meeting-hub

Meeting Hub: Simple & Sophisticated Space Booking Software

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:35:19 GMT

In today's fast-paced world, efficient scheduling and booking systems have become an integral part of businesses across the globe. With the rise of remote work, and a need for seamless coordination, companies are constantly searching for user-friendly, cloud-based solutions that can streamline their operations. One such solution is Meeting Hub, a simple and sophisticated booking system with the added benefit of being Australian-based and owned.

A Homegrown Solution

Meeting Hub is proudly Australian-based and owned, which sets it apart in a world dominated by multinational corporations. This local connection offers several advantages to businesses, both in Australia and beyond. By supporting a homegrown solution, you contribute to the growth of the Australian tech industry, fostering innovation and job creation in your own backyard. Additionally, it means that Meeting Hub is attuned to the unique needs and challenges faced by businesses in Australia, providing tailored solutions that suit local requirements.

Simplicity at Its Core

Meeting Hub prides itself on its simplicity. The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, ensuring that even those without extensive technical expertise can quickly adapt to the system. Whether you are a small startup or a large corporation, simplicity is key to reducing the learning curve and getting your team up and running with minimal training.

With Meeting Hub, you can effortlessly manage bookings for any space, whether it's meeting rooms, conference spaces, or a scout or community hall. The platform's straightforward design allows you to create, modify, and cancel bookings with just a few clicks. Say goodbye to the hassle of double-bookings and scheduling conflicts; Meeting Hub ensures that your booking process is smooth and efficient.

Sophistication for Efficiency

While Meeting Hub is simple to use, it doesn't compromise on sophistication. Behind the scenes, the platform boasts a range of advanced features that optimize your booking processes. These include:

Customization: Brand Meeting Hub with your logo and colour scheme. Customize booking rules, pricing, and availability to suit your needs.
Integration: Integrate Meeting Hub with Google calendar system, the Stripe payment gateway, and other business tools to create a cohesive workflow.
Analytics: Gain insights into booking trends, and resource utilization, through robust analytics. Use this data to make informed decisions and improve your operations.
Automated Reminders: Reduce no-shows and late arrivals with automated email for both staff and customers.

Secure and Reliable

Meeting Hub places a strong emphasis on security and reliability. Your data is stored in secure, Australian-based data centers, ensuring compliance with local regulations. Regular backups and redundancy measures guarantee uninterrupted service, even in the face of unexpected events.

Stellar Customer Support

Meeting Hub prides itself on exceptional customer support. With a dedicated support team, located in Australia, you can expect timely assistance and personalized solutions to any issues or questions that may arise.

In conclusion, Meeting Hub is a stellar example of a cloud-based booking system that combines simplicity and sophistication. Its Australian roots offer a unique advantage, and its commitment to excellence in customer support and data security makes it a trusted choice for businesses of all sizes. Whether you're a local startup or a global corporation, Meeting Hub has the tools to streamline your booking processes and enhance your business operations. Embrace the simplicity and sophistication of Meeting Hub for a brighter future in managing your bookings.

International Coworking Day 2023

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 01:15:39 GMT

What is International Coworking Day?

International Coworking Day is an annual event celebrated on August 9th to recognize the growing trend of coworking around the world. Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. It allows people to work together in a community of like-minded individuals, sharing resources and networking opportunities. This day is celebrated by coworking spaces all over the world, who often hold events and activities to bring their communities together and celebrate the benefits of coworking. It's a great opportunity for people to learn about coworking and experience the benefits of working in a collaborative and supportive environment.

Let's take a deepver dive into how Coworking has evolved, the best way for providers to take bookings and what the emerging trends are for the industry.

How has coworking evolved over the last ten years?

Over the last decade, coworking has undergone a significant transformation. Coworking spaces were once perceived as a niche market, catering only to freelancers and startups. However, today, coworking spaces have become mainstream, and they cater to a diverse clientele, including large corporations and remote teams.

One of the most significant changes in coworking has been the rise of flexible workspaces. Coworking spaces now offer a range of flexible options, including hot-desking, private offices, and meeting rooms. This flexibility has made coworking more accessible to a broader range of professionals, allowing them to work in a way that suits their needs.

Another significant development in the coworking industry has been the incorporation of technology. Coworking spaces now offer advanced tech tools, including high-speed internet, video conferencing, and collaboration software. These tools have helped to facilitate remote work and have made it easier for professionals to work from anywhere.

Coworking spaces have become more than just places to work, they have evolved into communities, providing networking opportunities, events, and workshops, fostering collaboration and creativity. Coworking spaces have become a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, and they continue to shape the future of work.

What is the best way to take bookings for coworking spaces?

If you own a coworking space, it's important to have a streamlined and user-friendly system in place for customers to book your space.

One option is to use a space booking platform specifically designed for coworking spaces, such as Meeting Hub . These platforms offer features like online booking and finance integration. They also often integrate with other tools, like payment processors such as Stripe.

It's important to make the booking process as simple and straightforward as possible. Make sure your customers can easily see availability and pricing information without the need to become a member or register first, and provide clear instructions for accessing your space. With the right tools and systems in place, you can create a seamless booking experience that keeps your customers happy and coming back for more.

What are the top five emerging trends for coworking spaces?

Here are the top five trends that we are seeing emerging for coworking spaces:

Hybrid Spaces: Coworking spaces are no longer just about providing a desk and a chair. They are becoming more versatile, offering a mix of private offices, meeting rooms, and collaborative spaces. Hybrid spaces allow members to choose the environment that best suits their needs.
Wellness: Coworking spaces are recognising the importance of wellness and are incorporating it into their design. From standing desks to yoga classes and healthy snacks, coworking spaces are becoming more health-conscious.
Niche Spaces: While some coworking spaces cater to a wide range of industries, others are focusing on niche markets. Some are geared towards creatives, while others cater to tech startups or social entrepreneurs. Niche spaces allow members to connect with like-minded individuals.
Community Building: Coworking spaces are not just about providing a physical space to work. They are also about building a community. Coworking spaces are organising events, workshops, and social gatherings to bring their members together.
Technology: Coworking spaces are becoming more tech-savvy. They are incorporating the latest technology into their spaces, such as high-speed internet, video conferencing, and smart whiteboards. This allows members to work more efficiently and effectively.

A time to reflect...

International coworking day is a great time to reflect on how your business is performing compared to your competitors. Is your business transitioning to emerging trends to keep up and evolve with providers around you? Most importantly, it's time to be proud of the unique service you offer to all types of businesses, from small one person bands to large corporations spread across the country or globe.

Happy International Coworking Day!

What to look for in space management software

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:41:03 GMT

Start with the basics - security, support and ongoing product improvement

Product security, first-class support, and ongoing product improvements aren’t ‘features’ to be sneezed at. These build the foundations of exceptional space management software.

Product Security

Make sure the solution you choose complies with key local security frameworks. The vendor should be willing to share with you where your data is housed, so you are confident your customer data is protected.

Support

If the software solution you're considering doesn't offer first-class customer support, you should consider if they are the right partner for your business. Support comes in many forms, from knowledge articles to dedicated teams available to answer questions to ensure success for your business.

Ongoing updates

A lack of ongoing product development results in a stagnating solution that may not grow with your business. Ask your solution provider how they manage product development: do they have a roadmap; do they have the ability to take customer feedback and incorporate that in to the product?

You're going to want to sign up for space management software for the long term, so its wise to choose a solution committed to ongoing product development, with knowledge of your business challenges now and in to the future.

Keep it simple, you want to ensure a great customer experience

Provide your customers with a simple and streamlined booking process. Choosing a space management platform that supports an easy and intuitive booking process means your customers will keep coming back for more!

Booking a space such as a desk, meeting room or training room is so much easier when a solution is user friendly and intiutive.

Real-time reporting and analytics

To really understand the utilisation of your spaces, you’ll need access to real-time data to analyse and understand how your spaces are being used.

Choose a booking solution that has robust reporting and analytics, so that you can drive your space-management strategy on actual data metrics, not guesswork.

Integration with your finance system

Make sure the solution you choose enable s you to integrate your booking data with your finance solution. Rekeying financial data is prone to errors, and takes valuable time from your key people. A good space-management solution should allow you to share finance data, so that you can quickly and easily manage the business finance processes.

In conclusion: choose a solution that best fits your organisational needs

The tips above are designed to help you work through what to think about when considering a space management platform, its important to also remember that you need to choose a solution that works best for your unique requirements.

Ask a number of questions as part of the process:

Can the software w'ere considering support the size and future growth of our organisation?
How well has the organisation understood your requirements - could they demonstrate how their solution will solve your unique problems?
How long has the organisation been in business - this may be a long-term relationship you are entering, you need to know that the business can support your ongoing needs.
Is our data going to be safe and secure with this provider?
Will we be well supported throughout the use of this software solution?

The team at Meeting Hub are here to help you with your space booking management. Get in touch today!

5 Benefits of Space Booking Software

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 01:58:59 GMT

1. You have a single point of management for space booking

Implementing a space booking solution will streamline your booking activity into a single solution. Because of this, your clients will know in real-time which spaces are available to book, and your team are able to better plan their activities around bookings.

One of the biggest struggles space booking software solves is eliminating booking errors, such as double bookings and missed cancellations. When space booking is managed manually, using tools like spreadsheets, or in isolated calendars like Outlook or Gmail, the booking process can be prone to these errors, which can cause unnecessary stress and strain on your busy admin teams.

2. Process automation allows for more bookings

One benefits of space booking software, is that you are able to automate the previously time-consuming processes required to effectively manage the booking of your spaces. Whether it’s taking the actual bookings or managing the booking payments, with booking automation, your teams have more availability to provide a better experience for your customers.

With customers able to book for themselves 24/7 you should also see an increase in bookings.

3. Greater Visibility providers greater flexibility

Most space booking software allows you to log in from anywhere at any time, on any device. You can empower your team to take care of your customers, knowing you have the visibility you need as a business owner to look at bookings and booking data wherever and whenever you need.

4. Gather insights and utilisation data

Another great advantage of implementing a space booking system is that you have access to utilisation metrics and analytics based on bookings made within the platform. These insights can be leveraged to drive your space management strategy, so that your workplace uses available space more effectively, and saves costs where possible.

For locations or spaces that are least in demand, you can leverage the platform to initiate marketing campaigns to drive bookings.

Data provides the ability to make informed decisions about your business.

5. Boost Collaboration

Finally, implementing dedicated space booking software in your business will empower your teams to collaborate more easily! With data at their fingertips, your team will know where resources should be, so they can work together to give your customers the best experience possible when they visit your spaces.

Space booking software benefits your team and your customers

To drive this point even further, it’s important to remember that a business is only as good as the team that drives it. When you give your team the systems they need to do their work easily and stress free, they’re free to deliver better outcomes for your business. That makes it a no brainer, a win for the business, a win for its people and a win for customers.

It's time to consider a dedicated space booking application !

Enabling Best Practice in the Flexible Workspace Industry

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 03:07:48 GMT

Enabling best practice within our customers

You may not be aware alongside our Meeting Hub software we also provide consulting services enabling best practice for customers. These services cover the full customer life-cycle from cradle to grave encompassing:

Sales & Marketing;
Finance;
Operations;
Project Management / Project Delivery;
Customer service; and
Technology & Software development;

We provide these services within the flexible workspace industry and beyond. Our team has experience across verticals such as banking & finance, aged care, professional services, NFP’s, technology services, & start-ups. In this series, we will share insights gained over 15 years in our industry, and 30+ years in consulting more generally.

The Cambridge dictionary defines enabling best practice as “A working method or set of working methods that is officially accepted as being the best to use in a particular business or industry, usually described formally and in detail”

Together lets break down the barriers and myths with practical solutions that transgress industries to solve common business problems. We’ll show you by enabling best practice in your business you’ll unlock the full potential within.

Importantly, how to attract more business than your competitors. Reduce your sales cycle and increase conversion rates. Remove revenue leakage whilst onboarding customers more effectively, efficiently (and profitably) and then servicing them.

Best practice principles

As part of the Meeting Hub Operation Resilience series we explore the topic of “Best Practice”. What is it, and how do I get more of it!”

Client’s often ask “I want to implement best practice principles across {Insert customer’s business problem here}. But what does best practice really mean? It’s not like a cake recipe you download from the internet. You can’t just gather your ingredients, set the oven to 180 Deg C and in 45 minutes you’re done. So how do you “achieve it”?

From experience, when someone says they want “best practice” it’s a clear sign that what they really mean is. “I have a problem in my business that I’m not sure how to solve. There has to be a better way of doing this. I need your help to identify the cause of the problem and how to overcome it.”

Sound familiar? The most important thing to remember is you shouldn’t feel like you’re in this on your own. Besides, most business problems are not unique, it’s just that you haven’t experienced this particular problem before. You may see 1, 2 or even a dozen centres and you may have even inherited your business processs.

On the other hand, we see thousands every day around the world so there’s not many problems we haven’t overcome.

How do you enable best practice?

When someone says “I’d like to enable best practice” we’re able to design what is best practice for their business. We do this based on learnings from others because we tailor the end solution to meet their needs.

By working with customers we enable best practice principles that are baked into the solution design from the outset. Not all business problems are solved with technology. In fact, most problems are solved by business process or by engaging the people themselves who perform the tasks daily. Often your people need the ability to work with an independent team to help put the puzzle pieces together.

Want to know more? Get in touch with the Meeting Hub team today to arrange your obligation free Health Check!

Onboarding Checklist

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 02:12:17 GMT

Setting up - A step-by-step Set Up Guide

How can I view the average spend per booking for my spaces

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 06:01:30 GMT

Understanding the average booking spend for your spaces

Understanding the average spend per booking data will enable you to make informed decisions on how to best manage your spaces. For example, a low average spend per booking could be indicative of over discounting for this space, or an indication of giving away too much free (gratis) time. The Average Spend Per Booking report displays, based on selected filters, what the average monetary value is per booking, E.g. you can choose to include or exclude items such as amenities or taxes. Let's take a look at the report in detail:

Report Type filter: Select the report you would like to view, in this case, Average Spend Per Booking
Report Duration: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Space Type: Filter based on your preferred space type (E.g. Center/Facility, Client, Meeting Room and User)
Tax: Include or exclude taxes as required
Amenities: Include or exclude amenities (additional services that can be reserved or paid for at the time of booking, such as catering or audiovisual equipment)
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data in bar graph format.
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.

Tip: Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the segments within each bar for more granular detail.

How to see a Dashboard view of booking data

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 00:49:00 GMT

Access insights about your bookings with Dashboard view

After clicking on My Meeting Hub when logging in to the application, the main landing page is the Dashboard. The Dashboard gives insights into your booking data.

Log Out: Click here to log out at any time. We recommend logging out if you are leaving your desk for security.
Welcome Admin Org: Click here to update your User Profile and change your Password.
Navigation Bar Menu: Clicking this will expand or hide the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen.
Navigation Bar: The navigation bar runs down the left-hand side of the screen. Click on a menu item to drill down into that particular function, in this case, the Dashboard.
Quarterly Performance Dashboard - Bookings by client type: It is possible to set up client types within the Meeting Hub application Organisation settings. This allows organizations to report on information about their own customers, such as the volume of bookings made by each client type.
Quarterly Performance Dashboard - Bookings by Client Type Menu: This menu allows users to view the graphic in full page, export it in different formats, and print the graphic.
Quick Access Tiles: Quick access tiles allow users to quickly view details about your clients, spaces and bookings.
Top 10 customers: This is a dynamic view showing your top 10 customers by booking value and booking volume.
Last 5 Bookings: displays that last 5 bookings in date / time order with the latest booked at the top.

Tip: Hover over the graphics in the Bookings by Client Type to view more granular information about the data.

How to access Meeting Hub's Knowledge Base

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 01:20:40 GMT

Need some support? Our extensive knowledge base articles have got you covered...

The Meeting Hub Knowledge Base has been designed to support Meeting Hub Admin Users in learning all aspects of the application. From the Meeting Hub Website, click the 'Need Support' button in the top right corner, then click on the Knowledge Base Category icons to view all related articles.

From the Admin Panel within Meeting Hub, Users can simply click on the "Need Support" icon from most screens within the application to access the knowledge article about that page. The icon appears in the top right corner of the page.

How can I integrate our room booking billing data

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 23:45:32 GMT

A guide to integrating your billing data from Meeting Hub into your Finance system

Configure Billing

The billing file is an Excel spreadsheet containing billing data that can be uploaded into your accounting system to manage your billing. The file should be saved locally as the file type your accounting system requires, E.g. CSV.

The Meeting Hub Billing File can be imported into most accounting systems. Each billing system is differs slightly and requires specific formats and information. Therefore, the Meeting Hub billing file fields will need to be mapped to your accounting software billing fields to allow upload into the accounting software.

It is important to ensure you liaise with your Accounting Software Vendor to understand what is required to import transactions into the Accounting Software. You may also need to work with your Accounts Team to obtain the required field names and general ledger/account codes to ensure that revenue associated with your bookings is posted against the correct accounts within your P&L. The configuration only needs to be completed once, making future imports simple.

The configuration settings for the billing file are located under My Organization Settings and are explained in more detail on the Billing File Set-up page.

Generate Billing File

Once the initial configuration of the billing file is complete, you can then export the file from Meeting Hub and begin the process of importing into your accounting system. Details on accessing the billing file are located on the Billing File Download and Import page.

Verify Extract

During your first import, you may wish to verify and test the import to ensure that all required information is importing correctly. Once you have verified the import is working successfully, you’ll need to ensure that the date range you have selected for the export from Meeting Hub displays the correct bookings, prior to ticking ‘mark exported for invoice’. More information on this can be found on the Billing File Download and Import page.

Test Import

The test import is only required during the first import, but can be added to your billing process as an additional check, prior to completing the process if required.

Note: the field mapping to your accounting system can sometimes be changed. Should your accounting software change or update fields, you will also need to update the mapping within Meeting Hub. If this step is not completed, your accounting system may produce an error when attempting to upload the billing file. Should this occur, the first thing to check is the required headers for your billing system, and that these still match what has been configured on the My Organization Settings of Meeting Hub.

Run Billing

Once you are happy that the information contained in the billing file is correct, you can then import the file into your accounting system. Speak with your accounts team to check how they manage imports from other systems, as Meeting Hub charges will be imported in the same way. More information on the import can be found on the Billing File Download and Import page.

Reconcile Payments

With the booking charges now imported into your accounting system, please refer to the Reconciling Payments page for more information on how to reconcile Stripe payments.

Bookers - How to register and book a space

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 21:59:41 GMT

Registering and making a booking with us is as easy as 123...

Meeting Hub is a a leading provider of an integrated workspace booking solution that simplifies the booking of desks, meeting rooms, collaborative and community spaces across the globe. We work with Serviced Offices and Coworking Spaces, Local Government, Strata and Commercial Real Estate, Training and Meeting Room Providers, as well as Professional Studios and Spaces.

Are you ready to make a booking with your Provider? Booking has never been easier with access 24/7. Watch the short video tutorial below to learn how you can register and book a space today!

How to Register

To register, simply click on LOGIN/SIGNUP from the URL provided to you and complete all mandatory fields - that is fields marked with an asterisk (*). If your Company has other Users already registered, when you start typing the company name, a list will appear where you can select the company you are associated with. Once you've completed the mandatory form details, click 'Sign Up'.

2. Select your filter criteria and click 'Search'

4. Confirm Booking Details and click 'Next'

5. If you have a Voucher Code enter the Voucher Code now and click 'update'. Then:

Read and accept the Terms and Privacy Policy
Click Confirm

At this point, if the organisation you are booking with takes payment by credit card you will be prompted to either add your payment details or select your 'saved' payment details. If you pay by invoice, an invoice will be sent to you. A booking confirmation will be emailed to you once the booking is confirmed.

How to book a space with Meeting Hub

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 07:22:12 GMT

Booking a space

As an Administrator or Customer Service Representative, the Book a Space menu will navigate straight to the Space Booking page. This can be accessed from the main menu by selecting Manage Bookings > Book a Space.

Use the filter fields to narrow your search criteria and click "Search".

TIP: Bookings can also be managed via the Booking Calendar. The Booking Calendar allows you to view bookings at a glance as well as add new bookings using click and drag.

Click "Book Now" on the space you would like to book.

