Office hoteling is a rising trend in professional office management. Depending on the implementation, office hoteling has provided Coworking and shared workspaces with greater mobility, productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. It also affords members the ability to create teams more easily, within proximity.
What is office hoteling?
In short, office hoteling is the elimination of assigned seating in a workspace which allows members to reserve office space for whatever suits the type of work they need to do, on a daily basis. This works well, given the increased dependency on remote working.
Office hoteling affords workspaces with greater demand, better networking, and a more accessible telecommuting experience. Here is why we recommend it as a practice for your Coworking or shared space.
Office Hoteling Generates Demand
Think about the concept that airline companies don’t expect to fill every seat on every flight. Car rental companies don’t expect every car to be taken off the lot. Workspace operators, however, see empty desks as waste rather than a fluctuation in demand. Office hoteling allows for operators to give the consistent image of having a professionally run operation with spaces constantly in demand.
Furthermore, instead of offering a permanent desk to a member who spends a significant amount of time working from home, hoteling allows for operators to reduce the square footage needed to support their workforce. This can allow for a reconfiguration of the workflow as well as open spaces for on-site employees to use for collaboration.
Reduced square footage can also equate to less spending on rent and utilities, eventually leading to more capital leftover. By using a sophisticated workspace management software, you can also observe and accurately measure the usage of your workspace by the exact square footage.
Better Networking
By allowing members to work from various locations, it enables for freedom to collaborate with other members naturally. This concept is further enhanced when you’ve got multiple workspaces involved.
We know Coworking spaces incubate creativity. Having the flexibility that allows for workers to go from assigned space to open space freely can bring people together and give them the space they need to work through a seamless process. By removing the structure of a traditional office, your members are afforded the choice to take a different approach daily.
You can also virtually eliminate the need for an assigned desk by affording members the benefits of a smart office experience. These benefits include cloud document storage as well as communication and messaging services designated to keep a member in the loop regardless of their location.
Improved Morale
Empty space can also be used to disengage and take breaks. If your Coworking space lacks social and recreational space, you can use times of little office reservation to plan a big event or organize a special occasion for all members to unwind. We’ve talked about some of the best ideas for hosting events and ideas for member engagement.
Another reason why hoteling improves morale is that it creates an opportunity for members to have their say in how an open space can be laid out, with teams and individuals providing input on how to make space run best.
Engaged employees build loyalty to your workspace with the belief they are working toward a collective benefit. This increases productivity, collaboration, as well as interdepartmental cooperation.
Some corporations are also turning to hoteling as a means to reduce a power struggle. Nobody would have a guaranteed ideal office or be assigned a desk with a view. Instead, these corporate spaces, used by big institutions such as Citrix, allow employees to reserve spaces on a first come first serve basis. If that just so happens to be the corner office, so be it.
Plan for Peak Days
Be careful with hoteling on peak demand days in your space. Make sure that the flexible areas can be delegated for office space when you’re reaching capacity.
Someone in your staff should also be able to serve as a ‘keeper’ of sorts. They’ll make sure the spaces are being used for their intended purpose and when peak times occur, they can maintain order, especially when there is a large number of desks.
There are more benefits for both members and operators afforded by office hoteling. We recommend this practice as it’s proven to increase office productivity, networking, as well as morale.
How Office Hoteling Helps with Employee Reentry During the COVID Era
Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, embracing office hoteling can be the best solution to a safe and efficient workspace for your members. However, for this to work it is essential to have a centralized booking and management platform. With a centralized coworking platform not only can you manage and assign workspaces to ensure social distancing, but you can better plan the available spaces for optimal space utilization. You will have access to each member’s entry and exit times and the common work areas used, so you can better plan your workspace.
To further implement the best practices of desk hoteling given the COVID-19 situation, make sure to organize the space in a way in which desks are numbered and easy to find having only the seat number from the reservation. Also, providing your members with easy access to amenities and the facility, health surveys and contact tracing will allow you to provide them with top user experience and satisfaction, as well as monitoring the safety and health in the workspace.
For more information on how the Yardi Kube platform can transform the experience of working in a shared or flexible space environment, please click here.