Implementing Hoteling or Reservations in Archibus
Do you need reservations or hoteling?
There are several differences between the applications, usually a main question is: do you need bookings to be available down to the minute, or down to the half day?
Hoteling is bookable down to the half-day where you can choose morning, afternoon, or all-day bookings. Hoteling is normally used for working spaces and allows for space chargeback where the costs of the space are prorated back to the department that booked the base using shared workplace chargeback.
Reservations is bookable down to the minute (you set this parameter, can also be bookable in larger minimum time-frames like a half hour or hour) and each room can have its own configuration for the times it is available to be booked. This is typically used for meeting spaces and costs are charged based on a defined room rate based on the department using it and the time booked.
Another main question is: do you need the room to be bookable by multiple separate people? For example, if you are using hoteling and you set the capacity of the room to 2, two separate people can book that room separately. If you are using reservations and you set the capacity to 2, one person can book the room for up to 2 occupants.
Decision:
Do you have restrictions on who can book which room?
If yes, see this article for options for reservations and hoteling: https://knowledgebase.rsc2lc.com/archibus-workplace-hoteling-and-reservations-restrictions/
Options for Reservations: VPA, Approvals, Security Groups
Options for Hoteling: VPA, Approvals, Employee standard/room standard mapping
Decision:
Define Parameters
Hoteling Parameters
Parameter |
Setting |
Morning Start Time |
9am |
Morning End Time |
1pm |
Afternoon Start Time |
1pm |
Afternoon End Time |
5pm |
Allow Multiple Bookings (for same time period) |
No |
ConfirmationTime (minutes after start time to confirm before desk is released) |
60 minutes |
EnforceFloorCapacityTarget |
No |
FullDayBookingsOnly |
No |
HealthCheckRequired |
No |
Reservations Parameters
Parameter Code |
Parameter Description |
Parameter Value |
Arrangement Type |
Default room arrangement type |
DEFAULT |
DaysBeforeArchiving |
Data is moved from the inventory tables to historic tables for all reservations having a date older than this number of days. |
90 |
HideRoomConflicts |
Configure the level of filtering (0-8) for room conflicts when users create a recurring reservation. These rooms will be displayed: 0: all rooms available for at least one occurrence; 1: all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences; 2: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least one occurrence; 3: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least 50% of the occurrences; 4: only rooms available for all occurrences; 5: all rooms available for at least the first occurrence; 6: all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences; 7: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for at least the first occurrence; 8: only rooms available for all occurrences (if any), otherwise all rooms available for the first occurrence and at least 50% of the occurrences. |
3 |
MaxRecurrencesToCreate |
This number sets the maximum number of occurrences to process when creating a recurring reservation. Please, don’t enter a numeric value higher than 500, because of performance and technical limitations. |
250 |
MinutesTimeUnit |
Minutes of duration for each one of the time blocks displayed in the timeline control. |
15 |
ShowRoomImage |
Enable or disable the Calendar views to show images for each of the room configurations showed. Set to 1 to show the images, 0 to not show them. |
1 |
TimelineStartTime |
Initial time that will show in the timeline control (earliest time rooms are bookable) |
00:00.00.000 |
TimelineEndTime |
End time that will show in the timeline control (latest time rooms are bookable) |
24:00.00.000 |
TimelineMaxRoomsPerBuilding |
This number sets the maximum number of rooms displayed on the rooms time line when creating or editing a room reservation or conference call reservation. A lower number increases performance and reduces the height of the rooms time line. A higher number can yield more rooms to choose from in each building. |
10 |
For reservations, parameters can also be set at the room level. Please consider if you want to set these as the same or different for all rooms.
- Room Arrangement Type
- Available for Group (security group – one group only)
- Time Day Starts
- Time Day Ends
- Maximum Days Ahead (you can book)
- External visitors allowed?
- Maximum Capacity
- Minimum Capacity Required
Define Workflow
Example Workflow
Define Email Notification Contents
Please provide the email contents for each email noted in the workflow. Emails can be formatted in html. Email option information can be found here: https://knowledgebase.rsc2lc.com/rsc-sql-automation-engine-email-notification-options/
Example Email for Hoteling:
Email: HOTEL_NEW_RESERVATION
Recipient: Person who booked, cc person it was booked for (other employee or visitor)
Subject: Desk Reserved
Body (Example):
* This is an automated message. Please do not reply to this message.
Hello Jane Doe,
You’re all set. Your hotel desk reservation is booked, details are below.
Booked for (if not yourself): John Doe
Booking ID: 123
Building: HQ
Floor: 01
Desk: 101
Date: 12/31/2022
Part of Day: Morning
If you do not check in within 60 minutes of the start of your reservation it will automatically be cancelled
Find the desk here.
Check in, edit, or cancel your reservation here.
Thank you,
Space Management
Example Email for Reservations:
Email: RESERVE_NEW_RESERVATION
Recipient: Person who booked, cc person it was booked for (other employee or visitor)
Subject: Desk Reserved
Body (Example):
* This is an automated message. Please do not reply to this message.
Hello Jane Doe,
You’re all set. Your desk reservation is booked, details are below.
Booked for (if not yourself): John Doe
Booking ID: 123
Building: HQ
Floor: 01
Desk: 101
Date: 12/31/2022
Start Time: 9:00:00
End Time: 10:00:00
If you do not check in within 30 minutes of the start of your reservation it will automatically be cancelled
Find the desk here.
Check in, edit, or cancel your reservation here.
Thank you,
Space Management
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