The problem
Meeting rooms take floor space that could be let as private offices, and a booking calendar doesn't show how much each room is really used. A small room booked for 25 hours a month at $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour earns about $831£625€744A$1,200C$1,175. Let as a 3-person private office at $1,397£1,050€1,250A$2,016C$1,974 a month, the same space would bring in $565£425€506A$816C$799 more, but nobody knows which room to convert without counting a year of bookings by hand.
What the AI does
Export a year of meeting room bookings from your booking or coworking software as a spreadsheet: room, date, start and end time, and price charged. Upload it to ChatGPT and ask for the hours booked as a share of opening hours for each room, by month, weekday and hour, with a heat map and the income each room earned. Ask it to show the formula it used, and check one month by hand. You then decide whether a quiet room becomes a private office, gets an off-peak price or stays as it is. Full data analysis is on Go (about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) and above.
A worked example
A coworking space in Glasgow with 90 members has 4 meeting rooms. ChatGPT shows the smallest is booked about 25 hours a month, while the other three have room to spare even at the busiest times. The owner converts it into a 3-person private office let at $1,397£1,050€1,250A$2,016C$1,974 a month.
Before
A small meeting room earning about $831£625€744A$1,200C$1,175 a month in bookings
After
The same space let as a private office at $1,397£1,050€1,250A$2,016C$1,974 a month
What it's worth
About $339£255€303A$490C$479 a month in profit once the office is let, against about $9£7€8A$13C$13 for ChatGPT Go. The office brings in $565£425€506A$816C$799 a month more than the room did ($1,397£1,050€1,250A$2,016C$1,974 less $831£625€744A$1,200C$1,175), and $339£255€303A$490C$479 is that at an assumed 60% margin after furniture, cleaning and power.
How to set it up
- Export 12 months of meeting room bookings with room, date, start and end time and price charged. Leave out member names and companies.
- Write your opening hours at the top of the file, so the hours each room was available are clear.
- In ChatGPT Go (€8, about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) or above, upload the file and ask: 'For each room, show hours booked as a share of opening hours by month, weekday and hour, as a table and a heat map, with income per room. Show the formula you used.'
- Check one room's month by hand against your booking calendar.
- Before converting a room, check the busiest hours can still be covered by the rooms left, ask the members who book it most, and check what your lease says about alterations.
What goes wrong
- Bookings aren't use. Some members book and don't turn up, and walk-in use isn't recorded, so look in on the rooms for a couple of weeks before deciding.
- One quiet room can still matter at peak times. If every room is full on Tuesday mornings, losing one turns members away.
- Go and Plus are personal plans that can use chats for training unless you opt out in the data settings. Keep member names and companies out of the file.
- Partitions, fire exits and ventilation may need the landlord's consent and building control approval. Price those before counting the profit.