User Reviews Overview
About HotSchedules
HotSchedules is an online employee scheduling and engagement app designed for independent hospitality businesses. The app features an intuitive scheduling interface with drag-and-drop functionality. It also includes demand...
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- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Your Schedule On The Go!
Wonderful! I can easily access using the app from my phone a comprehensive view of todays roster and more! Helping me as a director plan a shift before I even get to work. Especially important to plan in my business because surprises arise frequently and daily. I can also easily request time off needed through the app, call, text, or even email my staff if needed to. Hot Schedules saves me and my company time, money, and helps our business to stay productive!
Pros
I really enjoy the convenience of being able to view your work schedule remotely and anywhere for that matter! Set up an email or a Gmail account and it's delivered right to your inbox! Gone are the days of having to call your employer or having to drive to your place of employment to view it on paper. "Your" time is valuable and let's be honest, none of us want to go to work on our days off for any reason!
Cons
I really and truthfully speaking have nothing negative to include with Hot Schedules. It's been a great software addition to our store and team! If someone did tell me that I had to pick out one feature that I don't care for, I guess it'd be the "How was your shift?" feature that pops up when logging on. That said, it's such a minor dislike and isn't really worth mentioning.
- Industry: Recreational Facilities & Services
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Hot Schedules, Cool Features
Having used several digital time keeping applications I can say that HotSchedules is at the forefront of modern employer/employee workplace record keeping, communicating and problem solving. I have nothing to report aside from the intuitive and positive experience of using HotSchedules.
Pros
The PC design and Cellular App function perfectly together with real time updates and changes made to one instantly reflects on the other. Understanding and navigating HotSchedules easy on the eyes layout and page designs couldn't be better, though I'm sure they will continue to improve even the smallest details to a more perfect version. Reviewing current, real time updated scheduling information may be the core of this program, but the ability to send and receive messages detailing important changes, requests, responses between workplace colleagues is fantastic.
Cons
In my personal and professional experience with HotSchedules I have little to report as negative. Being employed in the mountains at a ski resort the only drawbacks were not directly related to the HotSchedules program itself. From time to time our frail internet connection could be compromised or overloaded by guest's access and use resulting in lat notification of implementation of system updates. Once again, in my experience, this was a result more so of an overworked or disconnected internet, not the HotSchedules program itself.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
hotschedules review
It's got so many options - none exactly what I need - that it is almost too cumbersome. I would like more flexibility to create template shifts and place them on days as needed, with it being ok that some days there are blank shifts left over. Rather than now, when if I make a template and want a day to be scheduled lightly, it tells the staff there's a house shift open. The template feature is practically more work than just starting from scratch each week. I hate entering the times of a shift and having it immediately autocorrect to the last half hour. For example if I want a shift to start at 1:30PM and end at 10:30PM, I have to type 1:30, click off and it will change it to 1:00, click back on to get to 1:30, and repeat to get the end time to read 10:30 instead of 10, then repeat to get PM instead of AM. I'd also like to not have to redo the schedule report generator so that it's easier to read every week, for the printed schedule we keep in the shop. All those outlines, yikes! What I do like is the messaging/staff communication parts. Requests off are clear and easy, same with shift swapping. I like being able to create blackout days for no requests off, and I like that I can easily see who wants off when and when the RO was made.
Pros
Requests off, availability, blackout dates, staff communication sections. The app works great for everyone.
Cons
No ease of use when making the schedule - autocorrecting number entries constantly, schedule templates aren't what I need, schedule report is difficult to read.
Response from Fourth
Hi Darla!
Thank you for reaching out and providing feedback for us. We're sorry you're having a hard time navigating the scheduling templates. These articles may be of use to you in better explaining the process of scheduling using custom and blank templates and auto-scheduling!
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/215565977-HS-How-to-Use-the-Autoscheduler
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/218955327-HS-New-Scheduler-Generating-Templates-
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/222579107-HS-Templates-and-the-New-Scheduler
If you are still having issues, please contact customer care for assistance!
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/222476127-Contact-Us-Customer-Care-Support-
Top HotSchedules Alternatives
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Makes schedule easier and organize
Pros
Easier to share schedule, get new availability from my employees in real time, plan days off, approve or deny swaps, shift release. It's an amazing tool that facilitate the work.
