Multi-Location Restaurant Maintenance: How to Finally Get It Under Control

The fryer’s down at one store. A walk-in stopped cooling at another. You’ve got one GM texting you, another calling a random vendor, and a third hoping the issue goes away on its own.

Sound familiar?

When you’re managing maintenance across multiple restaurant locations, every small issue multiplies — fast.
Different sites. Different teams. Different vendors. No centralized system. No clear visibility. And way too many last-minute emergencies.

Suddenly:

• Repairs get lost in email threads
• Equipment gets fixed twice — or never
• Invoices pile up without context
• And your team is stuck reacting instead of managing

That’s why managing maintenance across multiple restaurant locations requires more than good intentions — it needs structure.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step system to:

• Centralize requests
• Standardize vendor workflows
• Track costs and performance
• Schedule preventive maintenance
• And make better decisions based on real data

Whether you manage 3 or 30 locations, this is how you take maintenance from reactive chaos… to operational control.

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1. The Real Challenges of Multi-Location Maintenance

Most restaurant groups don’t fail at maintenance because they don’t care — they fail because they don’t have a system that scales.

Here’s what that looks like:

❌ Every GM has their own way of reporting issues
One sends a text. Another waits until it’s urgent. A third forgets completely.
Result? Issues get missed, delayed, or duplicated — and you lose track fast.

❌ No central visibility into repairs or equipment health
You don’t know what’s been fixed, how often, or by whom.
A prep table gets repaired three times before someone realizes it should’ve been replaced.

❌ Vendors vary wildly in quality and responsiveness
Some show up late. Others overcharge. And most of the time, no one at HQ knows who was even called.
There’s no feedback loop — and no accountability.

❌ Costs are buried in emails, invoices, and conversations
You can’t tell how much maintenance is costing per location, or which assets are draining your budget.
Finance gets hit with surprise spikes, and you have no data to defend it.

❌ Ops teams are stuck reacting, not managing
Instead of improving systems, they’re chasing updates, confirming vendor arrivals, and digging through Slack threads.

👉 The result? A reactive, fragmented process that creates unnecessary downtime, lost time, and hidden costs — at scale.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

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2. Step 1: Centralize the Way Issues Are Reported

You can’t fix what you don’t know about — and in multi-unit operations, you often find out too late.

One GM forgets to report a leaking prep sink. Another sends a blurry photo via text. A third flags a fryer issue verbally… and it’s lost before it reaches anyone who can act.

The fix? Create one consistent way for all locations to report issues.

That could be:

• A mobile app
• A shared internal form
• A QR code posted in each kitchen
• Or a link tied to your maintenance platform

What matters is that every site uses the same channel, and every request is logged with the same structure.

At minimum, each issue should include:

• 📍 Location
• 🧰 Equipment affected
• 📝 Short description
• ⏱️ Urgency level
• 📷 Optional photo

This makes it easy to track, prioritize, and act — without chasing info.

✅ Result: You get real-time visibility into every maintenance request across your organization — no matter who’s on shift, or where the issue starts.

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3. Step 2: Standardize Your Vendor Workflow

One location calls “their guy.” Another scrolls Yelp. A third uses whoever shows up fastest — or cheapest.
The result? Inconsistent quality, missed follow-ups, and zero accountability.

To scale maintenance across locations, you need a standardized, structured vendor process. Here's how:

🛠️ Build a pre-approved vendor list

• Organize by trade (refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, etc.)
• Cover each geography you operate in
• Include only vetted, insured, and reliable partners

🚨 Define dispatch rules

• Auto-dispatch for common, low-cost repairs
• Ops validation for high-impact or high-cost issues
• Emergency vs. non-emergency routing rules

📋 Set clear service expectations

• Define SLAs (e.g. response within 24h)
• Require photo proof or completion notes
• Collect feedback after each job

🧾 Track vendor performance over time

• Cost per intervention
• Response time
• Quality rating from GMs or Ops
• Repeated callbacks or complaints

✅ Result: Every location follows the same workflow. You gain consistency, save time, and build a network you can actually rely on.

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4. Step 3: Track Work Orders and Costs by Site

You get an invoice. $650 for a repair at one of your stores.
But… what was fixed? Was it urgent? Was it the same issue from last month?
Without tracking, you’re just paying — not managing.

To build long-term control, you need to track every work order with consistency across locations.

At minimum, each request should include:

• 🎯 Status → New, in progress, completed
• 📍 Location → Which unit or franchise
• 🛠️ Asset involved → Linked to inventory
• 💬 Description → What happened, and why
• 💰 Cost breakdown → Parts, labor, emergency fees
• 👤 Vendor → Who did the work
• 🧾 Proof → Photos, completion notes, receipts

Once this data is standardized, you can finally answer questions like:

• Which site logs the most maintenance issues?
• Which vendors deliver consistent results — or don’t?
• What’s the total R&M cost per unit last quarter?
• Which equipment costs more to maintain than to replace?

✅ Result: You stop operating blindly — and start using maintenance data to drive smarter decisions, faster.

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5. Step 4: Set Up Preventive Maintenance at Scale

The hood didn’t get cleaned. No one noticed.
Until the health inspector did. And the restaurant had to shut down for the night.