Next, select your preferred date and times, and any Special Requirements, and click "Next".

If you have customers that pay a 'different' rate to your standard space rates, as an Administrator, you can edit the cost of the booking. To do this, first select the Client and person you are booking on behalf at the bottom of the screen. This is to ensure any Gratis Minutes or Discounts are applied. To apply an updated charge, click on the pencil icon next to the Total amount field and enter the price you want to charge, and then click on the tick to accept the updated charges. Add any Notes about the booking in the Notes field where you selected the Client - these notes will show on the Booking Confirmation and on Calendar View hover. Now, click "Confirm".

Once you've clicked confirm, you can then pay for the booking using the client's default payment method. A booking confirmation will be sent out.

How to view your bookings

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 03:50:58 GMT

How to view a list of all of your organizations bookings

The List Bookings feature allows you to manage your bookings with ease. List Bookings is accessed from the Navigation Menu by clicking Manage Bookings > List Bookings. From the List Bookings view, you can search for and perform actions on existing bookings. The PDF icon in the top right corner allows you to generate a daily Run Sheet, which lists all of your company's bookings, including any notes, amenities, or requirements. The excel icon allows you to generate an excel document of your company's bookings that can then be manipulated to suit your needs, for example creating pivot charts etc.

The Action menu displayed depends on whether your organization screens bookings (before they are confirmed):

Organizations that DO NOT screen bookings before they are confirmed will see the following Actions:

Organisations that do screen bookings will see the following Action menu:

View Booking

Clicking on View Booking will display all details associated with a particular booking. The Action button on the top right of the screen enables you to:

add 'Notes' to the booking
View Confirmation
Reschedule / Extend the booking
add 'Additional Charges'
Refund Charge; or
Cancel the booking

Internal Notes

Selecting Internal Notes allows you to capture or view notes regarding a specific booking. These will be listed on the PDF Run Sheet when you printed. Please note, once you have clicked on Notes, scroll down the screen to the bottom of the page to view / add Notes relating to the selected booking. Notes can be used, for example, if a customer has called in and requested a particular room setup, or requires stationery.

TIP : These notes will not show on any client confirmations. These are internal notes and will only display on your PDF Run Sheet.

Confirm Booking

If your organization screen's bookings (a Pro Feature) your Action Menu will have the Confirm Booking option. Once clicked, the booking will be confirmed and the booker is notified by email.

View Confirmation

When clicked, View Confirmation will generate on a new tab as a downloadable PDF, and is a copy of the confirmation received by the Booker and the Location / Center .

TIP: If a booker requests a copy of their confirmation or Tax Invoice, you can download it here to attach to an email.

Reschedule/Extend

Once a booking has been confirmed, you can make changes if required.

If the booking is the same duration, day and location but simply needs to be moved to a different space, this can be moved simply using the drag and drop feature in calendar view .

However, if the booking requires more specific amendments, you can use the reschedule function to move the booking to a different Location / Center, change the space and amend the start and end times. Once the changes are confirmed, the booker will receive an amended confirmation displaying the new details.

TIP: If a booker wants to cancel their booking and rebook a different date, use the reschedule function to avoid cancellation fees being charged.

Additional Charges

Additional Charges allow you to process an additional charge or charges e.g for catering, after a booking has been made. Customer’s credit card details are securely stored, and Location / Center staff can process these charges on behalf of their customers.

To add Additional Charges, simply enter the “Amount to charge” (exclusive of Tax), then enter the “Reason for charges” and then click “Charge booking”.

TIP: If the payment method was credit card, Meeting Hub will automatically charge the customers credit card and send a corresponding notification. Likewise, if the payment method is invoice, a notification will be sent. In both instances, the billing file is also updated.

Refund Charge

You can refund all or part of a booking cost, as well as any amenities booked. If payment was made via Credit Card: Meeting Hub will automatically calculate the Refund, and process the refund back onto the Customers Credit Card, as well as send them a notification accordingly; If payment method was Invoice: Meeting Hub will create a transaction in the billing file.

To refund a charge, enter the amount to refund (exclusive of tax), add a ‘reason for refund’ and then click ‘refund charge’.

TIP: If you are refunding multiple items, use the “plus” icon to add additional refund lines.

Mark As Paid

Mark as Paid is an optional field to use during your billing process. Most Meeting Hub customers track their payment status within their accounting system. Mark as Paid will only be displayed if the payment method for the client is set to invoice. The setting allows you to track which bookings have been paid, or not yet paid, if you are not uploading billing information into your accounting system from Meeting Hub.

Tip: Mark as Paid should only be selected when completing your billing process. Once clicked the bookings displayed will be marked as paid.

Cancel Booking

Meeting Hub will calculate the correct cancellation fee based on the cancellation terms configured. An option to override the cancellation terms will pop-up, allowing you to alter the amount refunded.

If the customer paid via Credit Card: Meeting Hub will automatically calculate the Refund, and process the refund back onto the Customers Credit Card, send the customer a notification accordingly and update the billing file; If payment method was Invoice: Meeting Hub will create a transaction in the billing file.

Note: Refunds display with the prefix data set in Organization settings under 'Prefix sequence for Refunds'.

How to set up Clients in Meeting Hub

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 03:26:46 GMT

Setting up your clients within Meeting Hub

Companies (Clients) within Meeting Hub are the customers that book and use your spaces. To navigate to Companies (Clients) from the Menu panel select Manage Users / Companies > Companies (Clients).

List Companies (Clients)

On the Companies (Clients) page, the list view displays all your Organisations Companies (Clients) set-up within in Meeting Hub. From this list, you can search for a Company by Client Name. The Action button associated with each client, provides the ability to: View Users associated with the selected Client, Edit Clients or Archive Clients.

Add Client

The quickest way to add new clients is for clients to register themselves at the time of booking. When doing so, the client account and user account are created simultaneously and are associated with each other automatically. To add a Client yourself, simply click the + button at the top of the Companies (Clients) page.

Note: Meeting Hub associates all Users with a corresponding client. Clients are logical groupings and relate to a particular Company (or Customer) of yours.

Edit Client

This Action field allows you to Edit a Client's record.

Lets walk through the Client fields:

Name

This is the client’s company name – when other Users of this company register, they can select this company from the drop-down list on the Registration page to ensure they are associated with this Client. This field is mandatory (indicated by the asterisk).

Unique Client ID

This is a Unique ID associated with your customer and is non-mandatory. When Meeting Hub processes bookings for any of this Client’s Users, the unique ID is stored in the billing data and can be uploaded into external systems, such as a finance system.

Address, website and contact number

This information is optional. Many Meeting Hub clients already hold this information in another system and don't require it to be duplicated within Meeting Hub.

Preferred Payment Method

Here you can set a Client's preferred payment method as Credit Card or Invoice, should it differ from your global organizational setting. The default global payment method for your Organization is set within Organizational Settings and is applied to a Client when a new Client registers. When a Client Payment Method is set, it overrides the global setting.

Send Booking Confirmations Only

This setting allows you to control whether a client receives a "Booking Confirmation" or "Booking Confirmation / Tax Invoice" when a booking is processed for them. If you send your customers an invoice from your finance system and don't want Meeting Hub to send an invoice, place a tick in the box.

Allow Private Room Bookings

This setting allows you to control whether a client should be able to book your Private Rooms. Typically a Private Room is only bookable by your Members and VIP customers. When the box is ticked that particular client will be able to view and book any Space that also has been enabled as a Private Room . Any client that does not have the Allow Private Room Bookings enabled will not be able to view or book a Private Room.

Custom Rates

Meeting Hub enables 3 different rate tables:

Standard rates: These are the rates configured on the Spaces themselves. Often referred to as “External rates”, they are the highest rates payable for a Space;
Internal rates: These are typically used by “Existing” customers e.g Serviced Office, Virtual Office, or Co-working members. These are configured as a Discount Rate % on the Client page. The Discount Rate % set will be discounted off of the Standard Rates.
Custom rates: These are bespoke rates which a particular client has negotiated with you. If a client already receives a Discount Rate % the Additional Discount % is applied after the first Discount Rate.

Note: Discounts in Meeting Hub are cumulative. Discounts apply to the room charge only, and not to any amenities such as Tea & Coffee.

Monthly Gratis Minutes

Meeting Hub can track & enforce “Gratis” or Free time. If you offer time bound free usage to some of your Customers, with Meeting Hub, you can configure how many hours per month the customer should receive. Once the Gratis time allowance has been used, the customer will begin to be charged for all bookings over the Gratis allowance. The allowance will automatically reset at the beginning of each calendar month. Gratis minutes are shared between all Users of a Client. To add Gratis time simply enter the number of 'free' minutes the customer should receive each month on the 'Monthly Gratis Minutes' field.

Used Gratis Minutes Log

The gratis minutes log shows how much of a Client’s Gratis allocation has been used each month. As gratis minutes are non-cumulative the log does not show past months.

Future bookings are taken out of the gratis minute allocation of the month in which the booking is held. This means that if a booking is made in March for August, the minutes will be deducted from the August allocation.

How to set up different User Types (Permissions)

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 00:05:48 GMT

Meeting Hub allows for the configuration of different User Types for your Organization

Meeting Hub Users are the individuals associated with your Organization (your own employees) and the Companies (Clients) that book your Spaces. When a User is created, they are linked to a permission set (User Type), which determines the access level they have to Meeting Hub. Upon creation, Users are automatically assigned as a 'Basic' User (permission type) which can be edited as required. In addition to Basic Users (your Bookers), there are also two other User Types:

Administrator - those that have full access to your Organization settings, including all financial settings
Customer Service Representative: those that can manage bookings bot not make Organization setting changes.

In the YouTube video above you will learn the simplest way to create new Users for your Organization and update their User Type from a Basic User if required. Otherwise, follow the instructions below:

Users can be found on the navigation menu from Manage Users & Companies > Users (People).

List Users

The Users list displays from the Users (People) menu, showing all Users currently set-up within Meeting Hub for your Organization. From this User List, you can search for a User by First Name or Last Name. The Action Button enables you to View User Details, Edit Users and Archive Users.

Add User

The simplest way to add a user is to 'Sign Up' from the Meeting Hub Home Page. First click on Login/Sign Up followed by Sign up. Complete the details on the form. Remember fields that contain an asterisk are mandatory.

When a User signs up (or is signed up) from the Home Page, a Company (Client) is created at the same time. This reduces the steps required to create a User and Company from within the application. Once a Company (Client) has been created, when registering another User for that Company, after entering the first four digits of the company name, a list will present with all companies already set up with those digits so that you can choose which company the user belongs to. The User will then inherit all attributes set up for that Company, such as discounts, gratis minutes and payment method.

Users can also be added from the Users (People) menu option by clicking on the plus button. All fields marked with an asterisk must be completed. The remaining fields are optional.

New Paragraph

How to use Google Calendar with Meeting Hub

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 05:58:38 GMT

Easily view Meeting Hub Space Bookings in your Google Calendar

Meeting Hub Pro package customers can leverage our Google Calendar two-way integration. A technical document outlining how to configure both Meeting Hub and Google Calendar for the integration is available to customers wishing to integrate with Google Calendar. This document is supplied upon request.

Important Information:

Once configured, bookings made from Meeting Hub show in the respective Google Calendar for the same Space
Bookings made in Meeting Hub can be edited:
Booking length can be increased and decreased, and will update in Google Calendar
Bookings can be cancelled and are removed from both calendars
Bookings can be moved to a different space and Google Calendar will be updated accordingly.
Bookings made from Google Calendar that share integration with a Meeting Hub Space will block out the availability of the space within Meeting Hub.

How to use Calendar view within Meeting Hub

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 21:39:52 GMT

Easily manage your bookings with the Booking Calendar

The booking calendar is an interactive calendar view, showing all bookings within a specified day, week, or month based on selected filters (Location, Center & Space).

The calendar allows you to select a timeframe (click on a date within the month) and make a booking bypassing the ‘ book now ’ screens.

Bookings can be dragged into different time slots and into different bookable spaces. If you wish to alter the duration of the booking, change the day or move the booking to a different location please use the reschedule function.

We have also included an 'Export PDF' option to download a PDF of the Bookings Calendar based on your selected filters.

Clicking on a booking from the Booking calendar will open the booking confirmation for that booking and provide detailed information about the booking. Of course, from the booking confirmation you can click on the Action button to make further changes to the booking if required such as Additional Charges.

TIP: By keeping the calendar page open, you can check availability and make bookings for your clients without having to navigate to the book now screens.

When managing bookings from Calendar view, hover over a booking to view the following details:

Booking Reference Number
Booking Confirmation Notes (these are the notes captured by BC Admin or CSR on the Booking confirmation page when selecting the Company and User the booking is associated with).
A list of required Amenities - where no Amenities are selected 'Nil' is displayed
The Company Name that the booking is for
The start and end time of the booking.

How do I log in to Meeting Hub

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:49:42 GMT

Logging in to Meeting Hub for the first time

To login to Meeting Hub, enter your Organizations Meeting Hub URL into the web browser address bar, then click the ‘Log in/ Sign up’ button and if already registered, enter your email and password combination. If you haven't registered before, simply click 'Sign Up'.

Watch the YouTube video below to learn how to easily register as a User:

Screenshots and step by step instructions have also been provided below.

First, you'll need to click the Log In / Sign Up button to get started:

Once you have clicked ‘Sign Up’ (shown in the image above) to create new login details the registration form will need to be completed. Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory fields and must be completed.

Once logged in, clicking the ‘Welcome” button will pop out three options:

My Details: Here you can View and Edit your details as well as view a summary of "Your" bookings and "Company" Bookings
My Meeting Hub: When clicked the Meeting Hub Dashboard with launch, with access to the full Meeting Hub Administrator Menu.

The Administrator Menu allows you to view and manage all of your Organization's settings and bookings. Some Business Admin Users prefer to land on the Admin Menu page when they login. If this is your preference, click the link to watch a short tutorial on how to create an Admin Panel Bookmark (Shortcut) Create an Admin Menu Bookmark (Shortcut)

3. Logout: Clicking on LogOut will end the current session of Meeting Hub.

Note, you should log out each time you leave your computer or at least at the end of each day.

Tip: each menu item within Meeting Hub includes a link to a knowledge base article about that page - look for the Help button at the top of each page.

How do I map billing data

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 00:06:28 GMT

Mapping Meeting Hub fields to your Finance System

Watch the YouTube Video Tutorial above on how to configure account (general ledger) codes, map billing file headers, and finally export the billing file ready for import into your accounting software.

For a smooth import process into your accounting system, we must first undertake a once-off mapping exercise between Meetiing Hub and your accounting system. This involves the following activities:

Mapping Accounts/General Ledger Codes
Mapping Billing File Column Headings
Configure Monthly Billing (if applicable)

Step 1: General Ledger Codes

Most businesses track revenue associated with bookings. This is typically done through the use of General Ledger or Account Codes, which match to service items, E.g. venue, room or space hire. Your organisation may also have different codes for different Space Types E.g. Meeting Room, Training Room or Consultation Room, or different codes for additional services, such as catering or audiovisual hire. In this step, we will map the account codes to the corresponding Meeting Hub field to ensure that when the billing file is exported, each line that corresponds to a charge has the correct Accounts Code associated with it. In doing so, this will ensure that when transactions are exported from Meeting Hub into your Accounting Software, the charges are posted to the correct revenue line item in your P & L.

These can then be mapped under My Organization Settings in the Accounts/Finance section.

Step 2: Mapping Excel Column Headings

To allow the smooth import of billing transactions, it’s necessary to map the fields from Meeting Hub to your Accounting System for the relevant information required to successfully create a Sales Invoice in your accounting system. Please consult your software vendors’ documentation to determine which fields are mandatory (or necessary) to successfully create a sales invoice from an import file. Typically, these are fields such as invoice number, invoice date, description, and financial amounts.

The column names under “MH Columns” are the default Meeting Hub 'Header' names within the Meeting Hub Excel output file. If you wish to replace these column headings based on your finance system fields, add the corresponding header name to the “Organization Columns” fields provided (this will override the Meeting Hub header name). It is best to copy and paste the field names into the Organization Column fields to avoid mistakes that could lead to failure to upload. Once these columns have been mapped and you generate your billing file, all Meeting Hub transactions will be listed within the correct column headings ready to import to your Accounting software.

Step 3: Configure Monthly Billing

If your organization intends to run billing daily, weekly or in an ad-hoc manner, there is no need to configure monthly billing. If however, your organization intends to bill strictly at the end of each month, you should ensure that you have ticked the Monthly Billing Box under Organization Settings and check that the Invoice Numbering sequence field is set. When set, this will allow Meeting Hub to group all bookings associated with each client to be grouped together under a single invoice. Each booking or transaction will appear as an individual line item on the invoice. Once imported into your Finance system, you may then choose to merge these charges along with any other regular scheduled charges you bill your clients E.g. office rental.

How to get started with Meeting Hub

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 05:03:55 GMT

Using the Knowledge Base as a guide to setting up Meeting Hub

The Knowledge Base is designed to walk you through the set up, management and use of Meeting Hub.

This article provides an overview of the quick and easy steps required to set up Meeting Hub for your organization. Click on the hyperlinks for detailed information about each step.

The first step is to go through and add your company details into the My Organization Setting section by clicking on the Welcome button and selecting My Meeting Hub . From the main menu, select Manage Space / Facilities > My Organization Settings . These settings relate to the 'Head Office' of your company. If you only have one location, it is perfectly fine to duplicate the information in both My Organization Settings and Centre settings .

We recommend leaving the Accounts/Finance section until last, as the Configure Billing stage is not required until you are ready to import your bookings into your accounting system.

Add Locations / Centres

Next, you can set up your Locations. Each location has its own settings, such as address, contact details and opening hours. These can be configured in your Location / Centre Settings .

Add Rooms / Spaces / Assets

Each Location or Centre has meeting rooms, boardrooms, day offices, hot desks and other bookable spaces which can be added as a Room / Space / Asset . Here you can add in your pricing, opening hours, minimum booking duration, amenities, and photos.

Add Companies (Clients)

Companies (Clients) are the companies that book your spaces. Each company can be configured with custom discounts, gratis minutes, and the ability to pay via credit card (not available in Meeting Hub Lite) or invoice. A company record can be created by the customer at time of User registration, (which you can then edit if required) or manually by your team.

Add Users (People)

Each User is attached to a Company (Client) record and therefore inherits the settings of the Client, and receives any custom discounts and gratis minutes configured on their Company's account.

Configure Cancellation Terms

Cancellation terms and can be configured within Meeting Hub , and once configured, are automatically applied when a booking is cancelled. Your cancellation terms can include multiple options based on the cancellation notice provided.

Configure Billing and complete Test import

Meeting Hub can import all booking data into your accounting software, allowing you to invoice your internal clients, reconcile payments and report on your revenue. There are a few steps required to correctly configure billing data, and these are all found in the Manage Billing section of the Knowledge Base.

How to create a recurring booking

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 04:38:37 GMT

Creating a daily, weekly or monthly recurring booking for your clients

When toggled on, the Recurring Booking Feature enables Administrator Users to make recurring bookings for their customers.

If your package includes this feature, it is accessed from the Find a Space Landing Page via the Recurring Booking button:

Making a Recurring Booking is simple. Click the Recurring Booking button and follow these steps:

Select the 'From' date (in the left calendar box) and the 'To' date (in the right calendar box). Note: the booking start date must be within the Space's set up rules E.g. if the space is set to 1 day's notice, the recurring booking can only start from tomorrow. The booking end date must be after the booking start date
Select whether the recurring booking is 'Daily', 'Weekly' or 'Monthly'
If required, select the days of the week the recurring booking will take place
Add the Start and End times of the bookings
Select any Additional Services required, expected number of attendees, and include any Special Requirements
After clicking Next, users are directed to the booking confirmation page, which lists each individual booking within the recurring booking series. Review the list for accuracy.
Select the 'Client' whom the booking is for, as well as the User, and click 'Confirm'.
The confirmation email will list all bookings in the series in one email. These bookings can then be managed via the Actions Menu under "List Bookings" as individual bookings or as part of a series. E.g When adding Amenities, Rescheduling, or Cancelling, you will be prompted to change a single booking or all bookings within the series.

