Streamlining School Facility Management: The Success Story of Haberdashers’ Academies
Managing school facilities often feels like juggling too many balls at once—manual bookings, invoicing headaches, and spaces sitting empty. Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South faced this exact challenge with their sports and activity venues, knowing they weren’t reaching their full potential. This case study reveals how they boosted bookings by 37% and generated over £200,000 in lettings revenue by streamlining their facility management with Bookteq and Playfinder. For more information, visit https://www.habstrustsouth.org.uk/.
Background and Challenges
Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South (HATS) oversees nine schools across London and Kent. They recognised untapped potential in their facilities but struggled to manage them effectively.
Administrative Burdens
School staff at HATS were drowning in paperwork. Booking requests piled up, invoices needed manual processing, and reporting ate up precious time.
The old system relied heavily on staff to juggle multiple tasks:
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Fielding phone calls and emails about availability
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Manually updating calendars and spreadsheets
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Chasing payments and reconciling accounts
This approach left little room for strategic thinking or community outreach. Staff were stuck in a cycle of reactive management rather than proactive growth.
Under-utilisation of Facilities
HATS boasted impressive sports facilities across their schools. Football pitches, multi-use courts, and indoor spaces sat ready for action. Yet, many of these venues saw limited use outside of school hours.
This presented two missed opportunities:
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Revenue generation: Empty facilities meant lost income potential.
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Community engagement: Local groups lacked easy access to quality spaces.
The trust knew their facilities could serve the community better and boost their budget. But without an efficient system, reaching this goal seemed out of reach.
The Bookteq Solution
HATS turned to Bookteq, powered by Playfinder, to tackle their facility management challenges head-on. This two-pronged approach aimed to streamline internal processes and boost external visibility.
Streamlining the Process
Bookteq’s Workspace system became the central hub for HATS’ facility management. This digital platform transformed their booking process:
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Online calendar: Staff could instantly check availability and confirm bookings.
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Automated invoicing: The system generated and sent invoices, reducing manual work.
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Reporting tools: Custom reports provided insights on usage and revenue trends.
For school staff, this meant less time shuffling papers and more time focusing on strategic goals. The streamlined process also improved the experience for potential renters. Quick responses and easy booking increased the likelihood of repeat business.
Expanding Visibility
While internal improvements were crucial, HATS also needed to attract new users. This is where the Playfinder marketplace came into play.
By listing their facilities on Playfinder, HATS opened up their venues to a wider audience:
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Community groups could discover spaces through simple online searches.
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The Playfinder app made booking as easy as a few taps on a smartphone.
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Detailed facility information and photos helped users find the perfect match for their needs.
This increased visibility put HATS’ facilities in front of people who might never have known about them otherwise. It turned empty time slots into booking opportunities.
Outcomes and Key Success Factors
The results of HATS’ partnership with Bookteq speak for themselves. Let’s break down the impressive numbers and explore what made this implementation so successful.
Increased Bookings and Revenue
Within 18 months of adopting Bookteq and Playfinder, HATS saw remarkable growth:
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37% year-on-year increase in bookings at their pilot sites
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Over £200,000 generated in lettings revenue
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£10,000+ in additional revenue from Playfinder-specific bookings
Key Success Factors
From HATS’s experience, several factors were especially important:
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Visibility & access: Listing on a marketplace like Playfinder exposed the facilities to a wider audience, including people who may not have known about them. This brought in new users.
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Streamlined internal processes: Automating booking, invoicing, and reporting freed staff time and reduced friction, so facilities could be advertised and booked more easily. This makes the offering more responsive.
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Measurement and feedback: Bookteq’s dashboard and reporting capabilities allowed HATS to see where bookings were increasing, what revenue was being generated, and identify further opportunities.
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Pilot approach: Starting with two schools (Crayford and Hatcham) allowed HATS to trial the approach, learn, refine, and then consider scaling.
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Community engagement: By lowering barriers (making booking simpler, promoting the facilities), community groups could more easily access what’s on offer. That both supports utilisation and strengthens community relations.
Lessons & Recommendations for Other Trusts or Schools
From what worked for HATS, and potential pitfalls they seem to have handled well, here are recommendations:
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Audit your current facility usage and processes before making big changes: know where the bottlenecks are (e.g. manual admin, under-publicised spaces).
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Choose tools that automate the routine parts — booking requests, invoicing, approvals. These often eat a lot of staff time.
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Make your facilities easy to find by external users: a marketplace, good online presence, marketing.
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Set metrics and monitor impact: bookings, revenue, cost savings, staff time. Use dashboards.
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Balance internal and external demand: ensure you’re not over-committing to outside groups so that school use isn’t compromised.
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Scale strategically: start with a couple of sites as pilots to ensure your approach works, rather than trying to change everything at once.
Conclusion
Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South’s adoption of Bookteq (Workspace) plus listing on Playfinder shows a strong example of how a multi-academy trust can move from under-utilised facilities to a well-used, income-generating asset for both the trust and the local community. With a 37% rise in bookings, over £200,000 in lettings revenue, and marketplace bookings covering subscription costs multiple times over, HATS demonstrate that the right combination of visibility, automation, and measurement can make a big difference.