That’s not bad luck — that’s a broken system.

Preventive maintenance (PM) is what keeps issues from becoming emergencies.
But in multi-location operations, it only works if it’s organized — and enforced.

Here’s how to do it at scale:

📌 1. Build a preventive calendar by asset type

• Hood cleaning: every 90 days
• Fire suppression: twice a year
• Refrigeration tune-ups: quarterly
• Ice machine deep cleans: monthly or as needed

🔔 2. Automate scheduling and reminders
Don’t rely on GMs to remember. Use tools that trigger PM tasks automatically by due date or usage frequency.

📄 3. Log every service for traceability
Each PM task should leave a digital trail: service completed, by whom, cost, and proof (photos or report).

📊 4. Monitor compliance across locations
Track which sites are up to date, which are overdue, and which repeat the same preventable issues.

✅ Result: You reduce breakdowns, protect compliance, and extend equipment lifespan — all while regaining peace of mind.

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6. Step 5: Use the Data to Make Better Decisions

The GM says the fryer needs to be replaced.
But no one can tell you how old it is, how often it’s been repaired, or how much it has cost you this year.

Without data, you’re making expensive decisions in the dark.

But when your maintenance system is working — centralized, standardized, and tracked — you start seeing patterns.

Here’s what that unlocks:

🧰 Smarter equipment decisions

• Identify which assets are breaking down too often
• Compare repair costs vs replacement value
• Spot when vendors are treating symptoms instead of fixing root causes

📍 Site-level performance insight

• See which locations report the most issues
• Spot patterns across regions or brands
• Use benchmarks to coach or reallocate resources

💸 More accurate budgeting and forecasting

• Predict R&M spend more reliably per site
• Plan CAPEX for replacements instead of absorbing unexpected costs
• Show Finance you’re in control

👤 Vendor performance tracking

• Rank vendors by response time, cost, and quality
• Cut ties with those who underperform
• Strengthen relationships with those who deliver

✅ Result: You move from putting out fires… to preventing them — and from reacting blindly… to managing proactively.

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7. How Boh Makes Multi-Location Maintenance Easy

Everything we’ve covered — centralizing requests, standardizing workflows, tracking costs, scheduling PM, and making smarter decisions — that’s exactly what Boh was built for.

But here’s the difference:
You don’t have to build the system. We bring it to you. And we run it for you.

Here’s what it looks like in action:

📲 One place to report every issue
Each location gets a simple, unified way to submit work orders — with photos, priority, and asset tags. Nothing gets lost.

📦 Automatic dispatch to verified BohPros
No more Googling for vendors. We send the right tech, handle quotes, follow up, and close the loop.

📊 Live tracking of all work orders across sites
Know what’s happening where, who’s been dispatched, and what it’s costing — in real time.

🧰 Preventive maintenance? Scheduled and managed
We set up recurring tasks by asset type, follow up with techs, and ensure compliance stays on track — even if your team turns over.

📚 Full history, clean data, better decisions
Every repair, every dollar, every asset — all tracked. So you can replace smarter, budget better, and compare locations with confidence.

✅ Result: You get the control of a centralized ops system — without the stress of building or managing it yourself.

🔗 Want to see what this looks like in practice?
Schedule a kitchen assessment — we’ll map your assets and build a maintenance plan that works across all your locations.

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Conclusion

Managing maintenance across multiple restaurants doesn’t have to be messy.

With the right system — one that centralizes requests, standardizes vendor workflows, tracks everything, automates PM, and gives you clean data — you regain control.
Over your costs. Over your equipment. Over your time.

This isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about removing the friction that slows your teams down and drains your attention.

Whether you’re overseeing 3 locations or 30, the principles are the same:

• One way to report
• One place to track
• One system to manage it all

Apply this structure, and you’ll spend less time chasing repairs — and more time building a restaurant operation that actually scales.

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❓ FAQ: Multi-Location Restaurant Maintenance

What’s the best way to manage maintenance across multiple restaurant locations?
The most effective approach is to centralize issue reporting, standardize vendor workflows, and track all work orders and costs in a single system. Add preventive maintenance and data-driven insights, and you turn maintenance from a daily headache into a scalable process.

How do I ensure consistency in maintenance across different restaurants?
Create a unified process: same way to report issues, same criteria for vendor selection, and clear service level expectations. Preventive maintenance schedules and centralized tracking help ensure that no location falls behind.

Can I manage restaurant maintenance without hiring internal technicians?
Yes. Many multi-unit operators rely on external vendors or managed solutions like Boh to coordinate repairs, track compliance, and handle scheduling — without needing full-time in-house maintenance teams.

What should I track for each maintenance request?
At minimum: the location, equipment involved, issue description, date, vendor, status, cost, and resolution notes. When tracked consistently, this data helps you identify recurring issues and optimize repair vs. replace decisions.

How does preventive maintenance reduce costs?
By catching issues before they escalate, preventive maintenance reduces emergency repairs, extends asset lifespan, and helps you avoid compliance failures or equipment-related downtime.

Is there software to help manage maintenance across restaurant locations?
Yes. Platforms like Boh allow you to centralize all maintenance workflows — from reporting to dispatch to tracking — and even manage preventive maintenance and vendor performance across multiple sites.

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