If you don't have this feature, and you'd like to know more, contact the team at Meeting Hub today via support@meetinghub.com.au

This feature is available on the following Meeting Hub packages:

Core
Pro
Enterprise

How do I download my room booking billing data

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 00:20:11 GMT

How to generate a billing file for upload into your finance system

Accessing The Billing File

Once logged into Meeting Hub as a BC Admin User Type, you will find the Billing Menu under ‘Manage Bookings’:

Once selected , the billing page will display in list view, showing all booking data within Meeting Hub. Filter the data by date range and/or Location, which allows for centralised or distributed billing processes.

Generating the file

Before you generate the billing file, ensure that field mapping has been completed.

To generate the billing file, complete the steps below:

Enter the start date from which you wish to display bookings
Enter the end date from which you wish to display bookings
Select the Location for which you would like to display bookings. If you wish to List all Locations simply leave this section blank
Click ‘Go’ to display your required search parameters
Click ‘Download’ to export to Excel. The downloaded file can be saved in the format required by your accounting software (E.g. CSV file), this will enable you to upload the file directly to your accounting software once all relevant fields have been mapped.

NOTE: Ticking ‘ mark exported for invoicing’ means these charges have now been exported from Meeting Hub to your accounting software. This will influence the numbering of subsequent transactions (reschedule, cancel, add charge, refund charge or extend booking) associated with this booking.

Importing the File

To import the Meeting Hub Billing File into your finance software, you must have mapped all necessary fields. Field Mapping is completed on the Manage Space / Facilities > My Organization Settings page – scroll to Billing File Columns.

Understanding booking lead times for spaces

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 23:19:04 GMT

Optimise your booking lead times using your booking lead time data

By analysing booking lead time data, you can understand the average lead time of each booking. Typically, extended booking lead times indicate that marketing efforts are realising results.

External bookings are generally made well in advance, compared to internal client bookings. A short booking lead time can be indicative of spontaneous customers choosing to use your spaces last minute. One way to increase booking lead times is to create voucher codes , which are valid for future months offering a discount when used.

The Booking Lead Time report displays, based on selected filters, the average booking lead time in days, hours and minutes. Let's look at the report in more detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, E.g. Booking Lead Time
Report Duration filter: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Space Type filter: Filter based on your preferred space type (E.g. Center or Room)
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data in a bar graph
Excel: The excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data

Tip: Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the segments within each bar to view more granular detail

How to configure your Organization Settings

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 08:10:09 GMT

Setting up your Organization within Meeting Hub

The 'My Organization Settings' Page within Meeting Hub contains the primary configuration settings for your Organization. Watch the short YouTube Video Tutorial to learn how to configure Organization settings. We'll cover how to configure the amenities available for your Organization, the global preferred payment method, head office contact details, as well as how to apply corporate branding. Step by step instructions are also included below:

To navigate to My Organization Settings, click on 'My Meeting Hub' from the welcome button. Using the navigation Menu, select ' Manage Space / Facilities ', then select 'Organizations'

Organization Fields

The team at Meeting Hub add generic data to the mandatory fields for your team to review. Each field (including non-mandatory fields) should be checked and updated as required. It's a good idea to refer to your Smartsheet to ensure each step is completed in your setup process.

Name

The Organization Name field will display on the Meeting Hub homepage, and is typically your Company Name (as your customers know you).

Meeting Hub URL

This is your unique Meeting Hub URL. The website URL cannot be edited. We endeavour to match the URL as closely as possible to your website naming convention.

Address fields

The address fields are mandatory and should be the Organization's head office address. This information will be displayed on the Meeting Hub Home Page.

Date Format

The date format can be configured in either of the following formats: dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy, select the format that your organization requires.

Company Registration Number

The unique number used to identify your company. This field is not mandatory, but some local laws may required this information to be shared.

Default Region

The region field is mandatory. Select the region or area in which your Organization is located. If your region is not displayed in the list, please contact the Meeting Hub support team at support@meetinghub.com.au.

Contact Number

Contact number is a mandatory field and will display on the Meeting Hub home page along with your head office address.

Main Company Website

This field is mandatory. On the navigation menu of Meeting Hub, there is a link titled 'Return to Home Page'. When clicked, this will redirect the visitor to the URL listed. Add the URL for the page where you would like your customers to land once the link is clicked, this is typically your Organization's website.

Social Media

The social media fields (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) are non-mandatory. Social media icons populate on the homepage, allowing visitors to connect to your social channels. The URL for each of these channels can be entered, and if completed, will display on the Meeting Hub home page.

Colour

The Meeting Hub team set the colour scheme of the Meeting Hub application so it 'blends' nicely with your website. If required, this can be changed to one of the other pre-defined colour schemes.

Minimum booking notice period (in days)

By completing this field, you are setting the notice period required in order to make a booking. It prevents last-minute bookings and allows for a minimum notification. However, if you are happy to accept last-minute bookings, do not select a value for this field.

Logo

The Meeting Hub team will have uploaded your organization's logo, if for any reason you require a different logo, you can change this based on your requirements. Ideally, the image should be a jpeg. The Logo will appear on the Meeting Hub homepage, as well as booking confirmations and invoices.

Blackout Periods

A ' Blackout Period ' is a single date or date range where your spaces are not available for bookings. For example, you may close the premises on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. To better understand ' Blackout Periods ' and how to configure them for your organization click the ' Blackout Period ' hyperlink.

Organization Client Types

Setting client types for your organization allows you to run Meeting Hub Reports based on Client Type (where you have multiple client types). The default is Casual/External. To get the most of the Meeting Hub Reporting, you should ensure that each Client set up within your organization is correctly assigned to its Client Type.

Organization Amenities Available

Organization Amenities is the master list of amenities for your Organisation. Select the amenities that are available throughout the bookable spaces within your organization. Bookers are able to filter by amenity when searching for a Space.

TIP: Each bookable space has an Amenities list, which is configured when the space is set up.

Accounts/Finance

This section of Meeting Hub is where we capture your currency, default payment method, bank account details, tax details etc.

Currency

The currency field is mandatory - select the currency for your country - this is the currency displayed for your bookable spaces within Meeting Hub.

If your currency is not currently displaying, please contact Meeting Hub at support@meetinghub.com.au.

Client Default Payment Method

The Client Default Payment Method field is mandatory. By selecting Credit Card as the default payment method, it ensures that new clients are required to pay via credit card at the time of booking. Internal and existing clients can be set to pay on invoice by editing their default payment method from Manage Users & Companies > Companies (Clients) > List. Setting a payment method on the Companies (Clients) page overrides the default payment method on the Organization settings page.

Note: Your organization may have opted not to include payment by credit card in their Meeting Hub Package. If you'd like to discuss how to add credit card payments to your package, contact the team at info@meetinghub.com.au.

Bank Account Details

The Bank Account Details field is an optional field. It is used to indicate to your customers that are invoiced, where they should make EFT payments. Your organization's bank details will display on Tax Invoices sent to your customers at the time of booking a space.

Taxes - Label & Percent

The tax settings allow you to set any local taxes such as GST or VAT. The Label field should contain the tax type, for example, GST or VAT. The Percent field should contact your region's tax percentage, for example, 10 would be 10%.

Should one of your Locations require a different tax setting, this Organization setting can be overridden by applying a tax setting on the Location itself. Navigate to the Location by selecting Manage Space / Facilities > Locations / Centers. From the action button, select Edit and update the tax setting. This overrides the default payment method on a per-client basis.

Financial Year - Start Month

This field is mandatory. Select the month in which your business' financial year commences.

Prefix sequence for bookings

This number sequence is used as part of the unique booking reference for bookings. The number is set by Meeting Hub, however, it can be changed by making contact with the Meeting Hub support team (support@meetinghub.com.au).

Prefix sequence for Refunds

This is part of the unique number sequence used to generate credit notes when cancelling bookings or refunding money. The team at Meeting Hub pre-populate this field for you.

Monthly Billing

If your organization runs billing once a month, this box should be ticked. This will simplify the way Meeting Hub numbers your bookings to ensure that each client will only have one invoice raised with all transactions for the month.

Invoice Numbering

If the monthly billing field has been checked - enter in your preferred invoicing number sequence, for example 123.

Billing File Mapping

Codes can be mapped from Meeting Hub to your finance system. Typically, used to track revenue.

There are 2 code types:

Account Codes – These are typically General Ledger (GL) Codes within your finance system. These codes are tagged to individual line items within the Meeting Hub Billing File. Then, when importing the billing file into your accounting system, charges will allocate against the correct general ledger code. You may need to obtain the codes from your finance team.
Inventory Codes – Like account codes, these inventory codes will also appear in the Meeting Hub Billing File when exported. These are typically optional codes used to track consumable items within your accounting system.

Tax type: Some accounting systems, for example Xero, require transactions to have a default tax type allocated when import ing. For Australian Xero Users, you should enter GST on income, UK Users would enter VAT on income.

Within the Accounts and Finance section, scroll down to the heading Billing File Columns. There are 2 columns:

MH Columns: These are the default Meeting Hub column headings in the billing xls (Excel) file when exported. If you do not add values in the Organization Columns fields, then the Meeting Hub default fields are used.
Organization Columns: These fields should be populated with the corresponding column headings in your Accounting Software (E.g. Xero). We recommend you consult with your accounting software vendor or internal Accounts Team to obtain the column file headings required to successfully import invoice transactions (these need to match exactly and are usually case-sensitive).

Breakdown of billing field fields and their meaning

The following describes each of the fields provided:

Clientname = Client Name for the booking, this is typically the company name

UniqueClientID = Unique ID provided by you, this could be a Customer ID and is unique to that Client and is configured on the Client account

FirstName = First Name for the person the booking is for (this is configured on the User account)

LastName = Last Name for the person the booking is for (this is configured on the User account)

Email = Email address for the person the booking is for (this is configured on the User account)

POAddress = Street number & Street name for the person the booking is for (this is configured on the Client)

POCity = City for the Client

POPostalCode = Post Code or Zip Code for the Client

POCountry = Country for the Client

InvoiceNumber = Uniquely identifiable reference for a particular booking. This will be provided to your accounting system to use to distinguish bookings and charges relating to bookings

Reference = This is a short description related to the booking or transaction

InvoiceDate = This is the date on the Booking Confirmation

DueDate = This is set by default to be 14 days after the date the booking was made (Invoice Date)

InventoryItemCode = This is the code allocated to amenity or additional items e.g Tea & Coffee or Soda / Soft Drinks if you wanted to track these

Description = This is a long string that contains details associated with the bookings including the Center, Date / Time of the booking, and all details

OrderItemQuantity = How many items for a particular line item e.g Tea & Coffee

UnitAmount = What the individual unit charge is per line item

Discount = If any discount was applied and the discount value

AccountCode = GL Code that will be assigned to this line item

TaxType = Tax label for this transaction e.g VAT, GST

Currency = Payment currency for this transaction

Amount = Total amount of the line item

Tax = Total amount of tax if applicable for this line item

TaxPercent = Tax percentage used for this line item

TotalAmount = Net amount + Tax for this line item

PaymentMethod = Invoice or Credit Card

SiteID = Linked to the Center / Location Site ID

Exported = This field is used by the Meeting Hub system when allocating booking ID / Invoice numbers

EventDate = The date that a booking will take place

TransactionDate = The date that a booking was made

How to reconcile Stripe payments taken for room bookings

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 01:39:45 GMT

Understand how to access, navigate and reconcile payments within Stripe

Watch the YouTube Video Tutorial above to learn how to navigate to Payments within Stripe, where you can drill down into payments and refunds.

About Stripe

Stripe manages all credit card payments and remits the funds directly into your nominated bank account. However, if you need to trace a payment or dig down to identify which booking it came from, you can do so by logging into Stripe .

Its important that you understand how to login to Stripe and navigate to where your payment information is stored. This will allow you to troubleshoot any payment queries if needed.

Navigate to Stripe (www.stripe.com) and sign up for account or login to your existing account.

Searching Stripe

From the Menu on the left, select payments:

This will display all the payments (grouped or individual) received from Stripe. Clicking a transaction will take you through to a breakdown of individual charges, including any refunds taken on that day.

Grouped payments

If multiple payments were processed in a day, Stripe will group them together and remit one lump sum at the end of the day.

Depending on your bank, this can take 1-3 business days to be received. However, the payment is guaranteed, as Meeting Hub will not confirm a credit card booking unless Stripe has confirmed the payment was successful.

Refunds

Refunds show on your bank statement as a debit drawn from the account. However, if multiple payments were processed on the same day as a refund, Stripe will group the remittance together, as seen in the below example:

$100 charge

$50 refund

Total remitted $150

Invoice

Every company manages billing differently, and therefore there is no single right way of reconciling invoices. If you would like advice on how other companies manage this process, please ask the Meeting Hub team.

Credit Card Payments via Stripe is available to Core, Pro and Enterprise Account holders.

Understanding your busy times

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:45:42 GMT

Aligning staff to peak booking times

Analysing your peak booking periods will allow you to increase profitability of your business by aligning your staff resources to meet your peak booking periods. If you have multiple locations, you may be surprised to learn that it may be possible to reduce or share head count across locations to meet customer demands. Conversely, when you identify drops in demand, you may wish to offer incentives or run campaigns to promote bookings outside of your peak times, such as Friday afternoons or mid-week. The Meeting Hub reports allow you to identify peak booking trends across the organization or by individual location by time of day or day of week, allowing you to deploy your most valuable asset (your people), to provide your customers with the best experience.

The Busy Day of the Week report displays, based on selected filters, the busiest days of the week for a Location or Space Type. Let's look at the report in more detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report that you wish to view, in this case, Busy Day of the Week
Year filter: Filter based on your preferred year
Month filter: Filter based on your preferred month
Space Type filter: Filter based on your preferred space type (E.g. Location and Meeting Room).
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data in a heat map format. The darker the colour on the heat map the busier the day is.
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.

Tip: Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the segments within each table view additional data.

Similarly, the Busy Time of Day report displays, based on selected filters, the busiest times of the day for a Location or Space Type. Let's look at the report in more detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, in this case, Busy Time of the Day
Year filter: Filter based on your preferred year
Month filter: Filter based on your preferred month
Space Type filter: Filter based on your preferred space type (E.g. Location and Meeting Room).
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data in a heat map format. The darker the colour on the heat map, the busier the time of day
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data

How to configure your Locations

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:07:18 GMT

A guide to setting up your locations

A Meeting Hub Location is the physical building where your bookable spaces reside. The Location may be a single building or may be part of a group of buildings or campus. Your organization may have a single Location, or many Locations. From Locations / Centers you can create, edit, deactivate or archive a Location. Watch the YouTube Video Tutorial above to learn how to configure Locations for your Organization or follow the steps below.

To navigate to Locations / Centers, from the 'Welcome' button, click on 'My Meeting Hub'.

From the Admin Panel, select 'Manage Space / Facilities', then select 'Locations / Centers'

List Locations / Centers

If your organization has multiple locations, they will display here in list view once created. The following actions are available for each center:

View Detail

Viewing the Location Details. displays the information configured relating to the selected Location.

Edit

The Edit action allows changes to the existing configuration for the selected Location. Remember the Organization settings are the master settings for items such as Tax Type - if a particular Location has a different tax type, it should be added at the Location level, which then overrides the organization setting. If the Location has the same tax type as the Organization, it is not necessary to add it at the Location level.

Revenue targets can be set on this page for your Locations. This is optional, but should be completed if you would like to utilize the reporting available to compare revenue targets to actuals.

Deactivate

Should a Center / Location no longer be available, it can be deactivated by selecting 'Deactivate'. Should the Center / Location become available in the future, it can be reactivated when you are ready.

Add Location / Center

Location / Center Name

This is a mandatory field. The name of the Center / Location will be displayed throughout the application and booking process.

Booking confirmation email

This is a mandatory field. Enter the email address where you would like your organization's booking confirmations to be sent, for example, Reception. A copy will automatically be sent to the booker.

Booking confirmation emails (CC)

This is not a mandatory field, but if completed, must differ from the main 'Booking confirmation email'. If you would like the confirmation to be sent to multiple contacts within your organization you can list CC email addresses here, separated by a comma. This is particularly useful if you want to send copies of booking confirmations directly to accounts or to your CRM system.

Contact Details: Email & Contact Number

These are mandatory fields and are used for booking confirmations at the Center / Location.

Open and close time

These are mandatory fields. The Location open and close times influence when your customers will be able to book.

TIP: Business Center Admin users are able to override the open and close time parameters and make bookings on behalf of your customers but Basic users will only be able to see meeting room availability within the open / close time parameters.

Time zone

This is a mandatory field. Please select the correct timezone for the Center / Location, to ensure that bookings are made in the correct timezone.

Site ID

Site ID is not a mandatory field. It is a unique ID for the Center / Location. If you add a Site ID, it will be included in the billing file along with the transactions for that Center / Location.

Date format

The Master Date format is set at the Organization level. Should you wish a Center / Location to have a different date format, it should be set here. If the format is the same as the Organization Setting, there is no need to complete this field.

Taxes

This setting allows you to have a different tax setting for the particular Center / Location to the Organization setting. If the tax setting is the same as the Organization, there is no need to complete this field.

Region

This is a mandatory field and sets the region for the particular Center / Location and influences which locations display when searching to book.

Center / Location Address

The center address is the physical location of the Location and allows the booker to search by city.

Revenue Target

The revenue targets by month for the Center / Location can be set here. The actual target will be populated by actual booking values. You will notice you are able to review previous years when revenue targets were set. Revenue Targets can only be edited for current and future years.

How can we run reports in Meeting Hub

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 01:49:02 GMT

Understand and analyse your organizations booking data with real-time reporting

Meeting Hub provides real-time data to help you understand and analyse your organisations occupancy/utilisation, revenue and key booking trends. The following reports are available to you:

The reporting menu is accessed via the main navigation menu Optimize Sales & Marketing > Reporting

Note: Additional analysis can be performed by extracting the billing file booking data from Meeting Hub and using standard excel features.

How do I market my spaces to existing customers

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 00:58:33 GMT

Extract a list of Companies & people booking with your Organisation

When toggled on, the Direct Marketing Extract feature allows your team to extract the names, companies and email addresses of all meeting room bookers within a selected time frame. This information can be used for marketing campaigns, such as sending EDMs or even imported into your CRM.

Tip: Run the marketing extract showing who booked the same period last year, for example, and send them a voucher code enticing them back.

If you have this feature, it can be found on the Admin Panel under Optimize Sales & Marketing > Direct Marketing Extract. If you don't have this feature and you'd like to upgrade, get in touch with the team today at support@meetinghub.com.au

This feature is available on the following Meeting Hub Packages:

Pro
Enterprise

How can my customers book on weekends

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 07:28:57 GMT

Some Meeting Hub customers allow customers too book on weekends

When toggled on, this feature allows customers to make bookings on weekends.

Note: Users within your Organization that are at Administrator level can make weekend bookings for your customers if needed (without the additional feature). However, if Weekend Bookings should be extended to your customers, you need the Enterprise version of the software.

If you don't have this feature and you'd like to know more, contact the team at Meeting Hub today via support@meetinghub.com.au

This feature is available on the following Meeting Hub Packages:

Enterprise

How to edit email templates in Meeting Hub

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 01:55:17 GMT

Easily add your own wording to Meeting Hub email templates

Meeting Hub Pro package customers are able to edit wording within email templates. The following emails are sent from Meeting Hub, and each email is editable:

User Registration
Booking Confirmation User
Booking Confirmation Center
Booking Reschedule User
Booking Reschedule Center
Booking Additional Charges User
Booking Additional Charges Center
Booking Refund User
Booking Refund Center
Booking Cancellation User
Booking Cancellation Center
Recurring Booking Confirmation User
Recurring Booking Confirmation Center
Recurring Booking Cancellation User
Recurring Booking Cancellation Center

The following video tutorial walks you through how to edit email templates:

How to access email templates

From the Admin Panel, select Manage Space / Facilities > Email Templates. Select the email template to edit by clicking on the Action button, and select Edit Template.

Merge Tags

Merge Tags are pieces of data stored in Meeting Hub that auto populate into the email templates. An example Merge Tag is "User First Name", when selected this tag populates in to the email as "{{userFirstName}}" and when the email is sent will include the first name of the relevant User.

