What is Office Hoteling & How Can it Benefit the Workplace?
- Blog
- January 4, 2024
Office hoteling has been adopted by workplaces for years, but the pandemic has further strengthened the importance. Office hoteling involves reserving workspace and resources in advance. Office hoteling provides structure for unassigned seating, simplifying space availability for employees and planning for leaders. In this article, let’s explore the importance of office hoteling in workplaces.
What is Office Hoteling?
Office hoteling involves employees scheduling their use of workspaces before arriving at the office. Hoteling office space eliminates the uncertainty of not having a dedicated work desk or having to adhere to the first come, first serve rule when you arrive at the office. Instead, you’ll have a designated space to work in throughout the day.
Advantages of Office Hoteling
Office hoteling allows for a flexible workspace tailored to employees and visitors. Office hoteling can bring significant benefits to your organization, individuals, and work environment.
- Cost Savings
The main advantage of office hoteling is the potential for huge savings on real estate costs. The ability of employees to work from anywhere and not be tied to a specific workspace allows companies to expand their workforce without the need for more office space.
- Increased Productivity
Another benefit of hoteling your office is that it creates a more collaborative atmosphere. Many offices allocate conference rooms and workstations as they see fit rather than when teams need them. This leaves less space for productivity. If a team wants to collaborate and brainstorm ideas for a new campaign or product launch, they can easily locate and use these rooms, resulting in increased productivity with a hoteling office approach.
- Optimizes Office Space Management
There’s no need to set up a permanent desk for an employee who spends most of their time at home or commuting. Hoteling eliminates unnecessary workspaces and allows the company to reduce the amount of office space needed to accommodate its employees. A company can redesign its office space to better accommodate every on-site employee. It can do this while meeting the demands of employees with hybrid work schedules, who sometimes need to be in the office.
- Encourages teamwork and collaboration
When office space and resources are accessible to all employees, collaboration among coworkers increases. Over time, it promotes the natural development of a team mentality. Employees can reach their maximum productivity level by utilizing different workstations. People have different preferences when it comes to their work environment—some prefer a quiet and independent space, while others thrive in a group setting or the bustling energy of an open office. Depending on the task, employees may prefer to switch between the two options. Office hoteling allows companies to provide workers with choices.
- Improves employee experience
Office hoteling is ideal for employees who are already working from home most of the time. It encourages them to visit the office from time to time. It brings them into the office where they can interact face-to-face with colleagues and management, and fully experience the culture of their organization.
- Confirm employee workspace
One of the biggest benefits of office hoteling is that your workstation is ready for you when you arrive. When you reserve your seat ahead of time, you won’t have to waste time searching for a place to work. Reserving your seats in advance ensures a great view or a spot with colleagues to start your workday right.
- Flexible working
Incorporating hoteling office space is one aspect of the hybrid working strategy. Workplace flexibility provides numerous advantages. Employees have the freedom to decide when they want to work. In addition, flexible office space allows organizations to customize their workspaces to meet the needs of their employees.
- Fair access to resources
It’s common to encounter a coworker who constantly requires more of our time, whose work holds greater significance, whose deadlines are more urgent, and who gathers shared office equipment and supplies. The office hoteling system ensures equal access to workspaces, equipment, and resources, giving management more control. For instance, if someone has a large print job, they can reserve the workstation by the copy room.
- Prioritizing safety and well-being
Office hoteling allows you to assign desks according to your office’s space and social distancing policies, creating a safe work environment for your staff. The daily usage log helps your janitorial staff to sanitize desks between users, improving your staff’s health and safety.
How to implement office hoteling
To implement office hoteling effectively, updating policies and technology is essential. The initial requirement is to create a policy that clearly defines expectations, including who needs to be in the office and when, based on their work. If your office capacity needs to be reduced or there aren’t enough workspaces for everyone daily, employees may have to reserve a desk at least a day in advance. In case availability is not a problem, employees have the option to book a desk when they arrive. Office hoteling software is crucial to manage these reservations.
How to choose the best office hoteling software
For office hoteling, the best solutions are those that are mobile and employee friendly. It is important that they seamlessly integrate with your workplace’s current systems, including space management software. This guarantees that you have the most current information while planning your forecasts. Integrating software with occupancy sensors enables employees to view live workspace availability and eliminate unused reservations. When sensors fail to detect activity, workspaces can once again be utilized. Find an office hoteling system with comprehensive analytics to track trends like peak workstation occupancy. It helps you predict demand and adapt your office space to meet the needs of your workforce.
VLogicFM Office Hoteling is the best solution to efficiently manage workspaces. VLogicFM helps avoid multiple bookings of the same resource by automatically syncing bookings in real time. Since the solution is location-based, users can see the location of their assigned space on a floorplan of the facility. Additionally, by clicking on the desk/room, users can view a photo of the space and see a list of available resources. Users have the option to filter room searches by amenities. With VLogicFM Office Hoteling or hot desking software managers can efficiently solve the various challenges of hybrid working and significantly reduce real estate costs.
For more information on VlogicFM or other VLogic Systems solutions, please click here or write us at info@vlogicsystems.com.
