It’s pretty clear that in our post-pandemic world, the way we work has changed forever and the office has to adapt. It needs to become more agile, dynamic, and flexible in order to make collaboration easy and accommodate different needs.
That’s where desk hoteling comes in. In fact, it might be the key to building a successful hybrid workplace. Furthermore, it is a great option for companies with more employees than desks.
A good place to start the transition to hybrid work is implementing some form of desk sharing — hot desking (reservation-less seating) or hoteling (reserving a desk in advance). Hoteling is typically a better alternative for employees. In this article, we’ll explore exactly what hoteling entails and why it’s the foundation of modern workspaces.
Before we begin, note that the terms “hoteling”, “desk hoteling”, and “office hoteling” are synonyms and are used interchangeably throughout the article.
What is Desk Hoteling?
With hoteling, employees reserve a desk (typically via desk hoteling software) for temporary use during the days they expect to work in the office, instead of having permanently assigned desks or cubicles.
The benefits of desk hoteling over a more traditional, one-desk-per-employee scenario include saving costs on commercial real estate, as well as creating opportunities for staff to mingle and collaborate more.
Desk hoteling allows employees to reserve the desk they want to use for the day in advance. That’s very important, as it gives your employees the true flexibility they need without the stress of not knowing where they will sit on that day (which is a problem with hot desking). Furthermore, it allows team members to build their schedules together in advance by booking the desks in the neighborhoods they want as well as tracking desk availability in real-time.
Why Should You Consider Desk Hoteling?
A flexible work policy integrated with a proper desk hoteling booking system can significantly increase the ratio of employees to desks. This can reduce your real estate footprint while promoting a more collaborative working environment.
More specifically, here are the benefits of office hoteling:
1. Improved space utilization
Desk hoteling allows companies to allocate office space efficiently. This translates into improved occupancy, a greater variety of spaces dedicated to different purposes (e.g., office neighborhoods), as well as reduced desk vacancy.
2. Reduced costs
Similar to hot desking, desk hoteling leads to improved space utilization, which reduces real estate costs (usually one of the biggest overhead costs).
3. Greater control and no uncertainty for employees
This is the biggest advantage the hoteling model has over the other flexible desk arrangement — hot desking. Having access to desk booking software and being able to reserve spaces in advance gives employees control over where to position themselves according to their needs and preferences. This is particularly valid if you have designated spaces for different purposes. For example, people can opt to work in a silent area or book several adjacent desks when more collaboration and teamwork are required. Put simply, hoteling provides a much better employee experience in a flexible work environment.
4. Increased employee satisfaction and collaboration
Unlike hot desking which may feel chaotic or even somewhat alienating (even in an open office), desk hoteling can enhance the experience of community and connection at work – two factors that improve employee satisfaction. This is largely due to the balance offered by working under a hybrid model while at the same time being able to control when and how to use the office.
5. Improved cleanliness and organization
Desk hoteling may be more conducive to maintaining cleanliness at the office than hot desking. This is simply due to the increased accountability that comes with booking a desk and being responsible for it for a certain amount of time. Plus, you can enforce office management rules related to capacity and social distancing by making some areas of unavailable for reservation.
How to Get Started with Hoteling
Your very first step in implementing desk hoteling should be a small research project. Start by collecting as much data as you possibly can on how your employees work. Then gradually build a plan for the number of desks, teams involved, layout, conference rooms, meeting rooms, and office neighborhoods.
Don’t try to solve all problems at the start. With desk hoteling, your office will become truly agile and so, you may optimize it based on usage data in the future. Over time, your office will evolve and reach a state your employees will love.
When you’re ready to start with desk hoteling, the next challenge is choosing the right technology, i.e. a good reservation system.
Easy to use, visual bookings on an interactive floorplan, available on desktop, or through mobile apps.
Delegated desk bookings – such functionality enables your team leaders and managers to place bookings for their teams
Recurring desk bookings – one of the most important features that will make the lives of your employees a lot easier. With recurring bookings, they can build work patterns, like coming to the office every Tuesday and Thursday.
