User Reviews Overview
About HotSchedules
HotSchedules is the hospitality industry’s most widely adopted intelligent scheduling software. Managers can cut their scheduling time down to 45 minutes or less with the intuitive drag and drop interface while maintaining...
Learn moreAll HotSchedules Reviews Apply filters
Browse HotSchedules Reviews
All HotSchedules Reviews Apply filters
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Hotschedules is so easy to use
Pros
Hotschedules changed the restaurant industry when it came out. I have worked in the industry for over 10 years, so when this software came out. It really changed the industry. Before we would have to wait for a photo of our schedules and sometimes we would miss our shifts or getting our shifts covered was so difficult. When hotschedules came out , you never wondered when your shift was. You are reminded when you have a shift and if you need a shift covered you simply post it up. It is a secure way to have everyone feel accountable and be accountable for work.
Cons
The only thing I had a trouble with when I first started using hotschedules was understanding how to update my availability for work but once someone showed me its a no brainer.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
All in one scheduler and social exchange
Pros
Users can be grouped into categories based on department, allowing for effective communication without clutter. Also users' title and contact information is kept in a master directory readily available to other users. Another great feature is push notifications regarding company announcements, published schedules, and schedule changes. No need to constantly check the app for changes.
Cons
There is no free version of the app, which could be problematic for some employees. Although not expensive, some users don't like to pay for an app to view their schedule.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
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: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
The best way to post work schedules
I have thoroughly enjoyed using the app, and it has allowed me to take opportunities that have made me additional money I otherwise would not have known about. I recommend the app to my other coworkers, as it is only a dollar or two one time and you never have to worry about losing your schedule or wondering when all your shifts are.
Pros
I can access my work schedule whenever I want because it is both a website and an app. It not only tells you what your schedule is, but allows you to see who else you are working with. This is beneficial if you are trying to adjust your schedule for time off so you know exactly who is available and who is not, which saves a lot of time.
Cons
If you have marked yourself as unavailable it should flag someone from being able to add you to the schedule in that slot so that the person creating the schedule realizes they have made an error.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Very reliable
Ease of use. Available any time and anywhere with smartphone.
Pros
I love the features that hotschedules offers to maintain and publish accurate schedules. As a business operator, it is imperative that they are done accurately and while within our forecasted budgets. Hotschedules is easy for associates to access and navigate.
Cons
I often wish that alerts involving team members accruing overtime was more prominent, but overall like the ability to run overtime reports when necessary.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
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: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Love HotSchedules
I've been using HotSchedules for several years and I couldn't imagine running a restaurant without it.
Pros
Scheduling, messaging, and forecasting have never been easier! If you own a restaurant, you need this.
Cons
Customer service used to be excellent, but lately, it hasn't been good at all. I went from a 2 minute wait to talk to 6+ hours to get a callback—usually by the time I'm home. I'm confident they're just going through some changes and it will be back to the high standard.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Great way to manage staff schedules with ease
Was part of a team that used HotSchedules for shift management.
Pros
I like how shifts can be swapped and picked up without having to involve a manager. Managers can set certain rules, but within those rules employees can handle it on their own.
Cons
I don't like how clumsy the app was in 2014 when I used it. It was not mobile friendly, and didn't sync well with email and google calendar. This may have changed since then.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Good software, they are continually developing and improving. Definitely great for scheduling
Allowed me to spend less time scheduling and communicating with staff. More organization on notes and employee files
Pros
Great for scheduling and staff communication. Makes handling a large staff easy. Logbook is great for communication on all issues with mangers and staff, even starting to use it to track our hr.
Cons
Want to see the inventory system improve as well as better ease of use across multiple venues other than that continue to grow and develop
- Industry: Restaurants
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
The more staff you have, the more you need HotSchedules.
Less time spent managing staffing concerns and more time managing staff.
Pros
It makes getting your schedule out to all of your staff so much easier. I've written schedules and posted on a wall, I've texted screen captures to everyone individually, I've created email groups and submitted to everyone and this is much more simple. You can also track sales and it helps estimate labor against your predicted sales for the day and the week. But the very best part is that the staff can manage all of their shift trades via HotSchedules. No more calling, forgetting to tell the manager, or having neither shift member show and then denying that they knew they were working the shift.