All available Merge Tags are held within the Merge Tags drop down. Once you have selected the relevant merge tag, it is important to check it is placed in the correct part of the email. If not you can simply cut and paste the text, including both curly brackets at either end.

Adding an image to your email

Should you wish to add an image to your email (for example your company logo within the email footer), you can do so by clicking on the image icon shown in the screenshot below:

Edit the email to suit your needs. Remember, you can use the formatting toolbar to add headings, change the colour of text, add numbering or bullets or add a hyperlink (a link to a webpage). For content such as an email sign off including your logo you may wish to copy and paste this into each email template rather than retyping in each email.

It's now also possible to add a single PDF attachment to your email. The PDF cannot be any larger than 2 Mb. To add a PDF attachment, click on the Upload PDF button and select the PDF you'd like to upload.

Saving your email

Once you have edited the email, and you are happy with the content, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save . Once saved, this will be the template used for your organisation going forward.

Once all of your emails have been edited and any PDF attachments uploaded you can now enable Email Templates for your organisation. Until it is enabled, the standard email templates will be utilised. Navigate to Manage Space / Facilities > Organisations , scroll down to Settings and place a tick in the Use Email Template check box. Scroll down the page and click on Save.

How to configure your Spaces

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 07:51:11 GMT

A guide to setting up your spaces

A Meeting Hub Room / Space / Asset is a bookable space within one of your Location / Centers. Your organization may have a single or many bookable spaces across a single or many Locations / Centers. You might have a space with different configurations, e.g. a parent space that can be divided into two child spaces. Spaces can be configured to be hired by the hour, half or full day, and may have additional services, such as a projector or white board associated with them. Watch the YouTube Video Tutorial above to learn how to configure Rooms / Spaces / Assets for your Organization or follow the steps below.

To navigate to Rooms / Spaces / Assets, from the ‘Welcome’ button on the Home page click on ‘ My Meeting Hub ‘. Using the navigation Menu select ‘ Manage Space / Facilities ‘, then select ‘ Rooms / Spaces / Assets ‘

List Spaces

If your organization has multiple bookable spaces, they will display here in list view once set up.

Some organizations prefer to showcase their 'premium rooms' before other rooms on the search results page. This can be achieved by setting a display order from the Rooms / Spaces / Assets List View - Display Order Column. The number 1 represents the first space to be displayed with the largest number being the last space to be displayed. Any Space with a display order of 0 will not have a display order and current logic will apply.

The following actions are available for each Space:

View Detail

Viewing the Space Details displays information relating to the space and its settings. The settings include the space capacity (maximum number of people), the setup time required, and the post-booking time required to reset the space. The rates of the space are also held here.

Edit

Editing a Space allows changes to the configuration of the space.

De-activate

Should a Space no longer be available, it can be deactivated using this option. Should the space become available in the future, it can be reactivated when you are ready. When deactivating a space, if there are future bookings within that space, a pop up will present asking if you are sure you want to proceed. Ideally, future bookings should be cancelled or moved to another space at this point.

When a Space is Deactivated, booking data will still be visible in Meeting Hub Reporting and for billing purposes. However, you will not be able to search or manage historical bookings under the Manage Bookings > List bookings Menu for this Space. If you need to manage a booking in a Space that is deactivated, you will need to Activate the Space first.

Add

TIP: If you have any vacant space, these can be added as a temporary bookable space (note this may affect your licencing costs).

Select Location / Center

Here you should select the Location / Center that the Space is within. If the Space you are adding should be a Private Room (visible and bookable by members or your VIP Customers only) place a tick in the Private Rooms box. A private Room will only be visible to those Clients who also have "Allow Private Room Bookings" ticked on the Client Details page. Those Clients that do not have "Allow Private Room Bookings" enabled will not be able to view / book those spaces.

TIP: The Location / Center must be configured before you can link a Space to it.

Space Name

The space name displays when searching for a space, on the booking page, the confirmation page, and on the billing file. It also displays on the Calendar to show upcoming bookings.

Capacity (seating)

The maximum number of people that the space can hold.

TIP: If multiple setup options are available, you can list these in the Meeting Room Description field.

Floor level

The floor on which the meeting room is located.

Minimum booking hours and minutes

This field sets the minimum booking duration that bookings can be made for.

Maximum booking hours and minutes

This field sets the maximum booking duration that bookings can be made for. Note, by default this is set to 23.59.

TIP: if you do not charge hourly rates for your spaces it is important to add a minimum booking duration of 4 hours (half a day) to ensure that customers are unable to book for less than half a day.

Bookable start and end time

These settings control the times during which your customers can book the space. The settings can be overridden by your organization’s Business Center Admins if required.

TIP: Your Center / Location operating hours determine when bookings can be made. If your Center / Location is configured to close at 5:30pm but your Space is configured to be bookable until 8:00pm customers will not be able to book the space after 5:30pm and the booking will need to be made by a Business Center Admin

Space Description

Here you can enter a description about the Space which displays on the search results page to all users. Please note only the first 150 characters will be displayed, however the User will be able to click ‘Read more’ to read a description that is longer than 150 characters. You can use this field to describe the features and location of the room. If there are any specific requirements for booking this space, you can also list them here.

Space type

Spaces can be categorized based on the type of Space they are E.g. Meeting Room, Recreation, Hot Desk. These Space Types can then be searched by your customers when checking for availability. Organizations that track revenue in their accounting system with different General Ledger Codes based on Space Types will want to configure these General Ledger Codes within the Organization Settings.

Status

Spaces are either ‘Active’ – meaning it displays as a bookable space, or ‘Inactive’ – meaning it does not display as a bookable space. Use the feature to remove spaces that are temporarily unavailable without having to archive the space.

Preparation Time

Preparation time relates to the amount of time required between bookings. By adding a preparation time onto a Space, it creates a buffer between bookings and prevents a booker from making a back-to-back booking.

Additional services

Amenities such as a projector, plasma tv, tea and coffee etc can be loaded onto each meeting room at a per person, per hour, or flat rate. These show as bookable items on the main booking page and can be added as additional charges to an existing booking.

TIP: If an amenity is not showing as an option on your Space, make sure it is selected on Organization Settings .

Rates

Spaces can be configured with hourly, half-day and full-day rates. These rates are the default rates for the Space. If you do not configure an hourly rate, it is important to set a minimum booking duration that matches your rates E.g. if you only have half day and full day rates you should set a minimum booking duration of 4 hours OR customers will not be charged for usage until the event reaches the first setting E.g. Half Day / Full Day.

NOTE: Internal client discounts can be applied to these rates allowing users to receive custom discounted pricing on Space hire. The user must be logged in and associated with a company that has a discount programmed on its Client settings .

Photo

Photos of your spaces are displayed throughout the booking process. Click ‘Upload Image‘, multi-select the photos you wish to upload, and click Open. You can upload up to 5 photos of your space (up to 1MB per photo).

Blackout Periods

Should some of your spaces have a regional holiday that does not apply to the whole organization or be closed for renovation, you can set a blackout period at the Space Level.

To 'Blackout' a date range, enter a Start Date and an End Date. The selected spaces will be unavailable for bookings, inclusive of the entire range. To 'Blackout' a single day, simply enter the Start Date. To 'Add More' 'Blackout' dates or date ranges, click the 'Add More' button. You can add up to 20 'Blackout' Dates. If you wish to remove a 'Blackout' date, click the 'Remove' button next to the date range.

Combine

This feature allows an organization to configure two ‘child’ Spaces and then combine them to create a ‘parent Space’. This is particularly useful when there is a space that features a retractable wall. Meeting Hub uses real-time availability therefore if one of the ‘child spaces’ is booked the ‘parent space’ will NOT display as available. Likewise, if the parent space is booked, neither child space will display as available for bookings.

To combine spaces, first, there must be two spaces configured of the same ‘Space Type’, these are known as ‘child spaces’. Now a parent space must be created (this will be the two child spaces to be combined) of the same ‘Space Type’ as the ‘child space’. Once the parent space has been created the ‘Combine Spaces’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Space’ page should be clicked. Now select the two-child spaces and click ‘Combine Spaces’ again followed by Save.

How to take credit card payments for your meeting rooms online with Stripe

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 11:21:03 GMT

Take payments for your spaces online via Stripe

For Meeting Hub customers with Core, Pro or Enterprise Accounts that wish to take credit card payments for your bookings, the first step in setting up your Stripe Account is to register with Stripe.

Once registered, email Meeting Hub via support@meetinghub.com.au the Stripe keys for your Organization, which can be located by following the steps below:

From the Stripe Menu, click on ‘Developers’ and select ‘API Keys’
Ensure ‘Viewing test data’ is NOT toggled on - we want to add your Live keys.
Copy the Publishable Key – this is done by simply clicking on the long key string (it is then copied to your clipboard and you can immediately paste it into an email to support@meetinghub.com.au)
Click on ‘Reveal Secret Key’ for the Secret Key and then copy it by clicking on the long key string (it will then be copied to your clip board – please send this to support@meetinghub.com.au in separate email for security).
Meeting Hub will advise you once the keys have been added to your Database and you will then be ready to start taking online payments for your Spaces!

For Meeting Hub customers on our Pro and Enterprise Accounts, you also have the ability to split Credit Card payments. This is useful if you have multiple sites / locations, so you can split Stripe payments into different bank accounts to make reconciling payments even easier. If you'd like to know more about how you can split payments for your Locations, get in touch with the team at Meeting Hub via support@meetinghub.com.au .

How to charge per person for your spaces and add ons

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 05:31:17 GMT

Setting up packages to charge per person for your spaces

Packages are designed to use when a space or spaces should be charged per person, INCLUSIVE of space hire, for example, a training room may be charged per-person. You may also offer day passes, where someone could select a single attendee or multiple attendees if they are working out of your space with colleagues. When selecting a package, your booker overrides the space hire rates (hourly, half, and full day) as well the amenities, and will instead be charged the Package Rates. Packages can be loaded to list all inclusions (E.g. Tea and Coffee, Projector), minimum and maximum numbers of attendees, and a price per person. Packages can be linked to a single Space or many Spaces. Multiple packages can be assigned to a space.

To set up or edit a Package Deal select 'Optimize Sales & Marketing', followed by 'Package Deals'.

List Packages

The Packages list view displays all current Packages set for your Organization and their associated Locations and Spaces. The Action button allows the packages to be viewed, edited or deactivated.

Add Package

Lets take a look at the fields required for Package Deals.

Name

This is the package name that will display on a Space once all parameters are completed and saved.

Minimum Attendees

This fields holds the minimum number of attendees required to book this package. If this number is not met, the package will not display as a bookable option. A minimum number of attendees of 1 means that the space needs at least 1 person to book the space and the package price would increase by the cost of the package for each additional attendee. For example, if the package price is $75 with a minimum number of attendees set to 1 on the booking, the member would be charged $75. However, if 10 attendees were selected on the booking, the booker would be charged $750.

Duration/ Fixed Slot

T his field relates to whether the Package is set for a specific start and finish time or simply a duration (number of hours). If a fixed slot is selected, ie 9:00 am – 5:30 pm, the package will only display as a bookable option if the booker selects the exact times. However, if a duration is selected, E.g. 8 hours, the package will display on the Space once the booker selects an 8-hour booking period.

TIP: If you are flexible with the start and finish times for Fixed Slots and would accept 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm and 9:00 – 5:00 pm, it is possible to list the package multiple times to cover different combinations of full-day booking times.

Services

This is a free text field where the inclusions of your package can be listed, as well as any special requirements. These Services will display on the space booking page within the Package details.

Rate per attendee

This field holds the price per person for the package. At the time of booking, the booker will select the number of attendees, the price will then be calculated as the rate per attendee x number of attendees selected.

Select Space to Allocate this Package to

A package can be linked to a single space within a location or many spaces and locations. Simply click on the drop down for Location / Center to select which Locations the Package should be linked to. Then select the relevant Space or Spaces.

How to track and manage free usage of my spaces

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 01:35:35 GMT

You can't manage what you can't measure

Providing gratis or complimentary usage of your spaces to your customers is a way to add value, and building customer loyalty as part of their ongoing contract to use your services. You can't manage what you can't measure, so Meeting Hub provides a report on which clients use Gratis Minutes for their bookings. This allows you to ensure that you are not giving too little or too much. It's also a way to demonstrate the value you are giving away when talking to customers at renewal time for other services.

Let's take a look at the Gratis Usage report in detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, in this case, Gratis Usage
Report Duration: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Select Location: The report can be filtered based on a single Location or all Locations
Tax: Include or exclude taxes
Amenities: Include or exclude amenities (additional services that can be reserved or paid for at the time of booking, such as catering or audiovisual equipment).
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data. Hover over the bubbles to view more granular detail above the Gratis Usage (booking value, gratis hours, booking count)
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.

Tip: Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the circles within each table view additional data

What will my customers experience

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 10:58:31 GMT

The booker's experience

Your customers, aside from making bookings, can update their details (including resetting their password), view their own bookings, and view any of their Company bookings. Once logged in, these details can be viewed by clicking on the 'Welcome' button and selecting 'My Details'.

In the My Details section, your customers can view:

My Details – here information can be updated and additional information can be entered;
My Bookings – here the customer can view their own previous and future bookings, along with any other bookings made by other Users within that Organization. Clicking the “View” button displays details relating to a specific booking, which also includes a map & directions to the Location.

To make Bookings, customers can simply click on 'Find a Space' at the top of the page. A list of your spaces is then presented. Your customers can use the filters to select their preferred date, time and duration to see which spaces are available during their preferred criteria.

How do I search for space availability

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 01:47:31 GMT

Your customers can easily search and find availability of your spaces

The Search Results Page allows a 'Booker' to set filters based on their preferred booking requirements. The filters available are:

Region: if your organization has Locations / Spaces in multiple Regions Bookers can select from a pick list of your available Regions (E.g. Sydney, Melbourne, New York)
Space Type: this filter enables Bookers to select their preferred Space type E.g. Meeting Room, Training Room, Recreation Space
Date: this is the date the booker would like the event to take place
Time (start): this is the preferred start time of the event
Duration: to select the duration of the event
Capacity: an optional filter where there are capacity requirements
Price: an optional filter where there are budgetary requirements
Search: Once the filters have been selected the Search button will then display the results of the selected criteria. Should there be no matching results alternate available options will be displayed
Map: will display Centers and Locations within the selected region
Toggle Button: The map can be toggled on and off as required

How to add a Book Now button to your website

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 10:25:13 GMT

A book now button will reduce your admin overhead

A book now button on your website will allow your customers to book your spaces at the click of a button, directly from your website. This can increase revenue and space utilisation, whilst reducing the admin overhead associated with taking bookings.

If you include a page on your website about your spaces, this is the ideal place for the Book Now button.

There are two options, each with their own URL, that can be entered against your website "Book Now" button.

The options are:

For Organizations with one or two spaces: we recommend you direct your customers directly to their preferred space from your website. In this case, copy the URL from Meeting Hub on the space landing page and add this URL to your Book Now Button.
For Organizations with multiple sites and many spaces: we recommend you direct your customers to the search page where they can specify their filter criteria, such as size of space, type of space, price, date and preferred location. In this case, copy the URL from the “Find a space” landing page

Each website will vary slightly in the way to add a Book Now button, however, the principle is the same and is generally quick and easy to set up. We've included below instructions on how to add a Book Now button in WordPress:

Adding Buttons in WordPress Posts and Pages Using Default Editor

WordPress makes it easy to add buttons with a built-in ‘Button’ block.

It is a new feature introduced in WordPress 5.0.

This method is easier and recommended for most users. It uses the built-in Button block in the new WordPress editor. If you are still using the older classic editor, then you can skip to the next section.

First, you need to create a new post or edit an existing one where you want to add a button.

On your post edit screen, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a New Block and select the Button block under the Layout Elements section.

Next, you should be able to see the button block added to the content editor

Simply click on the ‘Add text…’ area and enter your button text. After that, you need to paste the URL of the page you want to link in the ‘Paste URL or type to search’ field below the button.

Once done, click on the Apply icon.

If you want to display the button in the center, then you can click on the Align Center icon in your block toolbar above.

Next, you can customize your button style, change background color, and change text color from the block settings panel on the right side.

There are three button styles you can choose from: default, outline, and squared. You can try each one by clicking on them and choose the one that looks best.

The Color Settings section includes five color variations for both button background and button text. Not only that, but you can also use a custom color of your choice by clicking on the Custom Color option.

Once you are happy with the button design, you can save your post or publish to see a live preview.

In addition to a Book Now button on your website, you may wish to add the same to your Facebook and Instagram pages. Read our How to add a booking button to your Facebook Page! News article to find out how this can be done.

How to configure Booking Cancellation Rules

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:05:53 GMT

Learn how to configure booking cancellation rules for your organization

Meeting Hub cancellation rules enable you to enforce your booking terms & conditions consistently.

In the YouTube video above you will learn how to configure cancellation rules for your organization, otherwise you can follow the instructions below:

Whenever a booking is cancelled in Meeting Hub, a refund is calculated in real-time, and if the original payment method was credit card, it will also process the refund via Stripe back onto the customer's credit card. Irrespective of payment method, Meeting Hub will create a credit entry in the billing file that can then be imported into your finance system.

Booking Cancellation Rules are configured from the Manage Space / Facilities > Cancellation Rules menu.

Rules are configured simply by entering in:.

The minimum number of days;
The maximum number of days;
The maximum number of attendees; and
The refund percentage

In the screenshot examples above, the rules will work in this way:

If the customer provides 0 and 1 day's notice, the customer will not receive any refund.
If the customer provides between 2 – 4 days' notice, they will receive a 50% refund.
If the customer provides between 5 – 365 days, they will receive a 100% refund.

Please note the following conditions:

minimum and maximum days MUST NOT overlap (unless you have different rules for the number of attendees);
the number of attendees variable is designed to allow you to have different cancellation rules for larger meetings and events;
a s Meeting Hub allows bookings to be made up to a year in advance, it is important to include a cancellation rule that covers the 'Maximum Days' value of 365; and
the refund amount is calculated on the total booking value, inclusive of amenities or any additional charges.

As a system administrator, you can override cancellation rules when cancelling meetings on behalf of customers. If required, we have a Pro Feature, ' Allow Customers to Cancel ' that allows customers to cancel their own bookings, however, they CANNOT override any cancellation rules.

FAQ's

How do my customers know what our terms & conditions are, and where can they be viewe d?
During the Meeting Hub setup process, you can upload a copy of your standard booking terms and conditions . Meeting Hub provides you with a template covering all basic aspects of processing payments via credit card. You can then adapt these to suit your specific requirements. Each time a customer makes a booking, they will be required to confirm they accept these terms & conditions. A link to Terms and Conditions is also included in every booking confirmation sent to customers.
How does a customer know which terms have been applied to a cancellation?
When a booking is cancelled, the corresponding cancellation term is included in the notification, which is then sent to the customer.
When will the refund be processed (if a refund is due)?
Where the preferred payment method is credit card, Meeting Hub will immediately process the refund to the customers credit card via your Stripe Account. Where the preferred payment method is invoice, please consult your organization internal procedures for how these are handled.
Will the customer receive a credit note for the refund?
Yes they will. Meeting Hub will create a credit note entry in the billing file. The next time the billing process is performed, this transaction will be imported into your accounting system and a corresponding credit note will be issued. The customer will also recieve an updated confirmation showing the credit.

NOTE: It is not possible to cancel bookings in the past. Cancellations must occur in advance of the booking start time.

How to make tentative bookings

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 07:00:24 GMT

Review and confirm bookings internally before confirmation

When toggled on, the Screen Bookings Feature enables Administrator Users and Customer Service Representatives to review a booking before it is confirmed to customers.

When a customer makes a booking, they receive a 'Tentative' booking confirmation. An Administrator can then review the bookings from the ' List Bookings ' view.

Once a booking has been reviewed, to confirm the booking select 'Confirm booking' from the Action button on the List Booking page. Once confirmed, your customer will receive a Booking Confirmation, replacing their previous Tentative Confirmation.

Should the booking be cancelled, the customer will receive a Cancellation email.

If you don't have this feature and would like to know more, get in touch with the team at Meeting Hub today via support@meetinghub.com.au

This feature is available on the following Meeting Hub Packages:

Enterprise

Add bookings to Outlook or Gmail Calendars

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 06:02:10 GMT

Enable your customers and internal users to save booking events to their calendar

The Booking integration with Calendar feature, enables your customers and internal users to add booking data to their Outlook, Gmail or Calendar of choice in .ics format.