Private desk bookings – when you need to book a desk or a space with limited visibility.
Desk booking policies – in some cases, you may want to allow employees access to book desks in only certain areas, locations, zones, or neighborhoods.
Easy to use check-in system – you should also measure the true occupancy by requiring employees to check in or fully automating them through integrations.
Desk hoteling analytics – last but not least, you should collect, measure and analyze all data about your desk utilization so that you can adjust your space to the needs of your employees.
When you’re done with setting up your desk reservation system, your employees can easily book desks based on the rules you’ve established. There’s no uncertainty in terms of desk or space availability.
In short, a good desk hoteling system makes reserving workspaces simple for employees and office space management easy for you.
Miro Miroslavov is a software engineer turned into a tech entrepreneur. In 2015 he co-founded OfficeRnD - a leading flex space and hybrid work management platform. As a CEO at OfficeRnD, he grew the company from inception to a leading software vendor that serves thousands of customers worldwide. He is a big fan of flexible working and is on a mission to "Making Flexible Working the Way of Working".
Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you аre ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Key Details
PriceFREE
SettingRemote
Duration2h
Overview
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
2 training modules.
Key Details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Duration6h
Overview
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
4 training modules
Key Details
Price$599
SettingRemote
Duration12h
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Onboarding – Basic onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (24h) and Critical (4h)
Key Details
PriceFREE
Setting Remote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (1 hour / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (16h) and Critical (4h)
Key details
Price$149
SettingRemote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Premium Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (4 hours / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (8h) and Critical (1h)
Key details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Overview
Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
What’s Included:
You get direct access to a lead support specialist.
We will prioritize your support requests.
Together we will discuss strategies for addressing custom use cases.
Together we will discuss your feature requests.
Together we will troubleshoot any issues.
We will show you the latest new features in the system.
Key Details
Price$150/month
SettingRemote
Duration4h/month
Overview
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. We’ll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
Learn How To:
Add a company.
Add a company member.
Add an individual member.
Assign a membership to a member.
Invoice memberships in 3,6 or 12-month periods.
Add a one-off fee to a member’s profile.
Invite a member to the members portal.
Invite multiple members to the members portal.
Change the email of a member.
Pause a membership.
Mark companies and members as former and what that means for their access to the portal.
Manually add day passes.
Add custom properties to a company/member.
Extend the information captured for opportunities.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
Learn How To:
Configure your tax rates and revenue accounts.
Add discounts and apply those to memberships.
Review the billing settings and automate billing operations.
Raise an invoice
Raise multiple invoices with a manual BillRun.
Understand invoice statuses.
Edit an invoice.
Charge invoices.
Record a refund on invoices.
Create an invoice for a period of longer than 1 month.
Review outstanding not-invoiced fees and memberships.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits – hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
Learn How To:
Understand resource rates and how to add one.
Add a meeting room and set its privacy.
Configure booking and cancellation policies.
Add a booking.
Update and cancel a booking.
Add extras as purchasable options available with a meeting room booking.
Manually add booking credits to members.
Invoice bookings.
Review bookings and take advantage of the Bookings Report.
Change the business hours of the space.
Change the visibility of the bookings on the members portal.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
Learn How To:
Use contracts and what they are for.
Create a Membership Agreement, a License Agreement or a Lease Agreement.
Add a contract.
Generate a contract PDF document.
Sign a contract.
Differentiate memberships attached to a contract.
Different stages of a contract and how to terminate it.
Configure and implement a contract approval process.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
Learn How To:
Understand the default resource types and how to track their occupancy and utilization.
Create private offices and desks.
Assign resources to members.
Assign memberships on the floorplan.
Relocate a membership.
Upgrade or downgrade a membership on the floorplan.
Change a meeting room to an office and vice versa.
Replace a dedicated desk with a hotdesk and vice versa.
Create custom resource types.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
Learn How To:
Take a short overview of the members portal and the different type of users and their permissions.
Add posts.
Add events.
Add benefits.
Add How-To Guides.
Find where members can add issues and where you can review them.