Cons
It take some time to have a new user on, and sometimes my employees have problems that shows their account it's blocked (but works if they go on the browser incognito), or keep asking them to change password every day once they login.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great tool to schedule your employees
Using for 7 years and if they would not keep changing the format I could say I love it. Anyhow it is great app for managers, easy quick access to employees list, phone numbers, emails and etc.
Pros
I'm doing schedules for my employees weekly and this app has few great features. Coping, modifying and automatically feeling schedules are only few of them.
Cons
Constantly changing the format. Right after I'm used to one they changing it again.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Powerful
I miss using it in many respects, it feels very HR orientated which I enjoyed - I don't miss the slow and clunky loading and saving of data though.
Pros
A lot of really useful templates in terms of recording personnel records, plus a lot of really powerful automation ie. sick pay and holiday calculation - employee checklists etc - The payroll integration was excellent also.
Cons
unfortunately we found it to be very slow and glitchy, often having to refresh the webpage, or being unable to load properly.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Much better then paper schedule
Very positive experience. Made my schedule less chaotic and gives me options to control my work days and days off much better without having to deal with manger directly lol
Pros
Having a restaurant job means cheotic schedule. It's never the same. Impossible to keep up with and memorize. My last job had hot schedules but my new job doesn't:/ it's a nightmare without it. I miss it so much. It is so convenient to pick up and realise shifts whenever I please. No need to call or txt my co workers. Everything is done thru the app. App is not free but cheap and worth every single penny. I love that I can request days off and my ability. Super convenient. You have to wait for manager to approve or not of your request. I can see who my co workers will be for the shift. I can see all phone numbers and emails of my co workers. Every restaurant should have this app. It's very easy as well so even my 70 year old co worker knows how to use it. Very well done .
Cons
Sometimes I get loged out and have trouble logging back in. It froze few times. Could use more color and some fun options like emoji me lol make work schedule more fun
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Useful and practical
Pros
The customizable job titles and departments make it flexible and easy to schedule all areas of the business.
Cons
It can be slow to load. This can be problematic in a fast paced business.
- Industry: Graphic Design
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Hot schedules review
My overall experience has been very good. I always knew when I was working next and never missed work or was late to a shift because of it!
Pros
What I liked most about hot schedules is always being organized and being able to see my schedule ahead of time, eliminating the need to write it down or call/go in person to see when I was working next.
Cons
What I liked least is that not enough companies are using it! It’s a great platform, so I have nothing negative to say.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
New comers
Been with them for 16 yrs in two companies and has progressed with updates every yr
Pros
Very easy to use as well as navigating through reports
Cons
Not much to say here besides better alerts
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The Software That Changed Scheduling
HotSchedules is so much more than just a mere scheduling software for companies. It is a way to empower your employees by giving them the ability to switch their shifts around in the event that something happens abruptly in life and you can’t help but miss a shift. It has eliminated the anxious feeling you get wondering if the person you asked to cover your shift is going to follow through or not by opening the shift up to all employees to pick up for themselves if it fits their schedules.
Pros
This software was game changing from the very first moment I used it in the restaurant industry. In the past, I had found myself in situations at work where I had thought I had another teammate’s spoken word that they would switch shifts with me and that would be enough to clear my name in the event that something went wrong and they didn’t end up showing up. Little did I know that would not be the case and I am going to be held responsible instead of getting into a petty battle of he/said she/said with my coworker. Enter HotSchedules, a software aimed at eliminating that prospect from happening in your workplace again. Not only does this software put the power of controlling your schedule if you have a last minute emergency, it also carries that message of the switching of shifts to the highest form of management. It’s an intuitive and life changing software that I wish every company would implement for its employees.
Cons
I honestly am trying to rack my brain for anything I felt was negative throughout my experience using HotSchedules and I can truthfully say that not once did this software let me down. People picked up shifts because they actually wanted the extra work and it eliminates the need to single out a coworker and put the pressure on them and opens the shift up for the possibility of any team member to pick it up.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Restaurant Must have
As a former manager at a Texas Roadhouse, I was familiar with this software, and eager to bring it to my new venture. It immediately eliminated the use of paper schedules, and the chaos of employees switching shifts without making management aware. This increased both labor costs, and morale.