Once a booking is made, your customers can download and add the event to their calendar from the confirmation page.

Once the link is clicked, a calendar event pop up will launch for customers or internal teams to save.

The same link will also appear within the booking confirmation email.

If you don't have this feature in your Meeting Hub Package, and you'd like to know more, contact the team at Meeting Hub today via support@meetinghub.com.au

The Booking Calendar integration is available on the following Meeting Hub Packages:

Core
Pro
Enterprise

How do I create a discount code for my spaces

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 05:56:51 GMT

Utilising Discount Vouchers to promote your spaces

Meeting Hub “Vouchers” enable discounts by way of a Voucher Code. Vouchers can be used in marketing campaigns to drive revenue & increase bookings.

To set up vouchers for your organization, from the main menu, select 'Optimize Sales & Marketing' and select 'Vouchers'. To create a voucher, click on the + button in the top right-hand side of the screen.

Voucher code fields

Code

This is the code that your customers will add on the booking confirmation screen, it's unique to the voucher. Keep the naming convention simple and meaningful e.g: Jan 2021 15% Off.

Number of Uses

Adding a Usage value means a voucher can only be used that number of times. For example, if the Usage Number is 1, the voucher can only be used once within the validity period. If the Usage Number is 10, the voucher can be used 10 times within the validity period. If a Usage Number is not added, then the voucher can be used unlimited times.

Discount

This field should contain a dollar value (fixed amount) or % discount.

Discount Type

Select 'Fixed Amount' or 'Percentage' based on the data entered in the Discount field.

Valid From (inc) / Valid To (inc)

These fields are the dates (inclusive) when your voucher will be active. The voucher will automatically expire after the Valid To date. If a voucher is set to 01/06/2021 to 30/06/2021, an event can be booked during this time frame. Should a company try to use a voucher for an event not within the allowed date range, an error will display, 'Code is not valid' and no discount will apply.

Note: Once a voucher has been created, only the 'Valid To' date can be edited. This is to ensure that if the voucher has been used that any historical data is maintained.

Once set up and shared with customers, vouchers can be used by your customers during the booking process by adding the voucher code to the booking and clicking 'Update':

Use the Voucher Useage Report to track your customers use of Vouchers.

How do I add booking terms and conditions

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 00:29:45 GMT

How to link your booking terms and conditions and privacy policy to Meeting Hub

Meeting Hub allows for the upload of your Standard Booking Terms and Conditions, as well as your Privacy Statement. If needed, we can provide you with templates that can be adapted to suit your needs.

Terms and Conditions as well as the Privacy Statement can by uploaded via 'Linked Content'. This is found under the 'Manage Space / Facilities' menu option. The feature enables you to upload your organization's Booking Terms & Conditions, as well as its Privacy Policy.

Booking Terms & Conditions

To upload your organization's terms and conditions, we recommend first pasting your current Terms and Conditions into a Notepad document. Word documents have hidden formatting that 'misbehaves' when pasted into other applications, so copying the text to Notepad strips out any hidden formatting.

From Notepad, copy all text, and then within Meeting Hub Booking Terms & Conditions, click the edit icon and paste in the copied text. The text can then be formatted using the formatting editor on screen.

Customers are prompted to accept your Terms and Conditions each time they book, as well as when they register for a New User account. A link to these Terms and Conditions is also included in every booking confirmation your customers receive.

Tick the 'show on front end' tick box to also provide a link to your Terms and Conditions in Meeting Hub on the footer of each page.

Privacy Policy

You may also wish to upload your organization's Privacy Policy into Meeting Hub. As above, we recommend first pasting your current Policy into a Notepad document. From Notepad, copy all text, and then within the Meeting Hub Privacy Policy menu option, click the edit icon and paste the text.

Tick the 'show on front end' tick box to provide a link to your Privacy Policy in Meeting Hub in the footer of each page. If the box is NOT ticked, bookers will not be able to access your Privacy Policy.

Can my customers cancel their own bookings

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 06:57:40 GMT

Allowing customers to cancel their own bookings

When toggled on, the 'Allow Customers to Cancel' feature enables customers to cancel their own bookings, instead of being managed by an internal administrator.

The feature allows your customers to cancel their bookings within the cancellation rule settings of your organization.

Your customers access Cancel Bookings by following these steps:

Log in to Meeting Hub
Click on the Welcome Button and select My Details
Review Bookings in My Bookings / My Company Bookings
To cancel a booking, click the Cancel button, at which point the user will be prompted to confirm if they are sure they want to cancel the booking.

If you don't have this feature and would like to know more, contact the team at Meeting Hub today via support@meetinghub.com.au

The following packages include the 'Allow Customers to Cancel' feature:

Enterprise

Understand your competitors

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 03:00:13 GMT

Benchmarking your organization against your competitors

As part of your Meeting Hub subscription, if you have the 'Industry Benchmarking' report add-on, this report will be available to you. It is designed to benchmark your organisation's performance against other organizations in your global region using anonymised performance metrics. It will help you to identify underperforming facilities from an Occupancy, Average Booking Value and Average Meeting Duration perspective. Let's look at the report in more detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report to view, in this case, Industry Benchmarking
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays the graphical representation of your organization, benchmarked against other Meeting Hub customers from an Occupancy, Average booking value and Average booking duration perspective.
Occupancy: The blue bar represents your organization's occupancy average YTD. The red line is the Global Region's average. The yellow bar highlights that there is a growth opportunity for a Center within your organization.
Avg booking value ($): The blue bar represents your organization's average booking value YTD. The red line is the Global Region's average. The yellow bar highlights that there is growth opportunity for a Center within your organization.
Avg booking duration (hh:mm): The blue bar represents your organization's average booking duration YTD. The red line is the Global Region's average. The yellow bar highlights that there is growth opportunity for a Center within your organization.
Hovering over a bar graph will display a pop up with granular data about what is displayed in the graph.

How do I guage the financial performance of my booking business

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 03:36:36 GMT

Leveraging your organizational booking data

Typically, businesses have key performance indicators to track financial health and performance. Meeting Hub has you covered, providing you with a real-time quarterly snapshot of the performance of your booking business, across three industry standard benchmarks. These are booking value ($), booking volume, and crucially occupancy / utilisation.

The three indicators are used to identify potential issues within your booking business. A high booking volume with a low booking value and high occupancy may indicate your pricing is too low or there is potentially unauthorised discounting. Whereas, a high booking value with a low booking volume, coupled with low occupancy may be indicative of pricing your spaces outside the tolerance of your local market. Ideally, you should strive for an occupancy / utilisation rate above 85%, on the basis that most of your costs to deliver services are fixed and are incurred irrespective of whether the space is utilised or not.

Lets take a look at the Organizational Booking Data report in more detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report to view, in this case, Organizational Booking Data
Report Duration: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Select Locations: Allows you to look at a single Location or 'all' Locations.
Select Space Name: If you have selected a single Location, you can view all Spaces or drill down to a single Space.
Generate: The generate button when clicked displays a graphical representation of the selected data in bar graph format.
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.
Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the segments within each bar or line for more granular detail.

Understanding your client types

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:14:58 GMT

Segmenting your customers to enable granular reporting

Customers play a significant role in any business. By better understanding the different types of customers, businesses can be more equipped to develop successful management strategies.

Meeting Hub allows you to track revenue and bookings by your client types, E.g. commercial, not for profit, casual, virtual office etc. Client Types are set up within your organization settings.

The Revenue by Client Type report displays your organization's Revenue by Client Type. It will help you better understand your split of revenue by client type, allowing you to focus your energy in the 'right' areas. Let's look at the report in detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report to view, in this case, Revenue by Client Type
Report Duration: Select the duration to run the report, E.g. Month, Year
Select Location: Select the Location (or 'All Locations') for which you would like to view the data
Select Space Name: If you have selected a particular Location, you can also select a Space or all Spaces within the Location
Amenities: Select if you wish to view the data inclusive or exclusive of amenities
Generate: Click Generate to view the graphical representation of the Revenue by Client Type Data. Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the lines within the graph for more granular detail
Excel: Click the Excel icon to download a CSV data file of the selected report

Tip: to set Client Types for your organization, please go to the Knowledge Article regarding Organization Settings

Bookers - How to book a space using a Package Deal

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 04:49:09 GMT

Making a booking with a package deal

Package deals allow bookings to be based on the number of attendees (ideal for training companies). Are you ready to make a booking using a Package Deal with your Provider?

2. Select your filter criteria and click 'Search'

4. Select your Package Deal and update the number of expected attendees as shown in the screenshot

5. Confirm the booking details and click 'Next'

6. If you have a Voucher Code enter the voucher details and click 'update'. Then:

Read the Terms and Privacy Policy and tick that you accept.
Click Confirm.

How can I track revenue against targets

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 07:41:18 GMT

Comparing your actual revenue against your target

Seeing how your efforts stack up against your targets is an important part of business reporting, but how do you get those targets into the same chart as your results? Meeting Hub allows for targets to be set at the Location level. Meeting Hub tracks and reports on year to date results.

The Revenue Target report displays, based on selected filters, how your organization's Revenue is tracking against targets set. Let's look at the report in detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, in this case, Revenue Target
Year: Select the year for which you wish to view the YTD revenue target data
Month: Select the month (or 'All months') within the year that you wish to view the revenue target data
Select Location: Here you can select a single Location (or 'All Locations') for which you would like to view the revenue target data
Tax: Select if you wish to view the data inclusive or exclusive of tax
Amenities: Select if you wish to view the data inclusive or exclusive of amenities.
Generate: Click the 'Generate' button to generate the graphical representation of your data. Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the bar for more granular detail
Excel: Click the Excel icon to download a CSV data file of your selected report.

Tip: Set Revenue Targets for your organization please go the Knowledge Base Article regarding Locations / Centers

Testing - Make and Edit a Room Booking

Mon, 31 May 2021 00:56:32 GMT

All set up! Now its time to put Meeting Hub through its paces...

Once your Meeting Hub application is configured and ready to take bookings before launching it to your customers, it's a good idea to test making and editing a booking. This is quick and easy to do, and will help you better support your customers.

To complete this testing, you will need to run two browser sessions simultaneously, so that you can be logged in as both an Admin User and a Basic User. Most modern web browsers do not allow you to have simultaneous sessions logged in with different users. To overcome this, you should use your browser's native 'private' browsing feature, e.g. in Google Chrome this is called 'Incognito'. You may need to consult your browser's method of opening a private session.

First, log in to your Admin User Account and set payment method to Invoice on the Organisation Settings, that way you won't have to enter credit card details for test bookings.

Now, open an Incognito Session in Google Chrome (or your web browser of choice)

Opening an Incognito Session in Google Chrome:

Click on the three dots in the top right hand corner;
Select 'New incognito window'.

Opening a Private Session in Safari:

Click File;
Select New Private Window.

You will need a different email address to your registered Admin User email address within Meeting Hub. This can be a Gmail address or any other email address that you use. Email addresses MUST be unique per User Type (Admin, CSR, Basic).

How to Register (Basic User)

To learn how to r egister, simply click on the button below to open the knowledge article about how to register as a Booker (Remember this must be a new email address as this should be unique to the User type (Basic, BC Admin, CSR):

Reviewing and editing your booking (Admin User)

To learn how to view, edit, reschedule and cancel bookings, simply click on the button below to open the knowledge article about the Booking List view and Action button. You can search for your booking using the Booking Reference number found on the Booking Confirmation.

IMPORTANT: Now you've completed testing, you can go back to your Organization Settings and reset the Payment Method to Credit Card (assuming that's how you are taking payment).

How to 'blackout' your spaces to prevent taking room bookings on a particular day or days

sara@meetinghub.com.au (Sara Golding) — Tue, 18 May 2021 05:10:04 GMT

How to prevent taking bookings during closed periods

Blackout periods are designed to prevent all spaces within your Organization or a particular space from being booked by your customers. A typical use case may be the Christmas period or during renovations when your premises or spaces are closed. The video above guides you through how to set up Blackout periods for your organization.

Blackout Periods for the entire Organization

Setting a blackout period at the Organization level will mean that 'all spaces' within the organization will not be available for bookings. To set a single date or date range that you wish to 'black out' for bookings, navigate to Manage Space / Facilities > My Organization Settings . Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see 'Blackout Periods'.

To 'Blackout' a date range, enter a Start Date and an End Date. All spaces will be unavailable for bookings, inclusive of the entire period. To 'Blackout' a single day, simply enter the Start Date. To 'Add More' 'Blackout' dates or date ranges, click the 'Add More' button. You can add up to 20 'Blackout' Dates. If you wish to remove a 'Blackout' date, click the 'Remove' button next to the date range.

BC Admin and CSR Users are able to override Blackout period settings. Blackout periods are displayed on the Space Landing pages for BC Admin and CSR with a grey circle around the date. If BC Admin or CSR Users do book a space during a blackout date a pop up will appear confirming that you want to proceed. Blackout period dates can be overridden on the Organization Settings or Space Settings with new dates if required.

Setting a Blackout Period for a particular Space

Should some of your spaces have for example a regional holiday that does not apply to the whole organization you can set a blackout period at the Space Level.

From Manage Space / Facilities > Rooms / Spaces / Assets , scroll to the bottom of the page to the 'Blackout Periods' section. To 'Blackout' a date range, enter a Start Date and an End Date. The selected spaces will be unavailable for bookings, inclusive of the entire period. To 'Blackout' a single day, simply enter the Start Date. To 'Add More' 'Blackout' dates or date ranges, click the 'Add More' button. You can add up to 20 'Blackout' Dates. If you wish to remove a 'Blackout' date, click the 'Remove' button next to the date range.

What will my customers see when spaces have been set to 'Blackout'?

When your customers try to book a space with 'Blackout Periods' set, the dates not available for bookings will appear 'greyed out' as shown in the screenshot below.

Should a customer enter a date in their search criteria where a space or spaces have been blacked out, those spaces will not be returned in the search results.

Blackout Periods is available on the following Meeting Hub Packages:

Pro
Enterprise

Who are your top clients?

Wed, 05 May 2021 09:10:40 GMT

Analysing your bookings by clients who book with you the most

Understanding which clients bring in the most revenue to your business will enable you to focus your efforts in the right way. We all treat our customers as though they are special, but understanding those that bring the most revenue (not necessarily the most bookings) to your business will allow you to give them extra special attention. Meeting Hub allows you to view your Top Clients by single location or all locations.

The Top Clients report displays your organizati on's Top Clients by booking value. Let's look at the report in detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, in this case, Top Clients
Report Duration: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Select Location: Allows you to look at a single Location or 'All' Locations.
Tax: View the report inclusive or exclusive of tax
Amenities: View the report inclusive or exclusive of Amenities
Generate: The Generate button, when clicked, generates a graphical representation of the selected data. Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the bubbles within the graph for more granular detail.
Excel: The Excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.

How to track voucher usage and the dollar value being given away

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 08:39:57 GMT

Understanding the voucher usage in your organization

Vouchers can provide numerous benefits to your business, as it incentivises customers to complete purchases, potentially spend more and it can encourage new customers to buy from you. Meeting Hub enables you to track voucher usage for your organization by Location or all Locations.

Lets look at the report in detail:

The Report Type filter: Select the report you wish to view, in this case, Voucher Usage
Report Duration: Filter based on your preferred duration (E.g. per month or per year)
Select Location: Allows you to view a single location or 'all' locations.
Generate: The Generate button when clicked generates a graphical representation of the selected data. Once you have generated the graphical representation, hover over the bubbles within the graph for more granular detail.
Excel: The excel button when clicked downloads a csv. file including the selected data.

Note: Click the hyperlink to view the Knowledge Article on Voucher Codes

How your customers can add the Meeting Hub application to their phone

sara@meetinghub.com.au (Sara Golding) — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:33:48 GMT

Setting up Meeting Hub as an app on a mobile device

The Meeting Hub application can be easily set up on mobile devices so it can be accessed at any time. For your regular customers, showing them how this can be done will mean they have easy access to make bookings with you at the touch of a button. Click the video tutorial above to see how easy it is to add the Meeting Hub app to a mobile device, or follow the steps below:

Step 1: Open Google Chrome (or your web browser of choice)

Step 2: Enter the Meeting Hub URL for your organization, and allow the page to load

Step 3: Tap the 3 dots in the top right corner and select 'Add to Homepage'

Step 4: Choose a name for the application, E.g. Meeting Hub, and click Add and Add again

Step 5: Return to the Homepage on your mobile device, where you will now see the Meeting Hub icon.

Clicking the icon will open the Meeting Hub application for your organization where you can then book a space.

How to make a Space Private in Meeting Hub

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 01:18:13 GMT

How to make a Space Private in Meeting Hub

Private Spaces in Meeting Hub allow you to offer exclusive access to select clients—such as Members or VIP clients —by making specific spaces visible and bookable only to those with the correct permissions. This feature is available within all Meeting Hub Plans.

What is a Private Space

A Private Space is a room or space within a Location/Center that is only available to book by clients with the “Allow Private Room Bookings” setting enabled. These rooms do not appear in general availability and are hidden from regular users.

Configuration Steps for Private Rooms

�� TIP: The Location / Center must be configured before you can link a Space to it.

��️ Create or Edit a Space

From Manage Space / Facilities > Rooms / Spaces / Assets ,

Create a new Space
OR
Edit an existing Space you want to make Private.

Within the Space configuration:

Select the appropriate Location / Center
Tick the checkbox labelled "Private Room"

This marks the room as a Private Space , making it invisible to clients who are not authorized.

�� Enable Private Room Access for Specific Clients

To allow a Company (Client) to view and book Private Spaces:

Navigate to Manage Users & Companies > Companies (Clients) and select Edit on the Actions button of the Client you would like to allow to book Private Rooms.
Tick the Checkbox " Allow Private Room Bookings"

Only Companies (Clients) with this setting enabled will be able to:

View Private Spaces within Meeting Hub
Book those spaces through Meeting Hub.

Clients without this permission will not see Private Spaces in their booking options.

CRM Best Practice

Mon, 18 May 2020 07:35:57 GMT

CRM Best Practice for flexible workspace providers

In this edition of our Operation Resilience series, we take a look at Customer relationship management (CRM) Best Practice. Customer relationship management is an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers. It uses data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.

One of the great myths is that you can just “Buy” CRM Best Practice off the shelf, install it, train your teams and then you’ve “Got it”. If only it were that simple, but don’t despair because putting CRM Best practices in place is probably not as hard as you think.

CRM is more than just 1 piece of software like ZohoCRM , Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics to name a few. CRM is a business process, a set of principles. It’s an ethos and culture which is woven into your customer journey from initial contact, to customer onboarding servicing and exiting. Often, the practice of CRM will span across multiple business processes or stages in the customer lifecycle and therefore many software packages could be involved, not just one.

In this article we will explore some of the basic principles of CRM Best Practice that you can implement easily within your business today.

Customer Journey Mapping

The first place to start when considering CRM Best Practice is to map out your customer journey into the standard high-level disciplines that all businesses have. Start by using a whiteboard and break the customer journey down into bite-sized chunks using this template as a guide. You may want to map this out along a timeline underpinned by your current toolset.

Once you’ve identified the customer journey key components, you then allocate stakeholders or owners against each of these functions. The diagram above is more about the business process and less about organisational structure.

Tip: Don’t go too deep, and don’t overthink it. This is about identifying those high-level critical functions into common themes that naturally sit together.

The tool doesn’t maketh the process!

Isn’t a hammer as good as a screwdriver? This is a question I’d often ask my Dad. I mean they both fasten things, right? A hammer is great for driving in one kind of fastener (a nail). However, a screwdriver is great at driving another (a screw). So, I guess yes they are both designed to “fix” something to a wall, but they are designed to solve different problems. And so is software.

You could use Excel as a hammer to run your whole business if you wanted to. It will “fix” the problem of sorts, but it will not do it as well as a purpose-built tool for each business process you need to manage.

There are some areas where you may be willing to compromise for example most CRM systems also have functions to handle onboarding and service requests. However, you wouldn’t want to bet the company financials and managing aged receivables using a spreadsheet, would you?

