The impressive before and after results:
| Before Tapi | 3 months in | |
|---|---|---|
| Time spent on maintenance | 30-40% of every day | 15-20% |
| Tenants reporting maintenance process | Phone calls and emails | AI triage with one communication channel |
| Maintenance visibility | 2 metrics (jobs open/closed) | PM performance + contractor completion task |
| Invoices | Paper, post and invoice chaos | AI-read, one click approved, synced to Alto |
700 properties. One very full plate.
Managing around 700 properties means maintenance never stops. Accommodation Bureau’s property managers were fielding it from every direction: phone calls, emails, and post-it notes stuck to every surface.
“Property managers were spending at least 30 to 40% of their day on maintenance. Loads of phone calls, note-taking, post-it notes stuck everywhere.”
—Sam Whitehead, Operations Director, Accommodation Bureau
The team wasn’t short on effort. Urgent jobs got handled fast. But at that volume, the less urgent jobs slipped, not because anyone dropped the ball, but because there was no way to see where every ball was.
“The sheer volume of jobs made it really difficult to keep on top of. There was no real way of tracking when everything was being done.”
And from leadership? Two metrics: jobs outstanding, jobs completed. That was the whole picture.
The platform that didn’t exist (yet)
Accommodation Bureau went looking for a fix and kept coming up empty. Off-the-shelf tools kept failing the same three-way test: easy for the team, great for landlords and tenants, painless for contractors.
“I just couldn’t find the right software that matched our values. I wanted a solution that was easy to use for our team, gave a great experience to our landlords and tenants, and didn’t annoy our contractors! I didn’t think what I wanted existed until I discovered Tapi.”
The right tool, plugged into the right platform
Accommodation Bureau has run their agency on Alto for six years. It’s the system their whole operation lives in, and the last thing they wanted was another tool that didn’t talk to it.
“Alto is a brilliant piece of software, but their primary focus isn’t maintenance. When we discovered Tapi, the experts at stopping maintenance from sucking, it was a match made in heaven. We’d only ever go ahead with an integration if the two systems speak together really well. There’s nothing more frustrating than switching systems and logging things manually.”
That’s exactly what Alto’s integration marketplace made possible: keep the CRM you trust, invest in the specialist.
“In the last 12–18 months Alto’s integration marketplace has exploded and they’re deep integrations, like the one with Tapi. Rather than using a general tool, we get the help we need from the expert companies.”
Three months in: half the workload, twice the visibility
Maintenance time, halved. Property managers went from spending 30–40% of their day on maintenance to 15–20%. Instead of staring down a list of a hundred jobs, Tapi surfaces the ones that actually need attention.
The phones went quiet. Tenants now report issues through Tapi’s Tenant Concierge. Some just scan the QR code under their kitchen sink and chat it through. It lands straight with the team, fully detailed, no phone tag.
“We’re not having phone calls from tenants saying ‘my boiler’s broken.’ The calls have really dropped off. Tenants prefer to report maintenance this way, and even the landlords are loving it.”
Contractor chasing, automated. The follow-ups that used to eat afternoons now happen automatically, and those slower, less urgent jobs stopped slipping.
Invoicing, sorted. Paper flying around the office is gone. Contractors email invoices in or upload them directly, Tapi’s AI reads them, and the team gives a quick check and clicks approve.
“I was really sceptical of the AI at first. I thought it was going to make loads of mistakes. But it’s spot on. A brief check, click approve, and it goes straight through for payment.”
And it all flows back to Alto. Every action in Tapi is logged in Alto. Invoices transfer across automatically, speeding up contractor payments.
“The biggest compliment I can pay is that it’s seamless.”
The leadership view they never had
Beyond the day-to-day, leadership finally has a full picture: individual property manager performance, contractor turnaround times, average days to complete jobs.
“I can see if anyone needs a little extra coaching, and how well contractors are performing. As a leader, I can use that to improve our service to landlords and tenants.”
The hero’s next chapter: growth without headcount
Here’s the shift that matters most. Before, scaling the portfolio meant one thing: hire more property managers. Now the maths has changed.
“I feel more confident about the future in terms of portfolio growth. Our property managers can deal with a lot more maintenance than before — they can manage more because of Tapi.”
Same team. Same expertise. A lot more capacity.
Accommodation Bureau at a glance: 700 properties · Happy Alto customer for 6 years · Happy Tapi customer for 3 months
