How to Avoid Double Bookings and Make Informed Decisions with Resource Scheduling Software

If you book meetings and resources at your office, double bookings might be a frequent and frustrating occurrence. Double bookings occur when two people book the same conference room at the same time. It can be a challenge to keep calendars and systems up-to-date to avoid double bookings.

While no one intends for double bookings to happen, they can lead to lost productivity. Sometimes, it feels like you can do everything right and still find someone else in the conference room you booked at the time of your meeting. Fortunately, there are meeting and resource booking solutions available that can help you streamline meeting booking and prevent booking mistakes.

Meeting room management is important because its effectiveness has a direct impact on your company’s overall performance and bottom line. It affects everything from cost savings to people’s perception of your corporate brand. It’s important to have a room booking system that centralizes the management of all your meeting rooms, syncs everyone’s calendars, and saves you the hassle of double bookings.

The Benefits of Using Resource Scheduling Software

Using resource scheduling software saves you time, and time is money. Employees can determine room availability and instantly avoid double bookings and duplicate requests. The entire room booking process is carried out online from your computer or mobile device, which frees up employees who normally have to spend time manually processing bookings. Use the Workspace App to book meeting rooms or hot desks directly on your mobile device.

With quality resource scheduling software in place, you can ensure that users are able to view and book available meeting rooms, search for and retrieve booking information, and order extra services. A meeting room booking system also allows users to amend bookings as needed. If they cancel their bookings, extra services are also cancelled automatically, so service providers are notified. This means you’ll never overbook services or equipment you don’t need, like catering or audiovisual equipment.

Display Meeting Room Schedules on Digital Signs

An effective way to ensure that meeting schedules are optimally organized is to place digital conference room signs in front of meeting rooms. This shows visitors and employees whether a meeting room is free or occupied and allows them to book a meeting room right on the spot. Digital meeting room signs are fully synchronized with your Microsoft Outlook^® calendar, so your meeting room schedules are always up-to-date. If there’s ever a no-show, the meeting room will be free for others to book, if the original booking is not confirmed on the meeting room sign, so that it doesn’t sit empty for that block of time. Use a RFID card or pin-code for extra access security for the signs.

Make Informed Decisions

A web-based room booking system provides a window into your meeting room management process. Room booking systems generate reports that help you keep track of the following trends, among others:

• Room and resource utilization rates
• Popular meeting rooms
• Equipment distribution
• No-shows
• Peak meeting times

Based on actionable analytics, management is positioned to make more informed decisions regarding real estate utilization. For example, you could determine that you need more of certain amenities, find that you require additional conference rooms, or learn the best way to configure your conference room setup. You might also find that empty meeting rooms are consuming electricity and decide that it would be best to close those conference rooms for a set period of time. In another scenario, you might find that a conference room with the capacity to accommodate 50 people is regularly being used for meetings of 5 people, and this comes at a cost to your business. Reports provide you with the data you need to improve and reconfigure your workspace.

A Better Way to Manage Your Meeting Rooms

Resource Central is simple resource and meeting room management software for Microsoft Outlook^®, Exchange and Microsoft 365 that helps your employees find and schedule the conference rooms they need. Our room booking system provides up-to-date information on meeting room availability, so no guesswork is required and double bookings are avoided. Resource Central can also be integrated with our meeting room digital signage, Digital Sign Service, so you can view current or upcoming meetings right outside of the meeting rooms to avoid any scheduling conflicts. Schedule a free online demo or free trial today!