What is on the meeting room booking calendar
- Room header rows
- On the daily sheet, the room name with seat count, and its equipment: screen, video conferencing system, projector, whiteboard, phone. People choose rooms by what is in them.
- Half-hour slots
- 8:00 to 5:30, twenty slots a day. A one-hour meeting takes two cells; write the name in the first and an arrow or "(cont.)" in the second.
- Booking rules
- One line at the top for the house rules: maximum length, how long a booking is held if nobody turns up, how far ahead you can book.
- Attendees and guests
- On the log: the headcount, and whether external visitors are coming, which tells reception to expect them and IT to set up guest Wi-Fi.
- AV, setup and catering
- What has to be ready before the meeting starts. Most meeting-room complaints are about the screen not working or the coffee not arriving, not about double bookings.
A simple room booking system that works
Room booking software is excellent if everyone uses it. In many small and mid-sized offices they don't: guests, contractors and half the team never open the calendar, and the rooms get used by whoever walks in first. A paper or shared-file system gives everyone the same view. Keep the daily sheet at reception or on a shared screen, post the weekly sheet on each room's door, and record anything that needs preparation in the log. The rule that makes it work is that a booking only counts if it's on the sheet.
Which sheet to use
- Daily, five rooms: the master view for whoever manages the rooms. One sheet per day; at a glance you can see that Harbor is free at 2:30 and Lighthouse is blocked for cleaning at 5.
- Weekly, one room: the door sheet. People write their own bookings. Useful for a single shared room, a training room or a quiet room.
- Booking log: for bookings that need something done: external guests, equipment, catering, furniture moved. Facilities and reception work from it.
House rules worth writing down
Most room disputes come from a few habits: block-booking the best room every week "just in case", booking and not turning up, and overrunning into the next meeting. A short set of rules fixes most of them. Limit recurring bookings of the large room to meetings that need its size. Release a booking automatically if nobody arrives within ten minutes. End meetings five minutes before the hour so the next group can set up. Keep the large rooms for groups and the small rooms for calls and one-to-ones. Write the rules at the top of the sheet so they're in front of everyone when they book.
Preparing for visitors
When external guests are coming, the log tells reception their names and arrival time, tells IT to have the screen and guest Wi-Fi working, and tells whoever orders catering how many people to feed. Pair it with the office visitor log for sign-in at reception. After the meeting, the meeting notes template and the action item tracker capture what was agreed.
Editing the files
Rename the room columns, change the hours (start at 7:00 for early teams or run to 7:00 PM) and add rooms in the Word or Excel file. In Excel each slot is a cell: color a booking across its slots to make long meetings obvious, and keep a sheet per day in one workbook. The log totals attendees for the month which is useful when deciding whether the office needs another room. ODT and ODS versions open in LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
Questions
How many rooms does the daily sheet cover?
Five, side by side. For more rooms, use two sheets or add columns in the Word or Excel version.
What hours are on the sheets?
8:00 AM to 5:30 PM in half-hour slots. Change them in Word or Excel if your office opens earlier or later.
Can people book by typing into the PDF?
Yes, every slot is a form field. If several people book on one shared file, keep it on a shared drive and agree who saves it, or use the Excel version.
How do I stop people block-booking the big room?
Write a rule at the top of the sheet (for example, no recurring bookings of the large room without approval, and release after 10 minutes if nobody arrives) and have reception enforce it.
Is it dated?
No. Write the date or week at the top, so the sheets work for any day.
