Workplace booking glossary
Plain definitions of the terms you'll meet when you set up shared parking, hot desks and
meeting-room booking.
A
- Activity-Based Working
- A workplace strategy where employees choose from a variety of work settings based on the task at hand, rather than sitting at one assigned desk all day.
B
- Booking Automation
- Rules and workflows that automatically handle booking tasks like recurring reservations, no-show releases, waitlist promotions, and notifications.
- Booking Conflict
- A situation where two or more people attempt to reserve the same resource for overlapping time periods, requiring detection and resolution.
- Booking Lead Time
- The amount of time between when a booking is made and when the reserved resource is actually used, often controlled by policy.
- Booking Policy
- A set of configurable rules that govern how resources can be reserved, including lead times, maximum durations, cancellation windows, and access restrictions.
C
- Capacity Planning
- The process of determining how much office space, how many desks, rooms, and parking spots an organisation needs based on actual usage data and growth forecasts.
- Check-In Verification
- A process requiring people to confirm their physical presence at a booked resource, typically within a set time window, or the booking is automatically released.
- Clean Desk Policy
- A workplace rule requiring employees to clear all personal items from their desk at the end of each day, enabling desk sharing and maintaining security.
D
- Desk Booking Software
- A digital tool that allows employees to reserve workspaces in advance, see real-time availability, and manage flexible seating arrangements.
- Desk Hoteling
- A desk booking system where employees reserve a specific desk in advance, rather than choosing one on arrival like hot desking.
- Desk-to-Employee Ratio
- The proportion of available desks to total employees, used to determine how many shared workstations are needed in a flexible office.
F
- Flex Space
- Office areas designed to be reconfigured for multiple purposes, such as meetings, collaboration, quiet work, or events, depending on current needs.
- Floor Plan Mapping
- A visual representation of an office layout within booking software, allowing employees to see and select resources on an interactive map.
G
- Ghost Meeting
- A meeting room booking where nobody shows up, leaving the room occupied on the calendar but physically empty and unavailable to others.
H
- Hot Desking
- The practice of not assigning permanent desks to employees, allowing anyone to use any available desk on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Hybrid Work Schedule
- A work arrangement where employees split their time between remote work and in-office work on a regular, planned basis.
M
- Multi-Tenant Booking
- A booking system architecture where multiple organisations share the same software platform while keeping their data, users, and settings completely separate.
N
- Neighbourhood Zoning
- A workspace layout strategy that assigns teams or groups to designated zones within a flexible office, combining team proximity with hot desking.
- No-Show Rate
- The percentage of bookings where the person who reserved a resource does not show up or check in, wasting the reserved capacity.
O
- Occupancy Sensor
- A hardware device that detects whether a workspace is physically occupied, using infrared, motion, or other technology to provide real-time presence data.
P
- Parking Management System
- Software that manages the allocation, booking, and tracking of parking spaces in an office or commercial building.
R
- Resource Conflict Detection
- The automated process of checking whether a requested booking overlaps with existing reservations and preventing double bookings in real time.
- Return to Office
- An organisational initiative to bring employees back to physical office spaces after a period of remote work, often involving new hybrid policies.
- Room Scheduling
- The process of reserving meeting rooms, conference spaces, or other shared rooms through a booking system to prevent conflicts and maximise usage.
S
- Shared Resource Booking
- A system for reserving any resource that is shared among multiple people, including desks, rooms, equipment, vehicles, and parking spaces.
- Space Utilization Rate
- The percentage of available workspace being actively used, calculated as occupied hours divided by total available hours.
V
- Visitor Management
- The process of tracking, registering, and managing guests who visit a workplace, including pre-registration, check-in, and resource allocation.
W
- Workplace Density
- The number of employees per unit of office space, typically measured in square feet or square metres per person, used to assess crowding and comfort.
- Workplace Experience Platform
- An integrated software suite that combines desk booking, room scheduling, visitor management, and other workplace tools into a single employee-facing app.
- Workspace Analytics
- Data and reporting on how office spaces are used, including occupancy trends, peak times, underused areas, and booking patterns.