Pros
It’s easy to use, built for high volume restaurants. I took a restaurant that was still relying on paper, emailed schedules, and converted them to Bot Schedules. This eliminated issues of shift coverage changes, where we expected one employee, but another showed up, and all the associated communication issues.
Cons
It was much more difficult to order and install that I previously remember. Customer service in the sales department was definitely lacking just a touch. Once we got the ball rolling it was fine, but the initial sale was a bit rocky to start.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Easy
Overall it's a great scheduling platform for all. Very easy to use and it's great for communicating with employees as well as logging disciplinary issues.
Pros
The best thing about this product is the ease of use. It's easy for managers and also for our employees. They give you step by step instructions on how to first create your account and utilization from there moving forward.
Cons
The worst thing about this product is customer service. It can be very hard to get ahold of someone and it takes days if not weeks for service tickets to be received.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Hotschedules Is Perfect For The Hospitality Industry
This has helped manage overtime before it even happens. While scheduling employees, the software calculates the hours and gives you a warning for any person that is going into or approaching overtime. This has saved us money and helped better allocate time. Hotschedules is a game changer for the hospitality industry.
Pros
This software is extremely user friendly. I love that my staff is able to put all of their availability changes, requests for time off and switch shifts through the software. It makes it extremely easy to create the schedule each week. Tracking of overtime is a huge help as a manager as well. This is a must have tool for anyone in the hospitality industry. It will save your scheduling sanity!
Cons
The only downside to this software is the cost for the app. While it is minimal and you can still log in for free through any web browser, a free app would be ideal for the hourly employees. I honestly have no other bad things to say about this software. I highly recommend it!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Extremely helpful!
I would highly recommend. It is easy to set up and is user friendly for all ages. Since it helps with scheduling, dropping shifts and picking up shifts, our Managers are able to focus more of their time on other aspects of the business.
Pros
The ability to save a template for a weekly schedule. At our job we put a schedule out on a weekly basis and we don't have to start from scratch every week. It used to take use 5 hours to do the schedule and now it takes us 1 hour. A huge lifesaver!
Cons
The look of the software feels a tad outdate. Though that is not a huge deal, it tends to have unnecessary pop-ups or "menu" buttons. However, not enough of a con to ever have me consider using a different product.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Hot-or-not Schedules?
I really wish the messaging and roster function worked better, then I would definitely enjoy the app more.
Pros
I like the copy function when scheduling. You can cut or copy a shift and paste it in another day. I also enjoy the creation of House Shifts to help meet projected labor needed. There are some cool reporting functions and the Broadcast feature is great for company-wide announcements.
Cons
Our whole team has had issues with the messaging part of HotSchedules. The messages are easy to missed. Since HotSchedules can put out so many notifications - messages get lost in the jumble.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Hot for HotSchedules
Over all hot schedules is a solid platform that is definitely beneficial to a smooth running operation as far as scheduling and management communication
Pros
Hot schedules makes scheduling different departments and coordinating everybody extremely easy. The platforms are easy to understand and can be accessed by anyone given authority to use the system.
Cons
The system allows for people to request for time off and to make comments. One of the only downsides of this product was that employees talked last to management about scheduling and tried to do literally all of it through hot schedules which sometimes lead to some conflict Over all hot schedules is a solid platform that is definitely beneficial to a smooth running operation as far as scheduling and management communication goes
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
HotSchedules is a great way to keep track of your work week!
I used HotSchedules for two years while serving and loved the idea where you can swap, add and release shifts if desired.
Pros
I like that you can see your schedule for the week laid out in one spreadsheet. I also like that it gives you the option to do group messages with all of your coworkers and swap shifts if needed. This software offers a lot for your work scheduling and helps you stay organized and be flexible when you need to be.
Cons
I do not like that you have to pay for the app. I also do not like how hard it is to find someone's contact on the app and then be able to copy something like an email address or phone number. I wish HotSchedules also had a better notifications system in place.
