How to Desk Hotel without Losing Your Mind: Tips for Coworking Space Owners

The way we run shared workspaces is changing every year. Conventional ideas about seating arrangements are being replaced by more flexible models to correlate with remote and hybrid workforce requirements.

Desk hoteling is one of such workspace management trends that allows teams and individual entrepreneurs reserve their workspots in advance and bring some structure in space administration.

In this article we are going to discuss desk hoteling in detail and figure out how to make it work for your space and customers without losing your mind in the process.

 

What Is Desk Hoteling

Desk hoteling is one of the ways to manage flexible work environment at your coworking space. By hoteling desk space you allow customers book a specific workstation for a specific period of time. When a customer hotels a desk, it is not assigned to them. Yet, they can choose a seat and get a kind of control over where they work.

In other words, desk hoteling is a pre-reservation based style of shared workspace management where customers schedule their use of workstations before coming to work. The process is similar to making reservations at a hotel. They use mobile or web app to find and book available desks, then check in upon arrival and check out when time is up.

Desk hoteling provides workspace users with flexibility they are craving for. They choose where they want to sit depending on the tasks they are planning to accomplish and people they are going to collaborate with.

 

Desk Hoteling VS Hot Desking: What Is the Difference

If you still think that desk hoteling is too similar to hot desking, you are right but not 100%. Let’s dot all i’s right now and never mix the terms again.

Desk hoteling is a more formalized approach to hot desking. Comparing the two models, desk hoteling allows coworkers book specific desks for set periods of time. This helps to ensure that each customer has a dedicated workstation, which can be helpful for those who need more confidence and privacy using shared amenities.

Hot desking, on the other hand, is more informal and doesn't involve any pre-order or assigned workspaces. Coworkers simply show up at the hub and find an open desk to work from. This setup can be great for those who are flexible with their working arrangements and don't mind where to sit or who who to share a workspace with.

 

Why Is Desk Hoteling Beneficial for Your Flexible Workspace

Supposing you already offer hot and dedicated desks. Why should you opt for desk hoteling at your workspace? Because desk hoteling is beneficial both for you and your customers. It gives structure to unassigned seating, you can plan space utilization better, while coworkers easily find available workstations and tend to be more satisfied with their personal productivity and your service.

 

1. Desk Hoteling System Helps to Drive New Customers in

By making it easy for remote workers to pop into your space once in a while, mingle with other coworkers and immerse in coworking space culture you encourage them to do so regularly and even consider purchasing continuous memberships. Besides, desk hoteling is a great option for travelers, digital nomads and people on workation.

 

2. A Fair Access to Your Amenities

The desk hoteling system evens the playing field and provides administrators with greater control over workspaces, equipment, or other resources to ensure all members have fair access to them. For example if a coworker has an important print job scheduled for that day they can book their workstation closest to copy room so it is ready when needed.

 

3. Better Experience for Your Customers

Desk hoteling is devoid of the biggest hot desking frustration⁠—first-come, first-served basis, with no pre-booking required.

There are a lot of different types of workplace environments, but to be at their peak productivity, some people need more quiet space while others prefer bustling group settings or an active open office. Desk hoteling is a great way to provide customers with the option to choose.

 

4. Improved Space Utilization

By using a desk hoteling system, you can make the most of your space and serve more people with less resources. For instance, if 100 customers are expected every day but only 50 show up at any given time, there is still room for them because half don't need access until later when it becomes available again.

Besides, with real-time insight into desk utilization, you can potentially reduce the number of individual workplaces and include more common areas or meeting rooms.

 

5. Reduced Overhead Costs

If your coworking space can serve more customers with available resources without expanding the square footage, it can also reduce your rent, energy consumption, and utility costs. By cutting your rent and utility bills, you can free up some capital to invest in the business.

 

6. Easier Cleaning and Sanitizing

Desk hoteling is the key to a clean workspace. Customers only bring what they need for that day and tend to leave their belongings in the lockers which reduces unnecessary items and makes it easier on the cleaning staff.

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How to Implement Desk Hoteling at Your Coworking Space

After studying the main benefits of desk hoteling you probably want to know what it takes to introduce the model at your flexible workspace. To successfully implement desk hoteling, you'll need to update both your policies and technology.

There is a couple of simple steps you can take to make it work. First, create an official policy that outlines what customers expect from your coworking space and how much advance notice is required for booking workstations. It may be a day in advance or booking upon arrival if desks availability is not an issue.

Of course you will need desk hoteling software to manage all those bookings automatically. Read on to learn how it works and how to choose the one you and your customers will be happy about.

 

What Is the Best Desk Hoteling Software Out There

To figure out what desk hoteling software to choose for your flexible workspace, let’s see what it actually does and what features it should include.

Desk hoteling software allows users easily find available workstations within particular coworking centers and book them in advance. This gives workspace customers comfort of knowing that they will have required seating arrangement when they need to accomplish their tasks. Some software and technology solutions even allow to search for colleagues and book workstation not far from them for easy collaboration. Workspace administrators don’t manage the process of desk hoteling manually. Everything happens automatically.

 

Must-Have Desk Hoteling Features

• Simple UI

A perfect desk hoteling system has stupid-simple interface that requires zero training to use. Customers find available seats in seconds and book them via an interactive floor plan or intuitive interface in a few clicks without calling or messaging workspace managers. Managers see all scheduled bookings at a glance. They always know how many people are coming to their space, which desks are sold and which are available without doing anything manually.

• Available on mobile

80% of online bookers are doing research on mobile. Therefore, an awesome desk hoteling system must offer mobile apps for iOS and Android. This is also important for workspace administrators. They won’t have to be at their desks 24/7 to keep things in control. They can overview their bookings on the go.

• Real-time updates

Desk hoteling software should update in real time to show customers and administrators a current picture of available workstations. This will help to avoid all sorts of booking conflicts.

• Integrates with payment systems

A good desk hoteling software allows to easily connect popular payment methods your customers prefer. They just choose the gateway they like (Card, Google Pay, Apple Pay) and make payments online while you don’t spend a second on processing those payments.

• Robust analytics

In order to provide the best service possible, it's important that you know everything about your customers and their needs, which means you want to look for desk hoteing system that provides robust analytics. With this data in tow you can get a pretty accurate idea of peak times when you have the highest percentage of occupied workstations during a typical day or week. This helps you anticipate demand, predict income and reconfigure your space according to the needs of your customers.

As to my best suggestion of desk hoteling software, it is pretty obvious. There is no better option than Spacebring that combines not only all the above feature but a zillion of other solutions that let you manage your workspace on chill and make your customers so happy that they are ready to stay there forever.

Sounds too good to be true? Book your free one-on-one demo with our product expert to make sure that Spacebring is exactly what you need to kick start desk hoteling and address all other administrative hassles at your workspace.