I’ve worked in the past for a company that provided hoteling as a way to provide space to employees on an Adhoc and temporary basis. I used it primarily when shuttling between offices for group meetings or for when I was on the road and there was a local office near that I could utilize to take advantage of access to company resources and amenities such as such conference room space, phones and printers. Most the time the space that I could reserve for hoteling was far from being the choice space and was often located on the fringe of other work groups that work together on a daily basis. For me, this didn’t foster a sense of community but that often is the case when someone is utilizing a space only on a temporary basis. There was even a seeming disconnect to others who were also there using hoteling space. Temporary use of space within organizations used to be a fairly rare occurrence but the popularity of space that needs to be flexible and adaptable and enhances collaboration is now becoming the norm as companies adopt Alternative Workplace Strategies across their real estate portfolios.
Hoteling is certainly not a new concept but integrating it into an overall alternative workplace strategy that encourages inclusion and takes better advantage of available space can only be a good thing for companies who are looking at new ways to work. Managing space in a more flexible way can present some challenges to the traditional space-planning paradigm. Jon Luby of FM:Systems has created a very cool new video that demonstrates how our new zones feature can be utilized to designate space that can quickly support cross functional teams, more ad-hoc and collaborative areas, and support for flexible workspaces that break away from the practice of assigning one workstation per employee.
