HotSchedules Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8 out of 10

Score

8 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for HotSchedules are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

HotSchedules has become a reliable solution for businesses in various industries, including restaurants, amusement parks, resorts, and retail establishments. Users have reported significant time savings and improved efficiency in scheduling processes. For example, a restaurant manager praises HotSchedules for reducing their scheduling time from over 3 hours to just 30 minutes per week. This software enables employees to cover their own shifts with approval, allowing for better shift management and flexibility. It facilitates communication among team members, ensuring constant checking and trading of shifts in an amusement park setting. Multiple departments at a resort rely on the platform to handle last-minute schedule changes, call-offs, and requests for added shifts.

HotSchedules assists food and beverage departments by providing easy access to availability, time off requests, and labor forecasting. This improves communication between staff and management. The software's user-friendly interface allows for generating and posting weekly schedules effortlessly. It also serves as a means of communication with staff members across multiple locations within a restaurant group.

Moreover, HotSchedules Train formerly Schoox is utilized for employee orientation and training purposes. The software not only helps with controlling labor costs but also offers features like sales forecasting and labor cost analysis. Across organizations, HotSchedules proves valuable by assisting in proper staffing needs and managing labor expenses effectively. In retail settings, the product streamlines employee scheduling while enabling them to view their schedules easily and make shift swaps when necessary.

In conclusion, HotSchedules is highly regarded for its ability to save time, improve communication, increase flexibility in scheduling processes, and provide various features that benefit different departments within organizations. Its broad range of applications makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes across multiple industries.

Reviews

168 Reviews

HotSchedules - Solid Scheduling Software

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

November 11, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We needed a timeclock solution for two of our locations that were not integrated ss our other concepts and selected HotSchedules. As an admin user who manages payroll, HotSchedules works well. It is not over complicated, is user friendly and provides what is needed to process the payroll easily and accurately. I belive it works as expected for the employees and management that use HotSchedules on site.

Pros

Easy to Use
Clear Navagation
Accurate

Cons

none come to mind

Likelihood to Recommend

It is a clean program that works well and is easy to use

Verified User

Employee in Finance and Accounting (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

HotSchedules support is slow

Rating: 1 out of 10

November 2, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this software to schedule all hourly employees at all locations, and manage labor expenses.

Pros

If someone worked for a restaurant before, they may already be familiar.
Fairly easy to use.

Cons

Customer support is terrible in terms of response... +1 month of cases to be resolved.
Impossible to get in touch with a live person.

Likelihood to Recommend

HotSchedules will work for you if you use at as a very basic scheduling software. If you have any issues with the system, getting live support is near impossible. I would highly advise to avoid this software.

Verified User

Director in Corporate (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Easy to select a shift at any time.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 1, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

With HotSchedules it has been possible to maintain clear communication throughout the company since you can manage the available shifts without requesting it in a book and update the availability on paper. With this platform you can forget about the difficult paperwork since it allows you to do these things without having to manually update the availability of employees. HotSchedules has drastically reduced all the complications that arose in the company regarding the schedule that was received and the availability of each shift, allowing us to receive our schedules through the HotSchedules platform without having to go to a company board and check shift availability.

Pros

It is easy to maintain communication with the personnel and thus be able to carry out a correct shift programming.
It is very simple to be able to choose what time it is and to be able to change it whenever you want without the need to inform or fill out extensive paperwork.
I love the mobile application, it allows me to be aware of notifications of any schedule availability or when I have a message in my inbox.
Its platform is simple to use and you can manage shifts quickly or make a copy of existing schedules.
It is possible to be able to exchange shifts or release shifts without any problem, thus being able to have more freedom when deciding when to work.

Cons

It has a slightly high cost and you also have to pay additionally if you want to obtain certain necessary characteristics.
I still do not understand why the mobile application has a cost apart from the main HotSchedules, since if we are already paying for a product it should be complete. This is extremely annoying since not all employees can use the application as they refuse to overpay.
Sometimes the website tends to get slow no matter the speed of the internet connection, it is a bit annoying.

Likelihood to Recommend

I recommend it because it drastically reduces the time it takes to be able to distribute a shift, it is better when employees can select and exchange them when they want without having to drag the staff to notify their work hours. Communication within this platform allows for a clearer and more organized environment since it allows all staff to be in communication and thus also be more flexible with schedules.