Make sure you have the right tools to do the job and ensure those tools can share the necessary information to fulfil their core purpose.

Process flow mapping

Now you have your customer journey components, your stakeholders and you have outlined what tools you currently use. Now you need to map out the process flow for each activity.

Tip: Have your teams who perform the process map it out for you.

First, ask them to map out the process as though they were building a new business themselves. Empower them not to be constrained by the current environment. This helps to increase their engagement and sense of ownership for the process and outcomes.

Then, ask them to map out the process as it is today. You may be surprised to learn how much the process has deviated from when you first designed it. This is completely normal. Here is where you will see people have inherited processes, added in checks and balances which at the time made sense but now just create unnecessary burden. If the process by design doesn’t work, then throwing more technology (or people!) at it won’t solve the problem.

Bring it all together

Now, bring all the information together. Your stakeholders should review their “As is” and “To be” processes. They should ensure that the business process by design is robust. Then, evaluate your current toolset to ensure it’s fit for purpose. Identify any gaps, and then seek out solutions either people, process, or technology to close those gaps.

After you’ve followed these simple steps you will quickly realize that there is no one size fits all CRM system. Every business is different, but at the same time they are all very similar and it’s very rare to find new problems. Do your research, ask your peer groups and colleagues. Reach out to your existing trusted vendors and partners that work in your industry. It’s highly likely they have seen the problem before and can offer a fresh or alternative perspective on how to solve the problem.

Customer Experience

Mon, 18 May 2020 07:29:31 GMT

As part of our Operation Resilience series, in this edition, we delve into customer experience strategy. So, what is a Customer Experience Strategy? We see it as the sum of every interaction a customer has, from prospect to the buying process, onboarding to ongoing support, and exit. Creating and managing the customer experience must be by design, not by accident.

Underlying great customer experience is the process that we manage and measure to assure we are achieving our goals. The customer experience strategy should, therefore, define an actionable plan to deliver a positive and meaningful experience across those interactions with your business.

A good place to start is asking key questions of your business:

Is the goal to change the customer experience fundamentally or to simply improve your existing strategy?
Is there a gap between the needs and wants of customers and what they actually experience?
Can you gain a customer-experience advantage against your competitors?
Is there a point in the customer experience journey where the company should focus to have a real impact?
Is there alignment between staff capability to support customer experience and the company’s strategy?

When forming a long-term strategy, keep in mind your business goals. Although it’s important to keep the customer’s needs front-of-mind, there’s no point in doing this if it jeopardises profitability. Remember – the perfect CX doesn’t exist! It’s a process of continual improvement and keeping in touch with evolving consumer/business demands.

Customer experience & the sales process

The sales process is the cornerstone of sales effectiveness and productivity. The sales process is also the cornerstone of consistently creating and managing great customer experiences.

The best way to ensure that you are focused on your customer in the sales process is to actively listen to what they tell you. Really understanding their needs is critical to you providing an offering that really satisfies them for the long-term.

Customer Requirements

Salespeople are crucially important players in understanding your customer’s requirements. Great customer experience begins here. It’s important that salespeople are trained by Operations on exactly what service the organisation is capable of delivering vs. what they aspire to deliver which can often vary. They also set the expectation which then needs to be delivered against in the ongoing relationship with your customer.

Sales Handover

The handover from sales is essential to get the ongoing customer experience off to a good start. We look in detail at Sales Handover best practice in our Operation Resilience, Sales Handover article. Click the link below to read more.

Operation Resilience – Sales Handover

Know your value

Customer Personas

Customer Personas assume there are a finite number of paths by which people arrive at the realisation that they have a need and that your service is an effective solution to satisfy that need. The premise assumes that among customers who fit a given persona, people are reasonably consistent in how they approach a problem and solve it. By understanding your customer personas across your organisation, you can provide a better customer experience to them throughout their journey with you.

Customer Journey Mapping

Think of the customer journey as a roadmap detailing how a customer becomes aware of your brand, their interactions with your brand–and beyond. In our article, CRM Best Practice we share with you an example of a customer journey map. To read the article click here .

Net Promoter Score

Always knowing where your customers stand is a competitive advantage. A relatively straight forward way to measure this is by Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is based on the premise that every company’s customers can be placed within three types.

“ Promoter ”: customers are enthusiastic and loyal, who continually buy from the company and ‘promote’ the company to their friends and family.
“ Passive ” customers are happy but can easily be tempted to leave by an attractive competitor deal. Passive customers may become promoters if you improve your product, service or customer experience.
“ Detractor ”: customers are unhappy, feel mistreated and their experience is going to reduce the amount they purchase from you. Detractor customers also have an increased likelihood of switching to a competitor as well as warning potential customers to stay away from your company.

The score comes from the NPS Question, that is: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our organisation to a friend or colleague?”

Based on the number a customer chooses, they are classified into one of the above three categories. The scores are broken down as follows:

0 – 6: Detractors
7 – 8: Passives
9 – 10 Promoters

One of the key benefits of the NPS is that it measures customer loyalty and therefore the likelihood of gaining new and repeat business. If the client gives high satisfaction and high-value scores, rest assured the customer experience is great.

In today’s market, with social media amplifying the power of recommendations and subscription business models gaining prevalence, innovation, and differentiation in customer experience has become increasingly important. Simply getting the basics right is no longer enough. It has also become increasingly clear that organisations benefit most from NPS when they embed customer satisfaction and loyalty data into the day-to-day operations of the business.

Brands like Amazon, Apple, and even Uber Eats have provided customers with the ability to engage in experiences that are designed around their specific needs and wants – and customers like it. As expectations around experiences evolve those brands that are unable to deliver will undoubtedly lose the affection of their customers. This reality creates the need for organisations in all sectors and industries and of all sizes to ask themselves what they are doing to both understand what their customers want and need and what steps are they taking to be able to evolve their experiences to deliver on those expectations.

Key to Customer Experience

As mentioned earlier in the article, customer experience is a customer’s overall perception of your company, based on their interactions with it. It includes every touchpoint a customer has with your business, whether it’s the moment they first hear about you, through to the time they call with a complaint.

In short, good customer experience can be achieved if you:

Make listening to customers a top priority across the business
Use customer feedback to develop an in-depth understanding of your customers
Implement a process to help you gather feedback, analyse it, and act on it regularly
Reduce friction and solve your customers’ specific problems and unique challenges

It’s not rocket science: a good customer experience comes from asking your customers’ questions, listening to their responses, and actioning their feedback.

Sales handover

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 01:23:36 GMT

As part of our Sales & Marketing edition of Operation Resilience , we look at some of the CRM technology available to help support the sales process & customer handover. For now, let’s focus on the people & process.

As the saying goes, “The show ain’t over until the fat lady sings” or in our world, “The salesperson’s job ain’t over until the first invoice goes out the door”.

It is key to ensure there is a formal sales handover to finance once the contract is signed. This can’t be an onerous or time-consuming task, or we find people start saying “What do you want me to do, sales or do admin”. It should be easy to put in practice, and any incentive schemes linked to the process.

Creation of templates

Email templates help streamline the process further. Create a template, for example, titled “New client Introduction” which is sent (by sales) to the other key areas of the business. This email should include:

Client name;
Operational point of contact;
Finance point of contact;
Overview of the services purchased;
Variations to standard contract terms E.g Step deal, Termination notice periods; anything “out of the norm”;
Billing amount, frequency, introductory deals, discounts or offers including their expiration;
Overview of the business your new client is in;
Any other key information or commitments that were made to the customer during the sales cycle

Send the email to Finance, Operations, IT and any other 3rd parties required. Sales should take responsibility to ensure that the promises made (by them) are then delivered. Other areas of the business should not need to go hunting for the information as an error this early in your relationship with a new customer won’t get you off on the right foot.

If you are using a CRM tool these emails can be automated based on achieving a certain sales milestone. We also recommend using your CRM tool across all areas of the business. That way, once Finance has sent the initial invoice out to the customer they can advise Sales.

At that point Sales can then set the deal in your CRM to “Closed Won” so that the deal appears in their monthly commission report. No invoice, no commission – Simple.

Want to know more about how Meeting Hub can help you win more meeting and conference room deals, request a Demo today!

Cashflow best practice

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 01:20:30 GMT

In the Invoicing Best Practice edition, we discussed how important automating invoicing is for a business to reduce administrative errors, etc. In this edition, we look at how we can split invoicing and accept credit card payments to move closer to cashflow best practice !

Split invoicing

An invoice split is one of multiple invoices that together formed one original invoice. Splitting that single invoice into multiple invoices lets you offer flexible payment schedules. We find many flexible workspace providers want to invoice their customers for 2 different types of services:

Contractual (Repeat) billed in advance using repeat invoicing described above; and
Services (Adhoc) billed in arrears where you’re importing transactions from external systems such as Meeting Hub described below;

We consistently see Centres that adopt this split invoicing strategy benefit from reduced bad debt, fewer errors and less rekeying when billing.

Why split an invoice?
(a) Customers having financial difficulties will hold off paying your $2,500 office rental charge, so they can dispute a $25 photocopying charge;
(b) By offsetting different charges you’ll benefit from regular cashflow and payments instead spiking on the 1st or 30th of the month;
(c) When you do have issues with bad debt it will be spread across the month. This allows your team to focus on recovery action, working with your customers to secure payment throughout the month instead of all at once;

Payment via credit card

Another key aspect of cashflow best practice is taking payments via credit card for your services. There are many ways to take payments via credit card today. In the past, businesses had to apply to their bank for a merchant facility. This would take a month or two to be completed. At that time, you could only process payments in a single currency. You needed your own internal development team to integrate the banks API with your back-end systems.

Today, many off the shelf solutions integrate with e-Commerce facilities directly with your website e.g. Woocommerce , Shopify , and many more. Here at Meeting Hub, we prefer to use Stripe for all payment processing. The Stripe API provides strong support for all the functionality our customers need when managing payments associated with their bookings. We even use Stripe internally, integrated with Xero to automate license fee payments for our software from customers.

Customers tell us that they don’t like to take payments via credit card due to the fees involved. We can’t understand why, when you consider the benefits in terms of improved cash flow and the ability to enforce cancellation terms.

There are accounting packages that also provide the ability for AutoPay by Credit Card. So, once you’ve sent out an invoice for a recurring service, your customer can opt-in to set up an automated repeat payment for the same amount each month. This will reduce your arrears even further.

In our experience the barrier to taking payment via credit card is normally an underlying issue with internal systems, or processes in terms of how they reconcile payments. If you’ve automated your invoicing using repeat invoices, integrated a payment service like Stripe and connected bank feeds into your accounting package it couldn’t be easier.

Cashflow best practice isn’t a piece of software you can buy, install, and configure. It’s a mindset, and part of that mindset includes being open to doing things differently.

Want to improve your cashflow by taking payment at time of booking for your meeting rooms? Request a Demo of Meeting Hub today!

Financial Reporting from Meeting Hub

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 01:17:50 GMT

If you’re a Meeting Hub customer, you should be exporting your billing transactions directly from Meeting Hub into your accounts system to streamline your financial reporting. By importing your transactions directly into your accounting system you remove duplicate handling and rekeying which is prone to data loss and errors. Some Meeting Hub customers also import this billing information into their CRM system, to provide a full cycle view of their customer relationship.

The process is simple & easy to set up and configure. You have complete control over what general ledger codes are used for specific services ensuring revenue posts to the correct accounts codes within your Accounts system. If you are not already doing this and would like to read our knowledge article on how to set this up click here .

All transactions are itemised showing Qty, Amount, Inc Tax, Ex Tax, Tax amount, Description including room name and meeting time. You can choose how often you run billing and what information to import. Meeting Hub allows customers to control how often they run their billing and which transactions they export to their finance system.

Most businesses have a good sense of how they are performing, sometimes they have a hunch of where there are problem areas that may need focus but don’t have the data to back up their thoughts before end of month reporting is completed. Meeting Hub has a real-time reporting module available to all of its customers which provides finance and operations teams with valuable data about their bookable spaces covering the following:

Average spend per booking
Booking lead time
Busy day of the week
Busy time of the day
Bookings per month
Top clients
Revenue by client type
Centre Revenue Target
Organisational Revenue Target
Gratis Usage
Voucher Usage

Benchmarking analysis

These financial reporting metrics are key to tracking your organizations’ performance against key metrics. Using Meeting Hub, you can then benchmark your performance against others in your region for key statistics such as:

Average spend per booking;
Occupancy / Utilization rates;
And much, much more

Want to learn more? Why not request a demo of Meeting Hub today.

Automated invoicing

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 01:14:35 GMT

In this edition of Operation Resilience , we analyse automated invoicing. The administrative effort tied up in accounts payable is a big burden for many business owners. If rushed or not given the attention it deserves, mistakes can occur which can be costly. Modern-day accounting systems like Xero , MYOB , Sage , etc have native features that allow businesses to create repeat, recurring invoices. It’s surprising how many businesses don’t use these features instead, running billing manually each month. This is prone to error or can lead to invoicing being delayed due to operational issues or staff absence.

Automated invoicing can be used for “Contracted” or “Subscription” based services. That is services such as Permanent Office rental, Hot-desk subscription, or Monthly Virtual Office fees. It’s ideal for services that are billed in advance where the fixed monthly amount is consistent each month. This allows businesses to stagger month-end processes. Invoices can be set up to go out on your preferred date of the month at the individual client level. Staggering your month-end process will help to smooth out of the peaks and troughs in your cash flow .

Account systems like Xero allow you to include dynamic content so that each time an invoice goes out the door it automatically inserts the <month> and <year> tags. Automating your invoicing process reduces the potential for error, streamlines invoice approval, and provides greater visibility of your cash flow .

Automated Invoice Reminders

Invoice reminders are another automated feature that most modern accounting packages include and we recommend adopting. The feature is usually configured at the client level and can be configured based on your commercial terms e.g. 30,60 or 90 days. Reminders can include varying email messages based on their overdue status. An automated gentle reminder can help to bring in payments more efficiently. Most of your customers will be good payers, often it’s simply an administrative oversight.

It’s worth putting in the time and effort to get the most out of your finance solution. This will be rewarded with greater visibility to run your business efficiently, improve cash flow and reduce the administrative burden on your team.

Further automation can be achieved by utilising autopay via credit card. For more information on credit card payments refer to our article on Cashflow Best Practice.

Want to know more about how you can take payment via credit card for your meeting rooms using Meeting Hub? Request a Demo today!

Stay Connected with Clients

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 04:08:14 GMT

Now more than ever its imperative that you stay connected with clients. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses of all types to adapt, adjust and in some cases, to re-invent themselves. Looking forward, this crisis has the potential to firmly propel flexible working to the mainstream. Businesses across the globe have been forced to become accustomed to remote working.

Connecting with your clients and in turn their end clients to understand what they need at this time is critical. This can be done by providing solutions to your client’s to leverage in order for them to retain business. In doing so, you’re ensuring that their clients continue to value them, despite working remotely. Thinking innovatively and doing the right thing for your clients will protect your business in the long term.

Use this time to focus on process improvement. Develop new capabilities and methods of working, to help capitalise on opportunities as and when the market recovers. Check out our Operation Resilience series to learn how you can position yourself best to exit the current pandemic crisis.

Stay connected with clients via virtual events

Let’s face it people predominantly use flexible workspaces to avoid the social isolation felt when working from home. For others, a shared workspace environment helps to keep them more focused on their work.

We have great technology at our fingertips that enables us to stay connected with clients. Many of the solutions such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams only require the host to have the application. This means participants simply join via the option of a web link or app they can download. Skype is simple to use, with participants and host downloading an app to their devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone).

To maintain that sense of connection with clients during these testing times we recommend using tools with video function enabled. Not only do these tools help people connect, they also help promote smarter, more efficient ways of communication and collaboration.

Use the tools to host virtual events for your clients, whether it’s breakfast, lunch or happy hour. We’re seeing more companies hosting virtual events to stay connected in a face-to-face way, even if it’s mediated via screens.

Take the opportunity to run remote sessions for clients covering helpful topics, like how to run an effective remote meeting. This keeps client’s engaged with your workspace whilst gaining valuable support from you during this difficult time.

If budget allows, extend your conferencing plan to allow client access to enable their business through this challenging period.

Website content that helps you stay connected with clients

COVID-19 is front and centre of everyone’s mind right now. Clients are seeking out information on what businesses are doing during this time. Consider adding content to your website with general tips and advice and what you are doing for your clients.

Increase your Social Media Presence to improve connectedness

Undoubtedly, social media is where an overwhelming majority of people are turning for information, communication, and social interaction. This is where you should focus and be part of the conversation. Keep clients up to date with changes in your services and what you’re doing to protect them and their staff. Consider offering advice and information they might find useful, and to advise that you are still open for business. It can be helpful to increase your posting frequency to ensure you are showing up in client news feeds.

If your business has yet to engage in any meaningful way with social media, now is the time. Think about whether you can deploy some of your employees (who might otherwise face losing their jobs) to focus here.

Getting Through This Together

We’re all doing our best to navigate this unprecedented crisis for the first time. Staying connected, reaching out to clients, nurturing the community feeling is how people (and businesses) will get through this together.

Do you want to know more about Meeting Hub? Click below to find out more!

Finance best practice

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 01:29:10 GMT

As part of the Meeting Hub Operation Resilience series, we’re exploring the topic of “FInance best practice” and our Top tips. In this edition we’ll provide insights into how Business Centres, Co-working spaces and Government smart work hubs are sending their invoices on time, accurately and with flexible payment options included. With these simple methods we’ve helped customers around the world win the war on cashflow & bad debt.

Tip #1: Sales Hand-over

As part of our Sales & Marketing edition we’ll explore some of the CRM technology available to help support the general sales process & customer hand-over. For now, let’s focus on the people & process.

As the saying goes, “The show ain’t over until the fat lady sings” and in our world, “The salesperson’s job ain’t over until the first invoice goes out the door”. To read the full article click read more ….

Tip #2: Automated repeat invoicing

Most modern-day accounts receivable systems on the market today such as Xero , MYOB , Sage etc have out of the box features that allow you to create a repeat, recurring invoice. It’s surprising how many people don’t use these features and instead, run billing manually each month which is prone to error, or not being run on time due to operational or staff absence. To read the full article click read more ….

Tip #3: Managing Cashflow

Following on from automated invoicing, we look further at how as a business you can better manage your cashflow. We take a look at split invoicing and its benefits as well as taking payment via credit card. Click read more ….

Split Invoicing

In most scenarios, you’ll be wanting to invoice your customers for 2 different types of services:

Contractual (Repeat) billed in advance using repeat invoicing described above; and
Services (Adhoc) billed in arrears where you’re importing transactions from external systems like Meeting Hub described below;

We consistently see those Centres which have adopted this split invoicing strategy benefit from reduced bad debt as well as less errors and manual rekeying when billing.

Payment via credit card

There are many different ways to take payments via credit card today. In the past, you had to apply to your bank for a merchant facility which would take a month or two to be completed. Back then, you could only process payments in a single currency and you needed your own internal development team to integrate the banks API with your back-end systems. The whole game has changed since then.

Tip #4: Importing Meeting Hub transactions

If you’re a Meeting Hub customer and you’re not already doing so, you should be importing your billing transactions directly from Meeting Hub into your accounts system. The process is simple & easy to setup and configure. To read the full article click read more ….

Want to know more about how Meeting Hub can improve revenue and reduce costs? Book a Demo today!

Operation Resilience

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:56:45 GMT

The impact of COVID-19 on the Flexible Workspace industry (and many other industries) globally has been hard-hitting. Now is the time to ensure you have built resilience into your business, and business plan. It’s important we look to the future, be prepared to move as the green shoots of recovery begin to appear.

Whilst the immediate priority is “flattening the curve” and minimising the spread of the coronavirus, at Meeting Hub we are also working with our clients to minimise the impact to their business. We share practical and actionable real-world ideas based on our 15 years of industry experience as a software solution and consulting provider. Now is the time to prepare for when the world transitions back to “normal”.

What financial support is available to SME’s?

