If you’re offer meeting room rental or hire out similar spaces at your offices or venue, then you’ll want to ensure they are generating the maximum level of returns for the business.
But what are the best ways in which to achieve this, ensuring you achieve the profitable and sustainable occupancy levels that turn your rooms into the cash streams that you desire?
Positive User Experience
There you go, banging on about customer and user experience, again. You’ve got UX on the brain!
Well, yes.
It’s a competitive market and there are lots of places offering lots of rooms. If you’re not offering a positive experience from start to finish then you are seriously diminishing the chances of your rooms getting a look in.
Naturally this should be reflected in a positive experience for those who are attending meetings at the venue. Everything from the room being clean, well-lit, ambient and generally fit for the purpose of the meeting, to well-equipped, hosted by welcoming members of staff and replete with good catering or refreshment offerings.
However, to really get clients on-board and using and paying for your rooms regularly, then you should be extending the positive experience across every interaction.
- Make it easy for your clients to check on availability, to search and book with ease in the way that they want – phone, email, in person or online.
- Keep your customers engaged and informed with email and / or SMS confirmations and a post-meeting thanks for visiting message. Maybe a survey or feedback form to let your customers know their opinions help with the continual improvements
- Provide a personal account for returning customers so that they can view and amend their details and booking history
Versatile Meeting Space
Can your meeting rooms be used for more than one function?
It might be the case that you’ve always pitched your room rental towards business meetings and corporate events. But can they also be utilised, out of hours, perhaps, for more social occasions, opening up a potential new channel of revenue?
Of course, the reverse may also be true of venues that have typically hosted social events and parties. Businesses are more frequently looking for more quirky locations for meetings, to get away from the office environment.
In addition, are there other areas within the building, beyond the meeting room, that offer potential for bookings?
How about the coffee shop, or even the foyer as a venue for receptions, book launches or other informal gatherings?
The Gentle Upsell from Meeting Room Rental
While it can be potentially off-putting for customers if you’re explicitly trying to foist extras upon them, the availability of value-adding additional products and services are certainly an effective means of increasing the revenue stream.
And, indeed, of encouraging repeat bookings.
Making available value adding equipment, from stationery to audio-video or teleconferencing equipment offers convenience to the client, and an extra source of income to you.
Then, of course, the catering options that are available can make a major difference.
Providing a varied, and good quality, range of food, drink and other refreshments is a basic expectation of a good quality meeting room. If you have the facility to make it easy for your customers to arrange all of this when booking, then the more likely it is they will pay for it, and return again for meetings in the future.
Improve Internal Efficiency of Your Meeting Room Bookings
What’s the point in renting meeting rooms out for revenue if the process of managing each booking becomes so laborious and time-consuming that it cancels out the money taken?
Creating a booking process that removes much of the admin involved not only helps the profitability of the booking, it also allows for more time to be freed up.
Time that can be used to provide the level of personal customer care that improves the experience and helps maintain positive relationships.
An Effective Room Booking System
A powerful and effective room booking system should be an essential piece of the jigsaw when it comes to maximising the revenue streams of your meeting room rental.
Simply put, allowing clients to search and book online, will save you time, reduce your costs and improve the customer experience, allowing them to book when they want (24/7) and via multiple channels.
Utilising the space in your business by renting rooms and other facilities out to the public can be a crucial revenue stream for many organisations from schools, universities and colleges to small businesses, corporations or public sector organisations.
Ensuring that the facility you’re renting meets customer expectation in terms of quality, cleanliness and practicality will certainly help you compete with other providers.
However, to go the extra mile and build long-lasting relationships with customers keen to use your facilities, you need to consider the overall service and experience you can provide. This means eliminating admin to free up time to deal with customer issues, and a booking and ordering process that’s hassle free, simple to navigate and available as and when the client requires.
At thinkBooker, we specialise in online booking systems for training courses, classes, activities and events – optimised for efficiency, growth and ongoing client satisfaction.
Browse the site to learn more about course booking systems, sports booking systems, event booking systems and more, or get in touch directly to find out how we can help you.
Have a look through the blogs below for more tips on maximising revenue via your bookings:
