The amount of time between when a booking is made and when the reserved resource is actually used, often controlled by policy.
Booking lead time is the gap between reservation and use. If an employee books a desk on Sunday evening for Monday morning, the lead time is roughly 12 hours. If they book a meeting room two weeks out, the lead time is 14 days. Organisations set maximum lead times to prevent resource hoarding -- if someone can book a premium desk six months in advance, they might block it indefinitely.
Most desk booking systems allow administrators to configure a maximum book-ahead window. Common settings range from same-day-only to 14 or 30 days in advance. The right setting depends on how predictable your workforce's schedule is and how scarce the resources are.
Analysing booking lead time data reveals user behaviour patterns. Very short lead times may indicate a culture of spontaneity. Very long lead times may indicate anxiety about availability, suggesting you might need more resources or better policies.
A desk booking system where employees reserve a specific desk in advance, rather than choosing one on arrival like hot desking.
A set of configurable rules that govern how resources can be reserved, including lead times, maximum durations, cancellation windows, and access restrictions.
Rules and workflows that automatically handle booking tasks like recurring reservations, no-show releases, waitlist promotions, and notifications.
The percentage of bookings where the person who reserved a resource does not show up or check in, wasting the reserved capacity.