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Meeting room booking app
Case study
Client
Techspace
Services
App Design
UI & UX Design
Industries
Flex office
Date
January 2019
Overview
Techspace, a flexible workspace provider, faced recurring challenges with the way shared meeting rooms were managed and booked across its UK and German coworking spaces.
Members frequently encountered overbooked or underused rooms, lack of transparency in booking limits and a frustrating user experience with the existing tools. Meanwhile, Techspace missed significant revenue opportunities due to its overly-generous bundled credit system and lack of enforcement or metering.
This case study outlines the need, strategy, research, design and implementation journey for creating a credit-based booking system accessed via both a web and mobile app.
Product Vision
To empower every Techspace member with a seamless, equitable and intuitive meeting room booking experience that maximises space utilisation, supports flexible working and drives operational efficiency across all sites.
Problem Definition
The legacy approach at Techspace offered generous, nearly-unlimited meeting room credits bundled with workstations on a first-come-first-served basis, booked via the reception. This resulted in:
Current limitations
- Overbooking: Members preemptively reserved rooms without commitment
- Underutilisation: Booked rooms often sat empty
- Abuse: Some enterprise clients dominated shared rooms
- Poor Member Experience: Frustration among smaller teams unable to access rooms when needed
- Missed Revenue: Competitors offered unbundled pricing, making Techspace less competitive in desk price comparisons
- No digital booking functionality
- No penalty or control for excessive use
- Manual intervention by community teams to bypass quota
- Limited data on actual usage
- Unable to sell unused meeting rooms to the wider public ('Meeting Rooms on Demand')
The Solution
Credit-based booking system app
Credit allocations defined by membership type:
- Small / medium size company: 4 credits per workstation
- Large company: 1 credit per workstation
- On-peak vs. off-peak pricing
- Community buffer credits for exceptions
- Optional bundles: 1, 10, 100 credits (discounted)
- Web, iOS and Android app
- Integrations into Techspace ERP/CRM system
- Integration with Techspace's new Member Area
Strategic Objectives
- Monetise under-utilised meeting room inventory
- Align quota with company size
- Offer flexible, credit-based booking by member type
- Deliver a modern, user-friendly digital booking experience
- Lay the foundation for Meeting Rooms on Demand (MROD)
Discovery
Conducted member interviews in both London and Berlin, supported by a wider survey pool to validate findings with online survey. Workshop with members to understand their pain points.
User Research - Surveys and Interviews
Top User Insights:
"I have to walk to the reception to book a room."
"The booking system is confusing."
"I forget the time slot I selected."
"Meeting bookings feel like potluck."
"How do you book a meeting with a colleague at 3pm tomorrow?"
Internal Data Analysis
Historical usage data revealed critical insights:
- Larger member companies teams showed disproportionate usage
- Peak-time bottlenecks common
- Rooms booked >50% of time, but only used ~30%
- Legacy workflows required multiple tools (at reception, first come first serve)
Market Analysis
Competitive analysis of major flexible workspace providers revealed varying approaches to meeting room booking:
| Provider | Pricing Model | Booking Method | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| WeWork | Pay-per-use | Mobile app | Recurring bookings, hourly charges integrated into app |
| The Office Group | Bundled & Pay-per-use | Mobile app / Web | Credit bundles that vary by membership tier |
| Huckletree | Bundled (limited) | Team lead booking | Meeting rooms require team lead approval |
| Workspace | Pay-as-you-go only | Community manager or web only | No mobile app available |
Personas
Operations-Focused CEO
Wants visibility and fair billing without micromanagement
Office Manager
Needs to ensure smooth daily bookings and justify costs to leadership
Team Member
Wants fast, reliable access to rooms with minimal friction
Design Process
Wireframes: Early layout and time selection UI
- Desktop UI: Full calendar booking with drag-and-select
- Mobile UI: Streamlined experience with booking confirmation and credit deduction
App Features
- Date/time slot selection
- Room filtering and capacity visibility
- Recurring booking configuration
- Credit allocation and tracking
Outcome
By aligning the company size with fair usage allocation and modernising the booking experience with an app, Techspace's meeting room management transformed into a strategic asset, improving both member experience and laying the foundations for further revenue by selling the product to the wider public.
Business outcomes highlights:
- Used by > 90% of members across 60 meeting rooms
- Led to over 750,000 meeting room bookings
- Improved member satisfaction
- More equitable room access across membership types
- Justified future investment in room upgrades
- Foundation laid for MROD (external bookings to the public)