One of the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was that many companies shuttered their office space and moved as many employees as possible to remote work. And as the business subsides and life begins to return to normal, some of those companies are keeping in place those remote work arrangements. Not only does remote work often lead to happier, more productive employees, the money companies save by reducing their office space can be a tremendous boost to the bottom line.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by the American Institute of CPAs found that more than 20 percent of business executives plan to reduce their office space within the next 12 months.
Still, there are times when remote workers need a space that resembles a traditional office. They might need a space to hold a small group meeting, or they might be traveling and have a short-term need for better technology than they can carry in a suitcase or laptop bag. Or they might be in the home stretch of completing a major project and need a space where they won’t be interrupted by the kids.
Helping to accommodate those workers is the rising trend of office hoteling. Although the concept of office hoteling has been around for several decades, the pandemic greatly expanded its use.
Office space on demand
So what is office hoteling? It works much the same as does traditional hoteling. Workers make a reservation for the workspace they need and for the times they need it. A concierge, either human or virtual, checks availability and confirms the reservation. The worker arrives at the office space at their reserved time, checks in, and goes to work.
The actual “office hotel” might be an independent operation that caters to workers from various businesses, or it might be run by a specific company catering to its own staff.
But whether you’re converting unused office space into an office hotel open to the public, or you’re setting one up for your employees to accommodate those who may only come in occasionally, including the right technology in your hoteling office space design is an integral part of success.
When it comes to the space itself, a layout that incorporates an open floor plan with desks for individuals, huddle rooms for small impromptu meetings, and large conference rooms for meeting with clients will likely meet the needs of all sorts of workers. Space, however, is only part of the concern. The key to a successful hoteling workspace is the technology with which it is equipped.
For open spaces, Yamaha Unified Communications offers a line of USB & Bluetooth conference phones that easily connect to a user’s laptop and work well in noisy spaces. For huddle rooms, those conference phones can be supplemented with the ESB-1090 for audio conferencing. And for large conference rooms, there’s the ADECIA Tabletop Microphone & Line Array Speaker Solution. The solution automatically detects all system components and configures them to be optimized for the room environment, accounting for the location of speakers and microphones, reverberation, and echo behavior.
To help tie it all together, there are various software packages specifically designed for managing the hotel workspace.
To learn more, check out this article on forming a new workplace. When you’ve decided on the course of action that works best for your company, reach out to the experts at Yamaha UC to get your office hotel ready for business.