If your business has been financially impacted by the pandemic, check your eligibility for any government initiatives in your region that have been put in place to help businesses to remain viable in these unprecedented times. We’ve included some links below that might be useful (please take note of the region):

For our US Customers:
8 Ways Business Owners Can Take Advantage of the Federal Stimulus Package
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/348710

For our Australian Customers:
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/COVID-19/

For our UK Customers:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support

For our South African Customers:
https://smesouthafrica.co.za/the-small-business-covid-19-survival-guide-where-to-get-help/

For our ASEAN Customers:
https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/thailand-issues-incentives-counter-covid-19-impact-phase-one/

Series 1 – Finance Best Practice

In this first edition, we explore the general concept of Best Practice . What is it, how do I get it and what does it mean to my business. We then explore a number of simple, easy to implement tips & tricks that cover finance best practice such as:

In this era of social distancing, we also take a look at ways to maintain connectedness with your clients.

Series 2 – Customer Experience & CRM Best Practice

In our second edition, we explore Customer Experience and CRM Best Practice . Understanding our customers is key to our success and helps us to remain agile in a changing landscape.

Want to know more about Meeting Hub? Why not request a demo today!

How to configure a Security Bond

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 04:30:44 GMT

How to configure the Security Bond amount

Meeting Hub Pro customers have the option to add a Security Bond to their spaces.

To do this navigate to Manage Space / Facilities > Rooms / Spaces / Assets - select the Space you wish to add a security bond to and click on the Action Button and select Edit.

Scroll down the Space page to the Rates Section, simply tick the Security Bond Required tick box and add the amount to be charged as a Security Bond Payment.

Scroll down the page and click Save to save these updates to your Space.

How to set up Email Templates for Collection and Return of the Security Bond

Once the Security bond has been configured on the Space you'll now need to set up the email templates to be triggered for the collection and return of the bond.

Transaction Date Security Bond Email

Navigate to Manage Space / Facilities > Email Templates .

Check your email templates to see if you already have the "Transaction Date Security Bond Requirements" Email Template set up. If not Click the + button at the top of the page.

Add the Subject of the email to the Email Subject text box beneath the Merge Tags box.

Next, add / edit the content of the email to suit your business needs. You can select Merge Tags to auto populate available Merge Tags such as User First Name.

Below is an example email including the Merge Tags.

Scroll down the page and click Save to save the Email Template

Repeat the email template steps above to also create an Email Template for "Security Bond Refund Day After"

Next you will need to create the Workflow trigger for these emails. Refer to the Workflow knowledge article on how to do this. For the Transaction Date Security Bond email you'll want to select the Transaction Date Workflow. For the Security Bond Refund Day After you'll want to select the Event Date Workflow.

How to set up Workflow Email Templates

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 03:58:55 GMT

What is the Workflow Engine for Automated Emails

Meeting Hub Pro customers can configure automated Workflow sequences that automatically send email notifications at specified times. For instance, you can schedule reminder emails to go out before a client’s booking. These reminders ensure your customers receive timely notifications—enhancing engagement and reducing no‑shows.

To set this up, users define:

Trigger timing – e.g., 24 hours before booking start time
Workflow action – sending a tailored email reminder
Conditions – customise the conditions on when the email is sent - before or after the booking or transaction date.

By automating reminders, you streamline communication and improve the customer experience, all with minimal manual effort. Workflows run on a regular bases throughout the day.

How to set up Booking Workflows

The first step in the process is to set up the Email Templates that will be used in the Workflow. Meeting Hub can share a base line template with you to get you started. Workflow templates can be set up for the following scenarios:

Booking reminders - to remind your bookers about upcoming bookings
Security Bond requirements - to provide Security Bond payment details to your bookers
Space Access instructions - to provide site / space access instructions to your bookers
Thank you for booking - to thank your bookers for booking with you

Once your Workflow emails have been set up you can then configure the Workflow for the Email Template.

From the Admin Panel, select Manage Space / Facilities > Workflow.

Configuring the Workflow

To configure the Workflow for your selected email template you need to complete the mandatory fields. All fields marked with an * are mandatory fields. Lets review the mandatory fields:

Name your Workflow based on the type of email you are creating the Workflow for, for example "Booking Reminder Email".
Select the required Action Type: "Send Email"
Select the Email Template that was created for this Workflow.
Add the trigger conditions:

Time Unit: Minutes, Hours or Days
Time Value: E.g. 1 - this would be either 1 Minute, 1 Hour or 1 Day
Direction: Before or After (that is before or after the booked event.
Event Variable: Event Date or Transaction Date (that is the date of the booked event or the date that the booking was made).

Finally, click Save to ensure your created Workflow is saved.

After setup, the workflow engine will handle everything automatically—freeing you from manual reminders and ensuring consistent, timely communication.

Automating these sequences means smoother operations, happier customers, and fewer missed appointments.

How to add a booking button to your Facebook page!

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 07:23:30 GMT

Including a Booking Button on your Facebook page makes it easier for your customers to book your spaces. In addition it can increase your revenue and space utilisation whilst reducing the admin overhead associated with taking bookings. Your customers want to be able to search for real-time availability, rates and pay online via credit card as well as receive a confirmation without the need to sit on hold or fill out a form and wait for somebody to call them back. A Booking Button makes the transaction for your customer quick and easy. The booking can be made at any time of the day, even whilst you are sleeping. It can be added not only to Facebook but also Instagram and your company’s website.

Adding a Booking Button to your Social Media pages is quick and easy!

Add a booking button to Facebook

To add a booking button to Facebook, follow these simple steps:

Log in to Facebook and navigate to your Page.
Click to Edit or Add a Button (top of page)
Choose either one of the Contact Us or Learn More button options.
Paste in your Website URL.
Click Save

Add a booking button to Instagram

To add a booking button to Instagram , follow these simple steps:

Go to your business profile on Instagram and tap Edit Profile.
Click Business Information, then Contact Options.
Tap Add an Action Button and select Appointments by Square.
Add your Square Appointments online booking site URL.

Ideally, you want to reduce the number of clicks to take your prospective customers from your Facebook, Instagram page or website into your booking system and sales funnel. The URL that is entered at Step 4 could take your customers directly to a Space, or a Search Results page.

For Meeting Hub customers there are two options, each with their own URL, that can be entered into your Facebook, Instagram or website Book Now button. The options are:

For those with one or two spaces : you may wish to direct your customers directly to their preferred space from your website. In this case, copy the URL from Meeting Hub on the space landing page.
For those with multiple sites and many spaces : you may prefer to direct your customers to the search page where they can specify their filter criteria such as size of space, type of space, price, date and preferred location. In this case, copy the URL from the “Find a space” landing page

Managing Bookings with Meeting Hub

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:37:10 GMT

In the first of our 5 part series , we will outline the features relating to managing your bookings within Meeting Hub and explore how these features can automate your processes, decrease your overheads and increase your revenue!

Meeting Hub lists all your available spaces on your website with live availability and pricing allowing visitors to book and pay for their meeting room with instant confirmation. A booker can enter your website and leave with a confirmed and paid booking all within 3 minutes. However, Meeting Hub also has an extensive ‘back-end’ where, in addition to managing all aspects of existing bookings, Centre staff can also quickly and efficiently make bookings on behalf of clients.

Our ‘ Book Now ’ feature can give your staff the tools required to turn phone enquiries into paid and confirmed bookings by replicating and streamlining the external booker’s process.

The Bookings calendar provides the ability for staff to view all bookings and meeting rooms on a particular day. If a client calls or visits reception asking for a meeting room staff can view the availability instantly. They can then highlight the requested meeting time and then book directly from the calendar providing instant confirmation to the client.

The interactive list allows staff to drag and drop bookings into different meeting rooms providing easy rescheduling, freeing up spaces for longer bookings and moving all associated amenity bookings such as projector and screens to the new meeting room. If a client wishes to alter the start and finish times of the meeting, the drag and drop feature can also be used to move the meeting to a different time slot.

Our ‘ List bookings ’ feature can be filtered to show all the bookings within a date range. You can also search by client name, client company or meeting room. This feature can be used to confirm if all bookings have been entered and to make any changes to existing bookings. View the booking, add notes or re-issue a confirmed to the client. Bookings that were made and paid by with a credit card can be fully or partially refunded or given additional charges which link back to the original credit card and debit or credit it accordingly. Bookings made on invoice can be marked as paid or edited and issued with an updated invoice. If a client wishes to move their booking to a different day or to extend it from a short to longer, the reschedule/extend feature can be used. Or if the client wishes to cancel the booking entirely your cancellation policy is automatically applied.

So, whether your clients prefer to book themselves, email or phone reception or simply pop by for a visit, Meeting Hub provides the tools required to streamline the booking process and turn an availability enquiry into a confirmed and paid booking. Why not ask us for an online demo or a free trial today to see how Meeting Hub can work for you!

Manage Recurring Bookings with Meeting Hub

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 01:41:27 GMT

Recurring Bookings Support now available!

Last year Meeting Hub launched our three-tier package options; Lite, Standard and Pro . These packages are designed to suit all levels of workspaces from small Co-working spaces to multi-location companies with high meeting room turnover. With our packages available on a per-room or per location basis, Meeting Hub has something to suit everyone. While each package allows the workspace to take confirmed bookings from their website, there are a range of other features available which vary package-to-package.

One of our most commonly requested features is the need to enter recurring bookings for clients that have already arranged all their meetings in advance. Some clients may have a meeting on the first Thursday of every month, every Monday for the whole year or every day in January. The ability to make recurring bookings streamlines the booking process and reduces admin time down to the bare minimum. This feature, available on Meeting Hub , allows Centre staff to make repeat bookings without the need to enter them individually.

The bookings can either be pre-paid on a credit card or invoiced individually and are then sent in a confirmation email to the client.

Meeting Hub removes hours of work making bookings, invoicing and chasing payments by compiling this down into one easy-to-use booking process. Training and Business Centres with regular clients can use the recurring booking feature to input a week, or a whole years’ worth of bookings in one go. Other features of Meeting Hub include:

Google Analytics integration to track your web visitor’s patterns all the way through the booking process;
Marketing Extract allowing you to collate the contact details from your bookers for use in a Marketing campaign;
And payment processing per site for companies with multiple locations that want each location’s paid bookings transferred to a different bank account.

Book a demo today and our team can show you how Meeting Hub can work for your business.

Considering a Meeting Room Booking System?

Sun, 24 Mar 2019 01:43:30 GMT

Are you considering a meeting room booking system for your workspace? The world is moving more and more towards technology-based systems and processes; this is seen not just in the technology sector, but across all industries. Your clients are sending meeting invitations over email, setting up video conferencing and sharing files from one side of the country or even the world to the other. So, while you are waiting for your clients to search online for vacant meeting room space, submit an enquiry from your ‘contact us’ form and wait for you to get back to them with a quote, they are booking and paying for the options that they can find in the first 10 minutes of their search.

There are many options on the market for booking systems and, depending on your requirements, there is a system out there that can benefit your business . By understanding the features of each system thoroughly you will be able to compare and analyse how the features will fit in with your current processes as well as the culture of your workspace. Perhaps it is that the current system simply isn’t working for you and you are looking for a complete overhaul of the entire system. Or maybe you simply want access to an additional feature not currently available to you. Regardless of the extent of your project, it is important to understand your requirements before investing in a system that may not work for you.

One system to consider is Meeting Hub , a white-label meeting room booking system that allows workspace providers to automate their booking process. Meeting Hub lists all of your available spaces on your own website with live availability and pricing allowing visitors to book and pay for their meeting room with instant confirmation.

Over the next few months we will outline the features of Meeting Hub and explore how these features can automate your processes, decrease your overheads and increase your revenue! Our 5-part series will cover the following topics:

Part 1: Managing Bookings
Part 2: Optimizing Sales and Marketing
Part 3: Managing Users and Companies
Part 4: Managing Space and Facilities
Part 5: Managing Organizational Settings

So watch this space and in the meantime please follow us on our Social Media channels to keep updated:

Twitter: @MeetingHubAu

Instagram: @MeetingHubAu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meetinghubau

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meeting-hub—australia

Charging For Meeting Room Usage; What Are The Benefits?

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 01:48:21 GMT

When networking with operators from within the Co-working community we often hear a similar message: “we don’t charge our members for their meeting room usage”. There are a variety of reasons as to why many Co-working spaces offer free meeting room use. Some of which include wanting to value-add to the membership fee, wanting to ensure they are in line with their competitors and simply just wanting to please their members. On the other hand, there are a multitude of reasons as to why charging for meeting room usage is beneficial not just for your bottom line, but also for the overall member experience. We have put together a list of our top 5!

It increases your revenue

Let’s not overlook the most important part of running a business. Even with the best intentions a business has to be profitable or it will fail. Meeting rooms are the most valuable space per square metre as they can be sold multiple times a day; unlike an office which can only be sold once. By charging for meeting room bookings, especially from external customers, a steady stream of income can be generated without increasing your overheads. The space is already there!

It increases the booker’s accountability within the space

When clients are given free hours it can take away accountability for the booking. Your members may be booking but not showing up or booking a time frame and then running overtime but with no cancellation fees there is no incentive to do the right thing. This makes it very hard to facilitate bookings between multiple members and can lead to disharmony within the workspace. However, when the process of charging is introduced it adds accountability to the bookings, provides a smoother booking process and increase the respect your members have for the space and their fellow members. There is nothing worse than waiting outside a meeting room with your clients while the previous booker goes overtime.

It maximises your occupancy

The notion that a meeting room must always be available for members results in valuable meeting space sitting vacant. Your members will know in advance when an important meeting is coming up and will be able to book in advance. Why not repurpose a corner of your space for phonecalls and last-minute meetings leaving the meeting rooms for paying members and external bookers. If the meeting room is still available your members can use it for a heavily discounted last-minute room hire cost.

It allows you to take external bookings

When a process is put in place that facilitates the booking and charging for meeting rooms by existing members, often this same process can allow for external bookings to be accepted. External bookers provide a stream of fresh faces and fresh ideas to coming through your space. They could be looking for a Co-working space from which to work permanently or they may offer a service that benefits your members; essentially you are charging them to come and view your space! On top of this the extra revenue generated by external bookings can be passed back to the members through lower costs in the form of office or membership subsidy. This means that your external bookers are actually helping your members!

It helps manage expectations

They say that first impressions count; but if a member’s first impression is that the meeting rooms are free then it sets a precedent; suddenly everything should be free! Offering discounts and free inclusions from the get-go can have detrimental effects on the relationship between the operator and the member. Not only does this undervalue your product, it can also lead to unrealistic expectations and a lack of respect for the brand, product, facilities and staff. Your members may start to rely on the logic that their membership covers all auxiliary services within your space. When booking a hotel room, you don’t expect a free dinner, do you?

It may be daunting to move from a manual reservation process to a booking and payment system. However, there are affordable meeting room booking systems such as Meeting Hub which allow operators to set their rates, provide custom discounts to their members, process credit card payments to external bookers and allow for voucher codes to be distributed. Surprisingly often the monthly cost of the software is less than the revenue earned from just one paid booking per month!

More and more we are seeing our clients move away from the ‘free hours’ model and with the technology out there to facilitate all aspects of the booking process we predict that Co-working spaces of the future will have succinct pricing structures and well-managed booking processes.

If the operator undervalues the space then so will the booker.

Regus Launches Franchise Opportunity

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:26:39 GMT

Regus launches franchise model, again….

Earlier this year Property Fund World highlighted Regus arguably the worlds best-known provider of office space, meeting rooms and virtual offices were moving into the franchise business in the UK market. And why not when this model has already been proven by companies like Office Evolution in the U.S. Office Evolution at time of writing boasts 14 markets currently “Under Development” on their website.

This latest move from Regus will be closely observed and perhaps even followed by established operators in the UK. For those looking to ease the burden of lengthy lease exposure, or perhaps new market entrants looking to capitalise on what is arguably one of the fastest growing industries today it makes good sense. Regus is one of the best-known operators in the market today alongside the juggernaut of WeWork, and if you can tap into the know-how why not?

This time its personal or is that personnel?

Regus has created a dedicated team focussed on franchise opportunities which shows it really is committed to supporting its partners. Regus brings a wealth of experience and know-how in terms of People, Process & Technology which can give its partners a competitive edge to compete locally or globally.

But perhaps for some, this sounds all too familiar? Back in 2000, Regus made a similar announcement when it debuted on the stock exchange. At the time suggesting that 50% of its global stock could be under a franchise brand or model. Since then there seems to have been little focus on this area of the business opting instead for organic growth of its own centres boasting a presence in over 120 countries with 2,500 property partners.

On the other hand, we see thousands every day around the world so there’s not many problems we haven’t overcome.

ACCA Office joins the family

This time around Regus has come out of the blocks strong launching their first deal with ACCA Office which will see the development of 10 new centres in the next four years. Regus seems quite complimentary to ACCA’s other franchise interest when you consider Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut and Anytime Fitness are amongst its other key brands.

Maybe in the future, you’ll be able to grab a Cost Coffee on the way to your Regus Office and then work off last nights Pizza Hut in the local onsite Anytime Fitness gym all one the one account!

Franchising has worked well for many other brands and like any business, this could be a great way for Regus to continue to expand in a sustainable way, whilst derisking some of its key markets with a wider reach into the new emerging secondary cities and work-hubs.

Want to know more about how you can enable your people , to driver your processes using our technology? Check out one of our plans today.

APAC Office Space Market Fastest Growth in 2018

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 01:51:19 GMT

Its no secret the APAC Office space market is hot property right now, but according to Instant Offices annual survey , the region is experiencing the highest growth rate globally. Hong Kong with 340 centres experienced growth of 19% nearly double that of London which is seen as one of the most mature markets in the world.

The demand for APAC Office Space continues to fuel significant growth and seems to have continued beyond the expected uplift associated with moving office leases onto the balance sheet . The number of individuals placed in flexible office space increased over 40% in the past 12 months according to Instant Offices .

Sames markets, new entrants

It’s easy to think that its the same old faces fuelling the expansion such as Regus, Servcorp or WeWork but landlords are increasingly entering directly into the market. Take a look at CapitaLand in Singapore who last month launched it’s “Office of the future” initiative. Under this new venture, CapitaLand is blending the space in its own property portfolio to include flexible workspaces alongside traditional office space.

What’s different about CapitaLand is that they’re focussing on their existing tenants, and providing them with flexible swing space that can be used on a short-term flexible basis. If their tenant has a project, or a team visiting from overseas or interstate they can easily be accommodated with the same building. If you don’t think they’re serious then think again because they’re throwing 177,000 sqft at it!

What about Down-under?

With crushing rents & home affordability in Sydney and Melbourne, things are heating up north of the border in Brisbane. BIS Oxford Economics predicts a 13% property price growth by 2021, so if you’re looking to expand your current footprint Brisbane is the place to be.

Don’t be put off by the big boys in town with Servcorp, Regus and The Executive Centre dominating the Brisbane river skyline. There’s a healthy secondary market quietly prospering in lifestyle regions like the Gold Coast where rents are significantly lower, and people are looking to escape the commute to the big smoke.

Wherever you chose to expand if you have a great product, at the right price and it’s easily accessible to customers you are sure to do well. If 2018 growth is anything to go by our APAC Office space market is set for a bright 2019!

How to Kill the Mood of the Customers in Your Meeting Space

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 01:54:23 GMT

Still think you should charge for Meeting Room Wifi?

The meeting room has been booked and the presenter arrives to set up their presentation, they open their laptop to see what meeting room wifi connections are available. They find the correct network but notice that its password protected. That’s fine, they have a look around the meeting room for the password illustrated on a sticker or a sign but are unable to locate it. They go off to find a team member and ask politely for the meeting room wifi password but are promptly told that they must pay for it – it even costs extra for a high-speed option. Well, that quickly puts a damper on the presenter’s mood.

This scenario is commonplace across workspaces worldwide and begs the question: Are you still charging for meeting room wifi?

Wifi, which was once upsold for additional revenue generation, is now an expected commodity. In the same way that a client does not receive an invoice on-charging the air-conditioning, electricity, and water that they consumed, invoicing for wifi seems almost archaic these days.

Free wifi is a drawcard for many people and charging for it could actually be doing more harm than good by deterring the booker from returning to your meeting space. A survey by Hotels.com found that 49% of travelers choose their hotel based on the availability of free wifi. What makes you think people are any different when choosing a meeting room location? Given the prolific nature of public wifi available in places such as shopping centres, fast food restaurants and airports it seems unheard of that wifi is being charged for at all.