Penelope Brown

Dining Room Manager at Kohler Co. (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

HotSchedules - Restaurants

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 6, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It was across the board. It was nice for the staff - they could pick up and give up their shifts on their phones so that they did not have to come into work. They also knew when there were shifts to be picked up for big parties. It stopped them from clocking in before their shift started.

Pros

Online/cell phone shift changes.
Automatic updates.
Linking schedule with POS system.

Cons

Printouts for daily schedules, older managers had difficulty reading who picked up for who, if the shifts were all picked up.
Could have more ease of use for the older generation.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited for the restaurant where schedules are always changing. It would not be useful with a business with mainly set schedules. It would also work well with people in different locations so that everyone could easily access it.

Verified User

Administrator in Finance and Accounting (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

HotSchedules

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 27, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

HotSchedules is used across both our stores for scheduling and employee management. Employees are able to update when they want to work and hours etc. Management can then approve or deny those requests and schedule as needed. HotSchedules puts the employees in charge of their schedule and shifts so that management can focus on other things.

Pros

Scheduling.
Time off.

Cons

Labor management.
Pick-up shifts AI management.

Likelihood to Recommend

HotSchedules is great for managing hours, shifts, employee schedules, time off, etc. Leaders at our stores have had options of moving to other tools, but have continued to stay with HotSchedules at it works the best it seems. It is hard sometimes with shift pick-up as leadership has to approve every drop and pick-up. I wish drops were automatically approved, and then there was an algorithm when picking up shifts was approved based on duration of employment and age (so minors can't).

Verified User

Director (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Great resource if everyone has a smartphone

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

December 14, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The organization I used to work for utilized HotSchedules for scheduling servers and hosts. It was how we traded shifts, received weekly schedules, and called off shifts. It made it so we didn't have to come in weekly (even on our off days) to see our schedule for the following week.

Pros

Easy to read and easy access to schedules at any time.
Ability to quickly change availability.

Cons

Notification overload - Too many notifications.
Support response time is slow when problems do arise.

Likelihood to Recommend

We did not like using the HotSchedules application for the pure reason that it allowed people to too easily switch schedules without approval and the schedule was in a constant state of change, causing confusion for those who were trying to figure out who was supposed to staff the building. I think there should be a limit of schedule switches per day.

Kate Knight

Server in Customer Service at Steel City Sammiches (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

HotSchedules: Hospitality Focused

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 28, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

HotSchedules is the premier labor management and communication platform for the hospitality industry. There's no need to look further, competing platforms do not hold a candle to the restaurant-centric approach HotSchedules takes when designing the functionality and UI for their applications. They're one of the top paid apps in the App Store for a reason.

Pros

Mobile Application
Restaurant Centric Technology
Great UI
Intuitive Features
Customer Support

Cons

Lack of scheduled/automated reporting
POS integration version management
Limited ability to access own data

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for multi-unit brands in the restaurant industry. Not well-suited for unit brands or non-hospitality related retail.

Verified User

Vice-President in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

Nathan Miller's Review of HotSchedules

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

August 9, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is being utilized in my organization for scheduling and forecasting. It addresses any holes in scheduling and cost analysis.

Pros

Makes everything paperless.
Very user-friendly for back office and staff.
Can really dive deep into data and sales and what you are spending.

Cons

The schedule view was much better before it changed.

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for any staff especially restaurants or larger than 20 staff members. Makes all digital- Notes, messages and goes right to their email or phone which ever they have set up.

Nathan Miller

Operating Partner in Customer Service at CentraArchy Restaurants (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

Great commumication tool

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

August 9, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Each of our full-service locations utilizes HotSchedules as a tool to minimize labor expense and a communication tool with our team.

Pros

Communication with team members
Enforce time and attendance with POS to control labor expense
Communication among managers
Tracking staff performance issues
Keeping up permits

Cons

Does not tie labor/schedule postings to budget; too easy for managers to override
Messages are not easily accessible
Above store reporting tools are outdated; should be able to schedule reports

Likelihood to Recommend

For small to medium-sized companies HotSchedules works great when business is very static. If you are simply using HotSchedules for a schedule writing tool, it is phenomenal. However, it does miss the mark as a labor control software. Needs more controls to keep managers aware of spending versus historical sales data.

Verified User

Director (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience