is the same: arguments on Saturday mornings, the resident who puts their name down for three slots in a row, the one who rubs out someone else’s booking and the one who turns up to find the court taken.
It is a minor matter compared with a special assessment for the façade, but it generates a disproportionate amount of conflict between residents. And conflict between residents always ends up in the same place: on the property manager’s phone.
Seven types of facility, not just courts
The first thing to make clear is that this is not only about padel. A community has more bookable common areas than it seems, and FixrOS covers seven types:
- Tennis court and padel court.
- Gym.
- Social lounge and multi-purpose room: the ones that get booked for a family lunch or a meeting.
- Barbecue area, which in summer is the number one source of conflict.
- Swimming pool, which is handled differently, as explained further down.
All of them except the pool work with bookable slots under the same rules.
Each community sets its own rules
This is the key to making the system work: the rules of use are not universal, each community decides them, and the tool has to be able to reflect what was agreed at the owners’ meeting. These are the parameters configured per facility and community:
- Slot length: sixty minutes by default, adjustable.
- Opening and closing times: from eight in the morning to ten at night by default.
- Maximum active bookings per home: so that nobody blocks the whole calendar.
- Maximum advance notice: how many days ahead a booking can be made.
- Maximum per home per day: to share things out on high-demand weekends.
- Minimum cancellation notice: so that a slot released late can still be used by someone else.
These limits are exactly the rules that communities debate and approve at the owners’ meeting and that nobody then enforces, because the notebook cannot count. Here they apply themselves.
The configuration can be handled by the property manager or by the concierge, who is the one who knows how the facilities are really used and who traditionally looked after the notebook.
Booking, in three steps
From the app, the resident picks the facility, the date and the free slot. Nothing else. And as soon as they confirm, that slot shows as taken for all the other residents, which is exactly what the notebook could not do: nobody sees the real status until they go down to look at it.
The resident has a list of their upcoming bookings and can cancel within the notice period the community has set. If they cancel, the slot becomes available to everyone else again straight away.
The president uses exactly the same process as any other resident. There is no fast track, and that avoids the very common suspicion that office holders keep the best for themselves.
Blocks: maintenance, works and events
A facility is not always available. The court gets repainted, the gym machine breaks down, the community books the social lounge for the owners’ meeting. That is what blocks are for: periods in which the facility does not accept bookings, set by whoever manages it.
The resident who opens the app sees that those days are not available and why, instead of booking and getting a surprise.
The pool, separately
The pool is handled in its own way because it does not work with slots: it is not booked, it is opened. What gets configured is its season, from when until when it is open, and its weekly timetable, day by day, with the option of marking days as closed.
That information, which in most communities lives on a notice that falls down when it rains, is in the app and is updated when the community changes the timetable.
What the property manager gains
It might look like a feature only for residents, but the benefit for the firm is direct and measurable: an entire category of calls and conflicts disappears. The arguments about who booked first, the complaints about hogging and the requests to arbitrate over the notebook stop reaching the office, because the system applies the rule without anyone having to act as referee.
And when someone at the owners’ meeting proposes changing the rules of use (dropping to one booking per home per day, extending the summer hours), the resolution is carried over to the configuration and comes into force without handing out circulars.
Frequently asked questions about booking common areas
Who decides the rules of use for the common areas?
The owners’ meeting, which can approve internal rules on the use of the common elements. Those rules bind all owners and occupants, and they are the ones later reflected in the booking configuration.
Can a resident in arrears use the facilities?
Non-payment of community fees removes the right to vote at the owners’ meeting under the terms of art. 15.2 of the Spanish Horizontal Property Act (LPH), but it does not automatically mean losing the use of the common elements. Restricting use requires a basis in the bylaws or in the internal rules, and it is best analysed case by case with professional advice.
Can a tenant book, or only the owner?
It depends on what the bylaws and internal rules of each community establish. The system works at the level of the home, so it reflects whatever criterion the community has agreed for its occupants.
What happens if someone books and does not show up?
That is why the minimum cancellation notice exists: it forces the slot to be released early enough for someone else to use it. The consequences of repeatedly not showing up are, once again, a decision for the community.
Can a community charge for the use of a facility?
The community can agree on paid use for certain facilities, especially when they generate specific costs. It must be agreed at the owners’ meeting and reflected in the accounts.
Do you need a concierge to manage bookings?
No. Where there is one, the concierge can configure and block facilities. Where there is not, the property manager does it. Residents book on their own in both cases.
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- The FixrOS app for residents
For the firm that manages the community, bookings are one more feature within a larger set. This guide to software for property managers goes through the rest.
Conclusion
The concierge’s notebook does not fail for lack of order, but because it cannot apply a rule: it does not know how many bookings a home has made this week, nor does it stop someone from hogging Saturday. When the rules approved by the owners’ meeting apply themselves and the status of the court is visible to everyone, the conflict disappears without anyone having to arbitrate.