- Industry: Entertainment
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
HotSchedules does a great job at presenting all your scheduling/reporting data at a quick...
Pros
A couple things that I really enjoy about HotSchedules is the reporting and future forecasting functions. You can also teach HotSchedules how to auto-schedule based off of those patterns from previously scheduled weeks. It is pretty user-friendly and when you launch for the first time - you have plenty of help. They give you a contact to assist you and provide plenty of step-by-step tutorials for all of the included functions of the software. They also give you styling options for how you would like to view and edit the schedules. The reporting data is quickly accessible and can be pulled from a large range of dates (this helps with payroll verification).
Cons
HotSchedules, at times, can be a little buggy. There have been instances where I have completed a full schedule and upon saving my data, it would revert to the previous schedule before the changes had been added. This can be a tad frustrating when trying to crank out schedules quickly.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
everything in one place
i like that i can easily access the schedules and requests off in one place. I am not a fan that they took away the option to easily see what date someone made the request though. that was a feature i used often.
Pros
easy to use, keeps your organized, accessible from anywhere
Cons
the new scheduler takes longer to enter, and they took away the option to hover over a request off and see the reason and date requested. please bring back!
Response from Fourth
Justine,
Thank you for taking the time to write us a review, we really appreciate it! We value any and all feedback to influence the updates we make to our product in the future. We have a community request forum where you can voice your thoughts to our Customer Support team!
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200388757-Feature-Requests
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Hot schedule for the win
HotSchedule has changed my life, from picking up shifts, switching around schedules, automatically picking up more hours during the weeks I needed it... It has made getting in contact with co-workers, management etc so easy as well. I really am grateful for a product such as this.
Pros
I loved being able to easily pull up my schedule from anywhere possible via mobile access. Having my work schedule accessible from anywhere while I am on the go makes my life very convenient not only that but being able to easily reschedule or move my schedule around with others makes this product top tier.
Cons
There wasn't anything I disliked about HotSchedule, there is just one feature I didn't really use was time clock. Only reason being was my company used an alternative method of clocking in.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Ocean Blue Review
We use a few of your products, HotShedules, LogBook, Inventory. All of them make our job easier and more affective. There is a lot of room to grow with the Inventory product. Hopefully we will see improvements in the future. Still, very pleased with all the products.
Pros
IOS Compatibilty, cloud based.
Cons
Reporting can be cumbersome at times. Not all functions work well on Safari Browser.
Response from Fourth
Francis,
Thank you for taking the time to write us a review, we really appreciate it! We value any and all feedback for our products to influence updates in the future. We have a community request forum where you can voice your ideas and insights directly to a Customer Care specialist. Thanks again!
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200388757-Feature-Requests
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
I used HotSchedules when I was a server in college.
Pros
I absolutely loved HotSchedules!!! It was so easy to use, and so convenient to see my schedule in real time! It was also great to be able to send messages back and forth with other employees or mass emails for shift coverage. HotSchedules made my life as a server SO much easier and convenient!
Cons
There isn't much to complain about with HotSchedules. If I was going to suggest any change, it would maybe be to spruce it up a bit so it's a little more colorful. My schedule and messages were always in grey and black. Color isn't necessary, but it is a little more appealing.
- Industry: Facilities Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The best in the business!!!
Pay the money, reap the rewards, save time and be on the floor with your team where you should be!
Pros
RELIABILITY!!!It never goes down, support is always helpfulBest scheduler features in the gameTemplates for quick entry are great weekly startersColor coding makes my life so much easierTransparency, every stroke documented
Cons
Takes getting used to and learning as it is complex software but get hot keys down and you've got it! Make sure you have a fairly beastly computer...it's a lot of real time processing.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
A idea for improvement.
I would like to see an option to add special event to the schedule calendar. This would help us as a reminder to adjust schedule to accommodate for the increase or decease of business. Also it would provide historical data for future budget/forecasting.
Pros
-It's available in a smart phone app
-employees are able submit days off for approval
-forecasting
Cons
Adding event to schedule calendar
Response from Fourth
Yolanda,
Thank you so much for your feedback! We love any bright and innovative ideas our customers come up with to help improve our product. Check out our community page to talk directly with a customer care specialist!
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/community/topics