Hotels near the port for crew changes
The best hotels near the port, for crew changes.
What it does
Every month: hotels within 5 km of the port, the best-rated first, with the walking or driving distance, in a Google Sheet for the ship agent’s crew change desk.
In one sentence: Monthly on the 1st at 08:00, in Dubai, find ports, container terminals and harbors in the area, find hotels and extended stay hotels nearby, remove duplicates, sort them by rating and keep the top 20, then add row in Google Sheets and email the list to you.
Why it is useful
Crew changes need beds near the port at short notice. A rated list ready to call saves hours each time.
Who it is for
Ports, shipping & maritime. Port operators, ship agents, marine suppliers, terminals and marinas following vessels, weather and the business around the water. Every use case for ports & shipping
Best use cases
- A ship agency
- A crew manager
- A seafarers’ welfare charity
What each run gives you
- A Google Sheet
The time it saves
Monthly on the 1st at 08:00. Doing the same work by hand takes about 45 minutes each time; it runs about 1 time a month, so it saves about 1 hours a month (an estimate). It is medium: 8 blocks.
The flow, block by block
- On the 1st of every monthTrigger · ScheduleStarts the flow on a timetable.
- The portWhere · Area of interestSets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- The portxMap data · Nearby placesPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
- Hotels near the portxMap data · Nearby placesPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
- Each hotel onceLogic · Remove duplicatesKeeps one of each item when the same one arrives more than once, for example from two searches that overlap.
- Best 20 firstLogic · Sort and limitPuts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
- Update the crew hotels sheetApp · Google SheetsCreate, edit, and collaborate on spreadsheets online
- Email me the resultsAction · EmailSends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.
Every block can be changed after you use the template: the city, the type of place, the score, where the results go.
Use it now
Answer a few questions, enter your work email, and it runs in your own account, kept running until you pause it. Use this template.
How to set it up
- The xMap Flows browser extension: what is around this business: On a company’s website or a place on a map, one click shows its market and the AI employees to hire for it.
- Build your first flow in ten minutes: From a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
- What xMap remembers about your company: Your city, industry and what you sell, filled in for you and always yours to change.
- Ask the map a question: How many of a kind of place, how many people for each, and where the gaps are, answered on the spot.
- Geofencing: A virtual boundary that triggers something when an item enters or leaves it.
- AIS (ship tracking): Radio messages ships send with their identity, position and course.
- How to be alerted when ships enter a port area: A zone, a live AIS stream and an alert.
More for Ports, shipping & maritime
- New shipping companies and forwarders in the port city: New shipping firms and forwarders, scored as marine insurance clients.
- Shipyards for my coatings and paint sales: Shipyards graded as coatings buyers, with the purchasing manager.
- Ferry terminals with few fast chargers nearby: Ferry terminals with the fewest fast chargers nearby, every month.
- Ships crossing the strait, every day: Ships crossing a strait each day, by type, with a trade note.
- Ships waiting at anchor, for the berth planner: The queue at anchor every hour, by type, for the berth planner.
- Wind at the port: when to hold crane work: When to hold crane and mooring work, from the hourly wind.