Set up integration with Slack and its benefits.
Connect OfficeRnD with Eventbrite using Zapier.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Find the billing charts available on the OfficeRnD Dashboard
Use the Revenue Dashboard
Use the Memberships Dashboard
Use the Projected Revenue Report
Use the Invoiced Revenue Report
Export invoices.
Customize the invoices export.
Use the Memberships Report.
Use the Members Report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Use the Occupancy Dashboards.
Use the Occupancy Report for private offices and dedicated desks.
Use the Occupancy Interval report.
Use the Resource Utilization report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you аre ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Key Details
PriceFREE
SettingRemote
Duration2h
Overview
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
2 training modules.
Key Details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Duration6h
Overview
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
4 training modules
Key Details
Price$599
SettingRemote
Duration12h
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Onboarding – Basic onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (24h) and Critical (4h)
Key Details
PriceFREE
Setting Remote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (1 hour / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (16h) and Critical (4h)
Key details
Price$149
SettingRemote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Premium Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (4 hours / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (8h) and Critical (1h)
Key details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Overview
Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
What’s Included:
You get direct access to a lead support specialist.
We will prioritize your support requests.
Together we will discuss strategies for addressing custom use cases.
Together we will discuss your feature requests.
Together we will troubleshoot any issues.
We will show you the latest new features in the system.
Key Details
Price$150/month
SettingRemote
Duration4h/month
Overview
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. We’ll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
Learn How To:
Add a company.
Add a company member.
Add an individual member.
Assign a membership to a member.
Invoice memberships in 3,6 or 12-month periods.
Add a one-off fee to a member’s profile.
Invite a member to the members portal.
Invite multiple members to the members portal.
Change the email of a member.
Pause a membership.
Mark companies and members as former and what that means for their access to the portal.
Manually add day passes.
Add custom properties to a company/member.
Extend the information captured for opportunities.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
Learn How To:
Configure your tax rates and revenue accounts.
Add discounts and apply those to memberships.
Review the billing settings and automate billing operations.
Raise an invoice
Raise multiple invoices with a manual BillRun.
Understand invoice statuses.
Edit an invoice.
Charge invoices.
Record a refund on invoices.
Create an invoice for a period of longer than 1 month.
Review outstanding not-invoiced fees and memberships.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits – hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
Learn How To:
Understand resource rates and how to add one.
Add a meeting room and set its privacy.
Configure booking and cancellation policies.
Add a booking.
Update and cancel a booking.
Add extras as purchasable options available with a meeting room booking.
Manually add booking credits to members.
Invoice bookings.
Review bookings and take advantage of the Bookings Report.
Change the business hours of the space.
Change the visibility of the bookings on the members portal.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
Learn How To:
Use contracts and what they are for.
Create a Membership Agreement, a License Agreement or a Lease Agreement.
Add a contract.
Generate a contract PDF document.
Sign a contract.
Differentiate memberships attached to a contract.
Different stages of a contract and how to terminate it.
Configure and implement a contract approval process.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
Learn How To:
Understand the default resource types and how to track their occupancy and utilization.
Create private offices and desks.
Assign resources to members.
Assign memberships on the floorplan.
Relocate a membership.
Upgrade or downgrade a membership on the floorplan.
Change a meeting room to an office and vice versa.
Replace a dedicated desk with a hotdesk and vice versa.
Create custom resource types.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
Learn How To:
Take a short overview of the members portal and the different type of users and their permissions.
Add posts.
Add events.
Add benefits.
Add How-To Guides.
Find where members can add issues and where you can review them.
Set up integration with Slack and its benefits.
Connect OfficeRnD with Eventbrite using Zapier.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Find the billing charts available on the OfficeRnD Dashboard
Use the Revenue Dashboard
Use the Memberships Dashboard
Use the Projected Revenue Report
Use the Invoiced Revenue Report
Export invoices.
Customize the invoices export.
Use the Memberships Report.
Use the Members Report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Use the Occupancy Dashboards.
Use the Occupancy Report for private offices and dedicated desks.