Cons
Honestly, just that it's a program that costs money. If you have a small staff it's not worth the investment potentially. But a staff of greater than 20, particularly in the retail or restaurant world, it's a burden lifted.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
General Manager and partner
It is very difficult to get responses from customer support. It will take a day and up to 3 to hear anything back and that is in several different support groups. Also, the fact that you get shuffled from one type of support to another is quite frustrating. When you start you have 1 person that owns the majority of the experience.She was great! But once you get passed on to customer support it feels like you are lost.
I also have an issue with the scheduling functionality. It is impossible to view an entire day of a schedule either in the schedule or the template. There used to be a button at the top of the schedule that allowed you to see the entire day, who was scheduled in each station, all at a glance. The new functionality makes it incredibly difficult to manage the level of staff on a shift.
Pros
The logbook feature, the advanced floor maps (which are an additional cost..), and the messaging feature.
Cons
Again the scheduling software is not very user friendly. Clearly there were some adjustments made that helped with writing a schedule, but not being able to view it as easily is frustrating.
Response from Fourth
Hey Carisa!
Thank you for the feedback. We apologize for the frustration you've been experiencing with our product and customer support services. Here is an article to an overview of the new scheduler that might be helpful.
https://help.hotschedules.com/hc/en-us/articles/218408118-HS-New-Scheduler-Overview
Please reach out if you are continuing to experience difficulty with the software.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Good Scheduler
Overall its very good. I don't have much issue with it, but the UI could be definitely be better.
Pros
Hotschedules won our business by having the best Aloha POS integration of all the companies we spoke with. Employees that are added to our system are automatically synced with Hotschedules so you can quickly begin adding them to the schedule. The integration also allows us to restrict employees from clocking in too early or late with saves labor and allows you to quickly identify the less punctual employees. Finally, the integration also pulls historical sales data from our POS and uses it to establish a good sales forecast that you can use to budget your labor accurately.
Cons
The app and website are just not as intuitive and streamline as I would like. Previously we had used PeopleMatter schedule, which had a much less cluttered and more user friendly interface. Hotschedules also starts to think it knows how to schedule better than the manager and will start adding "House Shifts" to your schedule that employees can pick up, which frustrates me when I really don't need that shift covered.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Great scheduling ap
One of the best scheduling websites I've ever seen or used.
Pros
As a user, I love how easy this product is. You can view your schedule, see who else is working, and swap and release shifts without an issue. It has an easy to use web browser, and mobile ap (although you do pay for it) so you can use hotschedules whichever way you prefer. It also has a great messaging system which allows you to message entire groups of people at once (management, kitchen, servers). It also tells you how many people are ahead of you on a wait list for a shift you picked up. The autopick up function is excellent as well for when you need to get a shift and non are available.
Cons
I am not a fan of the most recent update. Prior, you would be able to "see all schedule" and see the entire week, alphabetically, where everyone was working etc. Now however, you can't see the weekly schedule at once and you need to click day by day. This can be challenging when trying to swap shifts with other staff, or see others schedules.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
HotSchedules eliminates any excuse for missing shifts!
HotSchedules is the only scheduling software I've seen that meets the needs of the many workplaces I've been a part of!
Pros
I have found that HotSchedules solves the ever-present problem in any workplace: "I didn't know I was scheduled!" Even when employees swap shifts or take another employee's shift, the software shows them that they maintain ownership of their originally assigned shifts until manager approval.
Cons
The fact that users have to pay to download the app on their smartphones is challenging. Although the workplace pays for the software, employees have to pay to get the software on their cellphones. This problem is compounded by the fact that the website doesn't have a very interactive design, much unlike the app, so employees often have to get the app to have a decent experience using HotSchedules.
Response from Fourth
Thank you for the review Alainna, really appreciate you taking the time. Please don't hesitate to reach out to Customer Care with any questions or issues you may have down the road.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
