Meeting Room Statistics You Need to Know

If anything, the pandemic has taught solopreneurs and businesses that business flexibility is critical. What might work one week may no longer be appropriate a few weeks later. For example, many businesses opened their offices and began recommenced internal and external meetings in one way or the other earlier this summer. However, due to the emergence of the delta variant, many closed their offices (or postponed reopening them) and either eliminated or reduced the number of in-person meetings and interactions. 

Meeting Rooms During the Pandemic Recovery

Along with coworking space, utilization of rented meeting space was rapidly growing before the pandemic. And while the pandemic certainly had a detrimental impact on the market in 2020, there has been a significant resurgence in 2021. Some businesses concluded that permanent office space was simply not needed. Coworking space and rented meeting rooms give them the ability to give employees a place to work when collaboration is needed and rented meeting rooms offer them a professional, on-demand meeting space—where they pay for the space only when they use it. 

Initial indications show that the pause occurring as a result of the delta variant gives workers more impetus in arguing for hybrid workplaces and greater flexibility. Michelle Wax, founder of the American Happiness Project, observed the following: “The more you can allow employees to ‘customize’ their working environment, the better. Depending on personality, their family dynamic at home, and work styles can affect this ‘customization’—allowing team members to implement hybrid working, commuting on their own schedules around meetings to avoid rush hour, or allotting ‘no meeting’ time blocks for productivity and focus are all great solutions to allow for more flexibility and freedom.”

8 Meeting Room Statistics and Trends

Meeting room statistics are helpful for solopreneurs and businesses seeking to understand the trends and how they can leverage rented meeting rooms for optimal value. 

1. 73% of Workers Want Continued Flexibility

A Microsoft study reveals that 73% of workers want their employees to continue providing remote working arrangements. Those employers seeking to return to permanent offices are finding it will be difficult, with employees vocally remonstrating against doing so—a perfect example being Apple.

2. 66% of Businesses Plan to Redesign Office Space

As organizations and individuals move to hybrid work environments, traditional office designs no longer work. Two-thirds of business executives indicate they are considering redesigning office space to fit the new parameters of hybrid work. The upside is most coworking spaces and rented meeting room facilities already are designed to meet the needs of hybrid work. Rather than extending expensive leases and spending money on office redesigns, businesses should consider using coworking space and rented meeting space instead. And even in instances where businesses elect to retain permanent office space, virtual office space provides a great option for meetings that cannot be hosted in their permanent space.

3. Meeting Room Reservations Return to 70% of Pre-COVID Levels

Data from Davinci Meeting Rooms earlier this year showed that meeting room reservation transaction volumes have returned to almost 70% of pre-COVID levels. With many meeting room facilities employing best-in-class cleaning and air ventilation systems, workers and businesses are gaining greater confidence in the safety of in-person meetings.

4. Digitization of Virtual Meeting Room Solutions Is 15 Years Old

Digitization of the virtual office solution industry is more than 15 years old. Providers such as Davinci Virtual Office Solutions, which touts global presence with over 20,000 meeting spaces and short-term offices (including coworking space), enable solopreneurs and businesses to embrace hybrid work models.

5. Robotic Cleaners on The Horizon

Companies that manufacture and sell cleaning and sanitizing products saw the demand for their products soar over the past year. One of the areas where experts predict we will see a transformation in coming years is in the use of robots to perform the work—and it is actually happening already in some places. “Customers now care more about their safety and the safety and health of workers,” Blake Morgan, the author of The Customer of the Future, says. “Moves towards automation can keep them all healthier and customers will reward companies that do this.”

6. Ability to Connect Any Device (BYOD)

The average worker has around four connected devices today, a number that is predicted to increase to over nine by 2025. To facilitate productivity and collaboration, meeting rooms must accommodate workers who want to connect these different devices during a meeting. Meeting room providers must make it easy and fast for meeting room attendees to connect their devices, and the connections must deliver high and reliable speeds.

7. Participation and Collaboration for Both In-person and Virtual Attendees

In the world of hybrid work, most meetings will include virtual attendees. Meeting rooms, as a result, must include video conferencing capabilities that make it simple for virtual attendees to connect and participate in the meeting. Inclusion of digital collaboration tool is important here, with 36.2 million workers the U.S. expected to work remotely by 2025—up 87% over pre-pandemic levels. 

8. Tuesdays and Wednesdays Are the Best Days for Meetings

Research reveals that workers prefer Tuesdays (29%) as the best day of the week for meetings, with Wednesdays as a close second (25%). Mondays are the worst day of the week for meetings (47%), followed by Fridays (40%). The takeaway is that those scheduling meetings and reserving rented meeting rooms may want to look to Tuesdays and Wednesdays for meeting days.

Use Rented Meeting Rooms to Make Meetings Successful

Much has been written on meeting trends and statistics. Lack of planning and poor meeting facilitate typically top the list. Another often-cited reason for poor meetings is too many meetings. Ironically, during the pandemic, the number of meetings workers attend actually increased 10%. Yet, at the same time, the majority of workers—and businesses—indicate their productivity increased during the pandemic. 

Rented meeting rooms offer solopreneurs and businesses a great hybrid-work option. Selecting the right space in terms of size, available collaboration and presentation technologies, and business services are important success factors. Solutions like Davinci Meeting Rooms provide solopreneurs and businesses with all of the above and more. 

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence. LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn Website: www.tirocommunications.com