What you may not realize is that there is a range of ways the meeting room wifi can be provided for ‘free’ while still providing a benefit in return.

Buying wifi is relatively cheap however managing its access to an increasingly transient customer base can be costly in terms of technology required, training of staff & vendor management. It can be cheaper to provide free meeting room wifi than to manage processes relating to the charging of wifi.

Factoring wifi in as a commodity allows you to budget its cost alongside your other utilities when setting meeting room prices. By including the cost of the wifi within your prices and advertising free wifi you are winning across the board.

No one expects to get wifi entirely for free and often people are more than happy to provide their email address or contact details in return for wifi. By asking them to opt into marketing material or follow your Social Media pages you can stay connected to them and can encourage them to return to your centre to use your meeting room facilities next time.

Q2 Release Update

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 01:58:12 GMT

Q2/2018 Release Announcement

There have been exciting changes happening behind the scenes at Meeting Hub and now we can’t wait to share them with you.

Our white label meeting room booking software is purposefully designed for the flexible workspace industry. And that got us thinking: ‘are we being flexible enough?’ With that in mind we are so excited to announce the following changes:

30 free trial

What better way to research a new system than to get in there and try it out for yourself! Our 30 day free trial allows you to access all of Meeting Hub’s benefits in a ‘trial’ environment. The best part is that once your trial has concluded we can simply ‘turn it on’ and everything you set up will be available in your live environment.

Month to month agreements

No one likes to be locked into a lengthy contract, especially if you are unsure of what will change over the next 12 months. With that in mind we are excited to offer month to month agreements. Just provide us with 30 days’ notice when you are ready to conclude your agreement! For those who are across their future plans we can provide discounted rates when signing for 12, 24 or 36 months.

Flexible pricing structure

If you only have 1 or 2 bookable spaces but still want to experience the benefits of Meeting Hub, we are happy to offer a new pricing structure starting at $20 per month per bookable space. Larger companies can opt for our standard price of $75 per location per month with unlimited bookable spaces.

New Meeting Hub features

It’s been so hard keeping this to ourselves. Have a look at these great features just released on Meeting Hub!

Direct Marketing / Campaign support

Generate contact details from bookers within a specified timeframe for use in direct marketing blasts.

Multiple Stripe Accounts

Receive credit card funds into separate bank accounts per centre via Stripe to allow ease of reconciling payments.

Flexible License Options Available

We have introduced 3 separate tiers: Lite, Standard & Pro and you can choose the best model that suits you. Either per “Space” or per “Location” depending upon what works best for you.

Want to walk through it together?

Please register for a demo and one of our team will take you through the functionality of Meeting Hub discussing how it can meet your requirements.

Maximizing Meeting Room Profitability

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 02:02:29 GMT

The most profitable space per sq/m in your Centre!

Meeting rooms are a necessity in workspaces throughout the world. They provide quiet areas for presentations, privacy for confidential meetings and a chance to bring people together to share ideas. Often meeting rooms are presented as a value-add within workspaces and not necessarily as a revenue generating asset.

However, meeting rooms can be the most profitable space per square metre if managed effectively, and here’s why.

Meeting Room Booking trends

Looking through Meeting Hub booking data sourced from Business Centres & CoWorking spaces across Asia Pacific over a one-month period that use our software to take online meeting room bookings, we identified the following trends:

The average booking

Duration was 2.5 hours;
Total cost was $60.00 (AUD equivalent) excluding any catering or A/V hire;
Notification lead time was 10 days

Statistically:

10% preferred to pay for their booking via credit card;
35% received free hours & were not charged for their booking

Key Observations

The headline cost of $60 seems low at first, but when you consider that only 65% of those bookings were paid for, it probably makes sense. The underlying issue is even though the operator didn’t charge for the booking, it still cost them in terms of base rent, labour, electricity, etc.

Consider also the added benefits that flow from receiving 10% of your meeting room revenue up front, via credit card at the time of booking (not servicing). This can improve your cash flow, and also allow you to enforce cancellation terms if insufficient notice is provided to cancel a booking.

While the breakdown of credit card vs invoiced bookings is not surprising given the majority of bookers would likely have a pre-existing account set up with the workspace provider, it is interesting perhaps even disturbing to the workspace investors to note that 35% of bookings generated no revenue .

External V.s Internal Meeting Room bookings

In an earlier series we talked about some of the benefits of taking external bookings , this latest data & research seems to suggest its a resounding “Yes you should!”. Lets dig a little deeper….

External bookings allow you to plan better

We found that with complimentary (internal) bookings the average lead time was just 1 day in comparison to the overall average lead time of 10 days for external, revenue generating bookings. This shows that revenue generating bookings were more likely to provide a longer notice period than complimentary bookings allowing you to plan your labour & manage your centre better.

Internal bookings are more flexible

It’s highly likely that most “member” or last minute (free / internal bookings) would probably be happy to use a common area, or non-bookable break out space as the meeting is impromptu and they are simply jumping into a conference room at a whim – Why?….because it’s empty!

So why not take both Internal & External Meeting Room Bookings?

We believe that you can and here is why. External revenue generating bookings will allow you to forecast your revenue better. You can still slot your members in around the booked & paid for slots, and you can even shuffle your bookings around and make it seamless to the end client, just like a hotel shuffles their bedrooms around without you knowing. And with all that extra revenue, you can put it towards the Friday beer fund!

My members & clients get first preference!

We hear this all the time and whilst its admirable, I’m sure if you said to them “Hey, I’ll reduce your membership &/or office rent by subsidizing it with additional meeting room revenue” you won’t hear them argue. I’m sure your investors would love to see their capital returned earlier than expected, because you introduced new revenue streams into your centre that weren’t part of the original business case. Name another industry that by design provides high touch, high value services for free and covers the cost?

It is often the case that preference is given to internal clients with many operators hesitant to accept external bookings at all. However, analysis of booking data could provide valuable information for building a case for accepting external bookings.

By taking external meeting room bookings this would then allow internal clients to ‘fill the gaps’ with their free hours. As we saw in our analysis the average booking duration is 2.5 hours, and Meeting Hub customers can already track their occupancy levels by center & by room, so they know that there is still plenty of time left in the day to cater for all bookers

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

That old saying always rings true, and reporting plays an invaluable part of any business decisions and meeting rooms are no exception. Identifying patterns allows workspace operators to better understand their meeting room business such as peak booking times allowing you to align your assets & resources to your needs.

In order to make business decisions relating to the profitability of meeting rooms, workspace providers need access to data. As many operators today continue to use manual systems they are missing out on the chance to collect raw data and gain these types of insights.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, why not sign up for a no obligation, 30 day free trial of Meeting Hub today!

Should I Take External Bookings?

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 02:06:44 GMT

Keep Calm and Take External Bookings.

If you don’t currently take external bookings, we suggest you take a deep breath, look at the numbers, check your local market and perhaps think again. You could be missing a trick.

Workspace providers throughout the world hold a huge market share when it comes to bookable spaces. This includes meeting rooms, boardrooms, conference rooms, hot desks and halls at coworking spaces, business centers, executive offices and member’s clubs but some of them are still not taking external bookings.

The affect is, there’s loads of great spaces out there however they are often not accessible to the general public and are reserved exclusively for members of the space.

The numbers

The Global Coworking Survey by DeskMag found that coworking spaces in the Asia Pacific region generate 16% of their annual revenue from renting event & class space. A further 14 % was received from renting out meeting room space. That is 30% of total revenue being generated from space which can booked by the hour, half or full-day.

If your space isn’t delivering those kinds of numbers then chances are you’re not taking online external bookings, and that means that you’re missing out. If you are taking external bookings but doing it manually, then here’s your opportunity to reduce your labour costs & make that line of business more profitable, with less manual entry & errors.

How could it affect my community?

Well for starters it could make it grow! And for some, that’s exactly what they’re looking for in particular during the early start-up stages. “What about my community, what will they think??” While it is important to cater to the needs of members & your community, it is also vital that we don’t overlook the benefits of accepting external bookings. The two main benefits are:

Driving additional traffic through the space

The person attending the meeting could be looking for a coworking space to work out of or they could be in the market for a 1000sq/f private office. By accepting external bookings workspace providers are ensuring a constant flow of new people going through the space. Targeted marketing material could be placed in the room, special offers for membership could be provided to new walk-ins.

Increasing revenue

External clients will pay more for the space than the existing client base. Often internal clients or members have access to free hours or a lower hourly rate, however the price can be set higher on external bookings and there will be plenty of people out there happy to pay it.

Remember that workspace providers are competing against large hotel chains and conference centers.

How do I know if there’s a market near me?

By completing a simple competitor analysis, it will be easy to see the median price for similar meeting spaces which can determine where to set your price.

Ask yourself why you aren’t currently taking external bookings:

Is it because you want to keep the space for your members?;
Perhaps you don’t want to have to create a system to manage them?;
Have you had issues in the past?;

Then ask yourself: What systems or processes could you have implemented to manage these problems rather than just closing off the option? Life is after all about options & choice right.

O.k so there’s a market, how do I get into it?

There are many products on the market such as Meeting Hub that will manage the booking process and minimise any additional administration that comes with accepting more bookings. Often the monthly cost of these systems works out to be lower than the revenue of 1 or 2 external bookings.

So what next?

Set the guidelines. Don’t be afraid to set guidelines on external clients and use this to your advantage. An example of these guidelines is that you may require 2 days notice for external bookings, which would allow internal clients to book with shorter lead times. It could also be that an email address must be provided with the option of an opt-in to receive marketing materials.

Identify problem areas within the business and brainstorm how external bookings can be used to solve them. After all this is encouraging and allowing a whole new group of clients to come through your space and they are paying you to do so.

Often a blanket ‘we do not take external bookings’ approach is used, but if leveraged the right way they can be used to solve a variety of pre-existing issues and by implementing a management plan the benefits can far outweigh the negatives.

Case Study

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 02:13:43 GMT

APSO (Previously Asian Pacific Serviced Offices) provide fully furnished flexible workspaces across Melbourne, Adelaide & Brisbane catering to between 1 – 15 people in prime business locations. They also offer virtual offices, & meeting facilities which can be booked online using the Meeting Hub meeting room booking system .

Why use Serviced Offices or Coworking space?

These services are offered to businesses on flexible terms and are a great way for an organization to expand in a cost-effective way, without the need to commit to a long-term lease. Serviced offices and Coworking spaces are like “Hotels for business”. They have all the services that you need at your disposal from a front reception/concierge, to IT, Internet & Telephony. It’s a great way to grow into new markets for those looking to expand overseas or to activate a team by immersing them into a busy collaborative coworking space.

Why use an online meeting room booking system?

Like other serviced offices, coworking or business centre operators, APSO were looking at ways to reduce their operating costs & improve revenue in a cost-effective, sustainable way using clever technology to engage with their customers. They knew that the key to this success would be attracting new customers into their centres, at a lower cost of acquisition than their competitors to fuel their growth & expansion across Australia.

I work through a broker so why take bookings directly myself?

Sales is about doing a lot of little things right, and the greater you can expand your sales channels the better. Some of the reasons we hear people say as to why they prefer to take bookings directly off their website is:

We want to own the relationship with the customer;
I want to build our brand, not someone else’s;
I’m concerned about client churn, and my customers being enticed down the road with a better offer;

Sound familiar?

So what did they do about it?

APSO integrated Meeting Hub with their existing website which allows them to convert their existing web traffic into paying customers. Think about it, where would you prefer to book a hotel, through a site where you can search, select, book & pay or a website where you have to submit a form and wait for someone to call you back? So the decision was easy & cost effective.

Read the attached case study to learn more about how Asian Pacific Serviced Offices increased their revenue by 10%, and reduced their operating costs by 70% just by taking bookings online using Meeting Hubs meeting room booking solution.

Download the full case study here.

Tips from an Unconference First Timer

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 02:10:53 GMT

What’s all this Coworking Unconference stuff?

We hear the word conference dropped into conversation all the time. For many the concept of a conference is almost an enviable elite status; the ability to travel having time off work but with all the benefits of working ie being paid to go! But what on earth is a Coworking unconference?

An unconference is a participant-driven meeting with the content of the day being suggested and presented by the attendees. It basically means that if you want to learn more about a subject you can ask the question and bring together a room of people to answer it for you. It is an interactive, inclusive and intriguing way to immerse yourself in new ideas learning from peers and experts.

As a business development manager for Meeting Hub, my role involves engaging with clients & prospects regarding their meeting room booking solution requirements . The key to a successful Unconference is “Ad breaks”. Build relationships first, understand & genuinely get to know people and wait for them to ask what you do, and give you permission to “pitch”.

Having recently attended one of the largest Coworking Unconferences in Asia, I thought I would share my top tips for attending an unconference for the first time.

Focus on what you want to get out of this

Think about it on the flight over. Think about it on your ride in. Think about it all throughout the event days. There are so many people, so many ideas and so much content that it can be easy to become distracted and over-inspired. If you focus on your goal and keep it in the forefront of your mind you can take all the knowledge from both speakers and attendees and apply it to your goal throughout the event.

Bring business cards

Pack your business cards. Then go back and pack more. You will meet so many amazing people with whom you will want to keep in contact. The last thing you want to do is run out of business cards.

Participate and speak up

Don’t be afraid to ask questions or contribute content during a Q&A. It may be overwhelming, especially for those of us that aren’t gifted with public speaking. But there is a wealth of knowledge in the room and unless you ask your questions and contribute your ideas the topics may veer away from the information that you want to receive. Chances are someone else is the room also wants the answer to the question.

Volunteer a topic for the unconference

What better way of getting the most out of your time than proposing to run a topic. A room full of like minded individuals will join you for an interactive and community run topic. This is pure collaboration, idea sharing and networking. Find someone with similar interests and run the session together!

Jump into a conversation

If you are walking past a group of people and overhear relevant conversation, join them! Everyone is here for the same reason and your new collaboration partner could be standing in that group.

Attend the after events

It may be tempting to sneak back to your hotel and catch up on emails but going out for drinks and socialising beyond the conference walls can be the best way to make meaningful, long-lasting connections with people.

Have fun!

Don’t focus on the work you could be doing, or the long list of items you are going back to; they will be there regardless. Be present in the moment and take in all the information that you can. Actively engage in the topics, meet all the people and participate in all the activities. Use this time to realign your goals, focus on what matters most and get inspired!

There are loads of “Un”conferences out there to choose from. Meeting Hub is a regular attendee at most of these. You may have seen us at GCUC in LA (2016), or GCUC New York in 2017 and at our very own Melbourne GCUC (2017). If not, hope to see you soon at the next one! If you’re not already following the crew @ GCUC then you should check them out!

Top 5 Reasons for Meeting Room Booking Systems

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 02:15:59 GMT

In 2017 we asked those who contacted us “What is the business driver for implementing a meeting room booking system” and the answers received were not dissimilar to previous years. It seems that those core business drivers remain as important as ever, and as competition and growth continues in the Business Centre, Coworking, Serviced Office and Executive Office sector it’s not set to change in a real hurry either.

Whats interesting is when you dig underneath the top level reasons you discover the underlying issues are all to common. We encounter these daily when working with business owners, operations managers, sales & marketing teams. It’s not uncommon that during our discovery phase and implementation that we uncover at least 3 out of these 5 drivers every time.

Attract new customers

The number 1 reason given for implementing an online meeting room booking system like Meeting Hub is to attract new customers. Smart operators know that by taking external bookings they increase the number of people coming into their space. Imagine, if you have just 1 external conference room booking per week for 5 people. That’s 25 new potential customers that just walked through your door.

Increase revenue

A close 2nd reason for taking bookings via an online system is to increase revenue. Not just from external customers but internal customers as well. By making the booking process easier, operators know that their customers will book more often. We see this all the time and use a hotel analogy, which hotel will you book your vacation through? The one where you can search for a room, retrieve the rate and book / pay with your credit card, or the hotel where you submit a form and wait for someone to call you back? By which time, you’ve already found another hotel and booked there.

Reduce operating costs

Meeting room bookings is a balance between booking volume vs. booking value, and anyone will tell you that the more volume you do the greater your costs will be. But its not just volume that contributes to this increase in costs. Is surprising in 2018 that so many operators are still using manual processes to manage their meeting room bookings. Google calendars, spreadsheets, honesty boxes at reception – we’ve seen them all!

Reduce admin errors

Closely linked to reducing operating costs is reducing admin errors. There’s no busier place in a shared workspace environment than reception, so its no wonder that sometimes between greeting visitors, answering the phone, topping up the water cooler and ducking out to get more milk that things go astray. Add to this when there are multiple systems that can’t exchange billing data and the re-keying that occurs is a perfect opportunity for administrative errors to occur.

Maximise marketing ROI

The final in our top 5 reasons for taking meeting room bookings online was to maximise marketing ROI. Today more than ever marketing professionals are under pressure to create, manage & maintain a digital presence, whilst at the same time driving measurable value from the significant cost. In 2017 we saw an increased number of operators who wanted to be able to have a clear line of sight between a visitors Google search and map this to confirmed bookings via an online meeting room booking system.

30-Day Free Meeting Room Booking System trial

If you’re still a little unsure of your reasons for wanting to take meeting, conference and training room bookings online why not sign up for a 30-Day free trial of Meeting Hub. There’s no obligation and no need to provide a credit card or any payment information. Sign up and see how easy it is to take meeting room bookings online today!

Hosted Suite Announcement

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 02:17:40 GMT

Meeting Hub launches key integration allowing Hosted Suite customers to take bookings & payments via the operators own website with ease.

Meeting Hub announced today as part of its February 17 release it has delivered key integration with Hosted Suite , the industry leading Virtual Reception Console & call answering solution by Evo Technologies which will allow operators to convert their existing hard-earned web traffic to bookings without having to pay any commission to introducers.

And it gets better! With payments powered by Stripe funds are deposited directly into the operators own bank account and it doesn’t take months of IT work to get up and running. You could quite literally be taking bookings the very same day.

This integration provides a turn-key solution which allows Hosted Suite customers to expose their meeting, conference & training room inventory online 24 x 7 by simply bolting on the Meeting Hub front-end to the operators existing back-end Hosted Suite solution.

Alex Harrington, Head of Sales at Hosted Suite comments “Hosted Suite has always had an API which allowed our customers to build their own bespoke front-end site to extend the capabilities of our internal scheduling & reservation solution, but we recognise that not all operators have the resources or technical know-how to leverage this API fully. Meeting Hub’s out of the box integration with Hosted Suite bridges this gap instantly with a simple plug & play approach.”

Everyone knows selling offices, co-working or virtual offices is about driving foot-fall into your space, and what better way to do it than by taking bookings online and reaping the rewards of your existing marketing efforts & converting those web visitors into paying customers directly.

Steve Golding, Meeting Hub CEO & Founder “Our philosophy is simple. Solve problems with beautifully simple software. We wanted to level the playing field, make peoples’ lives easier allowing them to focus on creating great customer experiences, whilst at the same time improving the efficiency & profitability of our customers operations.”

Recent research shows that meeting & conference rooms could yield up to 4 or 5 times that of your traditional space. And by using technology to scale you can push yield management even further, not to mention the improved cash flow benefits, and the ability to enforce cancellation terms by taking payment at time of booking.

Steve notes, “We see Meeting Hub as complimentary to what operators are already doing today as part of a holistic sales & marketing approach. There’s no magic bullets here and any solution must work alongside to de-risk your other sales channels & referral sources. In the same way, the technology must also co-exist, adapt and integrate within an ever-changing landscape of internal systems.”

About Meeting Hub

Meeting Hub is a white label booking solution for meeting, conference & training room providers which is branded as the individual workspace or training centre operator. Meeting Hub allows the operator to take bookings from their own website, and process payments in over 120 currencies worldwide with funds remitted directly into the operators own bank account.

Real time dashboards allow the operator to manage efficiency & occupancy rates and respond quickly to changing needs. Meeting Hub provides a platform to instantly launch new marketing campaigns via social media allowing operators to track vouchers & discount codes to measure ROI.

Meeting Hub integrates with a wide number of off the shelf billing & AR solutions such as: Sage, Xero, Quick Books, MYOB and Microsoft Great Plains to name just a few. For those with bespoke billing solutions, Meeting Hub provides you with the ability to customise the billing file output for import into your existing billing platform, which makes the integration options endless.