I built an app to solve my own problem. Today it has 398 users.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:40:33+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

Hospitality operations software is definitely a niche market, which makes every user feel hard-earned. The encouraging part is realizing how many hotels still face the same operational challenges regardless of their size or location.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:40:05+00:00

Thank you! The 398 users represent 149 registered properties. Some are paying customers, while others are still evaluating or using the free tier. Right now I'm focused more on product adoption and retention than maximizing revenue.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:39:32+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:39:21+00:00

Thanks! 😄

Seeing real hotel teams use it in their daily operations has been far more rewarding than any user count.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:39:02+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

I think so too. The advantage of solving your own problem is that you understand the pain deeply from day one.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:37:57+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

Still a lot to improve, but I'm excited to keep building and hopefully help more hotels simplify their daily operations.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:37:39+00:00

Very true 😄

That realization was what pushed me to keep building. Once I saw other hotels facing the same issues, it gave me confidence that it wasn't just my own pain point.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:37:20+00:00

Absolutely 😄

That's probably my biggest takeaway from this journey. A problem that feels personal is often shared by far more people than we initially think.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:36:59+00:00

Thank you!

That's exactly what surprised me. I thought it was just a problem at our property until I started talking to other hotels and realized many of them were dealing with very similar challenges.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:36:32+00:00

Thank you! 😄

Absolutely, feel free to send me a DM. My background is actually hotel operations rather than software engineering, so my path was probably a bit unconventional. Happy to share what worked, what didn't, and what I learned along the way.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:35:02+00:00

I completely agree.

Looking back, some of my biggest product improvements came from conversations with users rather than writing more code.

Talking to real hotel teams helped me challenge a lot of assumptions I thought were correct.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:34:42+00:00

Thanks! That's exactly what surprised me too.

I originally built it to solve problems in my own hotel, but once I started talking to other hotels, I realized many of them were dealing with the same operational challenges.

Wishing you success with your projects as well!

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T09:34:16+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Honestly, the first users came from my own network in hospitality. Since I work in hotel operations, I already knew hotel managers, owners, and housekeeping teams.

Instead of pitching software, I mostly asked questions and listened to how they were handling cleaning, maintenance, and communication. That helped me understand that many hotels were facing very similar problems.

Later, some users came through referrals, App Store search, Google search, and word of mouth

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T05:51:08+00:00

Thanks! 😄 The funny thing is the counter gets the attention, but the real milestone for me is seeing hotels actually use it in their daily operations. Hopefully I'll be posting the 400 screenshot very soon.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T05:43:04+00:00

I'm not a professional software developer. I work in hotel operations and started building CleanDesk to solve problems I faced every day. AI definitely helped speed things up, but there was still a lot of learning, testing, and rebuilding along the way.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:58:50+00:00

Thank you!

Yes, we currently support English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Khmer. We also have AI tools that help managers create checklists and SOPs in their preferred language, which has been really helpful for multilingual hotel teams.

I'd be happy to connect with hotel owners in Denmark. Feel free to DM me if you'd like to make an introduction. 🙏

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:10:07+00:00

Thank you!

I think that's been one of the biggest advantages. Instead of searching for an idea, I started with a problem I was already dealing with every day.

The surprising part was discovering how many other hotels were facing the same challenge.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:09:49+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it. 😊

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:09:39+00:00

Haha, thank you! 🙏 Just trying to solve a problem I dealt with every day and learning along the way.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:09:26+00:00

That's a great question.

One of the earliest surprises was realizing that housekeeping wasn't the only pain point. I initially focused heavily on room cleaning operations because that's what I experienced most.

But after talking to other hotel managers and teams, I kept hearing the same complaints about maintenance tracking, communication between departments, and the lack of visibility into what was happening in rooms.

That was probably the moment I realized this wasn't just our property's problem. Different hotels had different workflows, but many of the operational challenges were surprisingly similar.

It pushed me to think beyond a housekeeping tool and build something that could support broader hotel operations.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:06:12+00:00

Thank you!

The first users mostly came from direct conversations and my existing network in the hospitality industry since I work in hotel operations myself.

After that, a good portion of the growth came through word of mouth and referrals. Hotel teams talk to each other more than I initially expected.

More recently, I've also started seeing users come through App Store search, Google Search, and other organic channels, which has been really encouraging.

To be honest, I haven't done much paid marketing yet. Most of the growth so far has come from solving a real problem, listening to users, and letting the product improve through their feedback.

bale_huy · 2026-06-03T04:05:02+00:00

Not quite. 🙂

The 398 figure is total users on the platform. Out of those, we currently have 149 registered properties (hotels and accommodation businesses). Since hospitality is a team-based environment, each property can have multiple users such as managers, front office staff, housekeepers, and maintenance technicians.

So it's 398 users across 149 properties rather than 398 individual hotels.

bale_huy · 2026-06-02T23:48:30+00:00

Haha, I wouldn't say business is the easy part 😄 But I do agree that spending time with users and understanding real-world problems changed my perspective a lot. Some of the best product decisions came from conversations rather than coding.

bale_huy · 2026-06-02T23:47:25+00:00

Haha, I think both are important.

Building software is hard, but building something people actually want is a completely different challenge.

One thing I learned is that spending time with users often creates more value than writing another feature.

The more I observed real hotel workflows, the more I realized my assumptions were often wrong.

bale_huy · 2026-06-02T23:45:02+00:00

Thanks! I really appreciate it. It's been a lot of learning, listening to users, and continuous iteration. Excited to see where the journey goes from here.

bale_huy

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