Hoteling is desk sharing with a reservation: nobody owns a desk, and a person books one for the day the way a traveller books a room, which is where the name comes from. The hoteling meaning has drifted to cover most shared-desk arrangements, and hot desking vs hoteling is now mostly a question of whether the desk is reserved in advance or taken on arrival. What matters to the workplace manager is the same in either case: a ratio of desks to people that the attendance supports, a rule for how a desk is booked and released, and a record of who sat where so the busiest day is measured rather than remembered. This guide is hoteling at work from that side, the arithmetic and the record, with the free worksheets on this site working the figures from your own counts.
The hoteling definition, and hot desking vs hoteling
Hoteling is a reserved shared desk: booked ahead, usually through an app, released if unclaimed. Hot desking in its original form is an unreserved shared desk, first come, first seated. Most offices that say hot desking now run hoteling, because a reservation is what makes the busiest day predictable. The record is the same for both: the desk, the person, the day. A hoteling workplace differs from a hot desking one only in whether the booking is made the night before or at the door.
The ratio a hoteling office can run
180 people assigned, 84 in on an average day and 126 on the busiest, against 140 desks: 60% average utilization, 90% at peak, 14 desks spare and a ratio of 7 desks per 10 people that the attendance supports. Hoteling in office space that is configured to a ratio the attendance did not decide produces the Tuesday when the app says the floor is full and the floor is half empty, or the reverse. The space utilization worksheet works the ratio free from your own counts before any app is bought.
The record: reservations become the count
Each reservation is one person on one desk on one day, and filed against the desk the reservations become the attendance count, which is the only evidence for the ratio. A hoteling office that cannot export its reservations as a table by desk and day has the convenience and lost the measurement. HardFM Pro keeps the desks, the bookings and the counts against the building and exports all of them, for $24 a month for the whole team; the reservation interface is the small part.
The rule that goes with hoteling office space
Four decisions written down: which desks are hoteled and which stay assigned, how far ahead a desk can be reserved, when an unclaimed reservation releases, and what a person does on the day the floor is over. Desks kept assigned change the ratio the rest must carry: 120 desks with 20 assigned leaves 100 for 160 people, 6.25 per 10. The return to office policy template works that arithmetic from your headcount, days, desks and clustering, and the paid plan builds the document from the figures.
Questions people ask about hoteling
What is hoteling at work?
Desk sharing with a reservation: nobody owns a desk and each person books one for the day. The ratio of desks to people is set by the attendance, the reservations become the count, and the count is the evidence for the ratio. HardFM works the ratio free and keeps the desks and bookings in the paid plan.
Hot desking vs hoteling: which should an office choose?
Hoteling, in practice, because a reservation makes the busiest day predictable and leaves a record. The arithmetic is identical: peak attendance over headcount, times ten, is the desks per 10 people the floor can run, worked free by the space utilization worksheet.
How many desks does a hoteling office need?
Enough for the busiest day plus the desks kept assigned. On the worked example, 126 at peak from 180 people is 7 desks per 10; keep 20 assigned and the 100 shared desks carry the remaining 160 at 6.25 per 10.