Everything your tenants can book, use or borrow – in one system
Guest flat, community room, tool library, locker: the services already exist – what costs is running them. That is exactly what kolula addresses: booking, use and administration with digital support – enquire, approve, pay, get in, return. With a digital lock, with a locker, or with no additional hardware at all.
From the guest flat to the power drill: how housing companies run neighbourhood services digitally
45 minutes from practice: which shared services are worth offering, where the manual breaks sit in everyday operations – enquiry, approval, key, return – and how booking, payment, access and return come together in a single process. With examples from live projects. The webinar is held in German.
The effort sits in booking and in use
The guest flat is enquired about by telephone or email, checked in a calendar, confirmed by email and tracked in a list. And then it continues: the key sits in the neighbourhood office and has to be collected during opening hours, the community room is allocated from a list, and someone has to remember the return. Every single step is small – together they tie up exactly the capacity that managing the portfolio needs.
That is exactly what kolula makes digital
Enquiry, approval, payment, access and return run in a single process – without you having to rebuild the way you work. And whatever should stay personal stays personal: handing something over at the neighbourhood office is not a step backwards, it is one option among several.
- Reservation enquiry and approval with digital support – or straight through as a binding booking made by the tenant in the app
- Payment online, by payment link, by bank transfer – or free of charge for your tenants
- Access via digital lock, via locker, or still in person at the neighbourhood office
- Returns documented, with photo and deposit where you need them
- No fourth login: where a tenant portal exists, kolula works behind it rather than in front of it
For cooperatives, municipal housing companies and large portfolio holders
The platform is the same, the benefit is a different one. Cooperatives offer their members tangible services without the administration growing alongside. Municipal housing companies run neighbourhood services without an additional administrative apparatus. Large portfolio holders standardise bookable services across many locations. Bookable only by your tenants, or by the public as well – you decide per room.
- Visible and bookable only to your tenants – or publicly
- Free or reduced for your tenants, full price for external guests – controlled per property
- Several properties, locations and neighbourhoods in a single system
- A dedicated role for caretakers and service staff
Proven in existing portfolios
NEULAND in Wolfsburg runs its guest flats and neighbourhood houses with kolula ROOM: residents book online instead of by telephone, and the service team manages properties, availability and bookings centrally. Under “leihbar”, Vonovia lends tools, household appliances and leisure equipment through digital sharing boxes at two locations in Dortmund – booked in the app, collected and returned at the box. In Hamburg, the dhu housing cooperative runs lending, private handovers, storage and parcel acceptance in the neighbourhood under the name “Nachbarschaftskiste”.
- “With the new tool our customers can book guest flats and neighbourhood houses conveniently from home at any time – a real benefit in everyday life.” – NEULAND service team
Start with one service, extend step by step
You do not have to digitise the whole neighbourhood at once. Start with the service that causes the most effort – usually the guest flat or the community room – and add further use cases once it holds. Which building blocks fit depends on the service: kolula ROOM for rooms and guest flats, kolula STATION for lending, storage and handovers. On request we also take over operations: payment processing, customer service, maintenance.
Related kolula solutions
Frequently asked questions
Do we need digital locks for this?
No. Booking, approval, payment and administration work entirely without additional hardware – handover can still take place in person at the neighbourhood office. Digital locks or lockers are an extension, not an entry requirement.
Can only our tenants book?
Yes. You decide per property whether it is publicly bookable or only visible and bookable to a defined group – your tenants, for example, or an organisation. The restriction is enforced on the server, not merely hidden from view.
Can our tenants book free of charge or at a reduced rate while external guests pay the full price?
Yes. Free of charge for an entitled group can be set per property. For reductions you issue discount codes – on request as a personal single-use code per household.
And the tenant change – can we handle key handover digitally as well?
Yes. Key handovers and private handovers from neighbour to neighbour are something we run in production today, via stations in the neighbourhood. We take care of the setup for you.
We already have a tenant app. Does this fit together?
As a rule, yes. kolula can be embedded into an existing website or tenant app and takes over booking, payment and access there – functions that tenant apps usually do not cover. Where a sign-in system is in place, we connect to it so that no additional login is created.
How do we get started?
With a conversation in which we record your requirements. After that, either a trial account for room booking or a pilot in one neighbourhood with clearly agreed success criteria.
Show us your neighbourhood.
In 30 minutes we look at which services you already offer today and where the effort arises. Without a presentation marathon.