Glossary

Room booking & workplace glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms behind meeting room booking, desk scheduling and workspace management.

Meeting room booking system
A meeting room booking system is software that lets people see which meeting rooms are available and reserve one for a specific time without creating scheduling conflicts.
Hot-desking
Hot-desking is a flexible workspace arrangement in which employees do not have assigned desks and instead reserve or claim any available desk when they come into the office.
Desk booking
Desk booking is the practice of reserving a specific desk or workstation in advance, typically through an app or web page, so employees know they have a place to work when they arrive.
Office hoteling
Office hoteling is a reservation-based system where employees book a desk, room, or workspace for a set period in advance, much like reserving a hotel room.
Room display
A room display, also called a room panel, is a screen mounted outside a meeting room that shows the room's current status and upcoming bookings and lets people book it on the spot.
Space utilization
Space utilization measures how much of a workspace is actually used over a period of time, usually expressed as a percentage of its available capacity.
Double booking
A double booking happens when two separate reservations are made for the same room at the same time, leaving two groups expecting the same space.
No-show (ghost meeting)
A no-show, sometimes called a ghost meeting, is a room that was booked but goes unused because the organizer or attendees never show up, leaving the space blocked for others.
Free/busy
Free/busy is calendar information that shows whether a person or resource is available or busy during a given time window, without revealing the details of their events.
Room mailbox
A room mailbox is a calendar resource in Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 that represents a bookable room and can automatically accept or decline meeting invitations.
Recurring booking
A recurring booking is a reservation that repeats automatically on a defined schedule, such as every Monday at 9am, created once and applied to many future dates.
Resource scheduling
Resource scheduling is the process of reserving shared assets, such as rooms, desks, and equipment, so their use is coordinated and free of conflicts.
Hybrid work
Hybrid work is a working model in which employees split their time between a central office and remote locations rather than working in one fixed place.
Desk neighborhood
A desk neighborhood is a group of desks set aside for a particular team or function so colleagues can sit near each other even in a hot-desking environment.
Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS)
An Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) is software that manages an organization's real estate, space, facilities, and assets in one platform, with room and desk booking as one component.
Booking check-in
Booking check-in is a step that asks the organizer to confirm they are using a reserved room, usually from an app or the room display, so unclaimed rooms can be released automatically.