Meeting Room is there a market for them?

[Lucan Unlordly]

My unit is on an edge of town, 1 mile from station, business estate. It's in a good setting overlooking green fields and has bags of parking

I have a spare room some 22' square with it's own access that could be made to look quite special for not too much money and with the purchase of a decent bit of furniture and other suitable display equipment, projector etc., (loads on the auction sites)would be ideal for sales meetings and the like.

WC, kitchenette etc., all in place.

As a business proposition on it's own it may not stack up but as a secondary revenue stream has it got legs?

Is there a need?

Would the ease of parking tempt you?

 

[andygambles]

Depends on the area. Looking at £12-£15 per hour around here for meeting rooms.

 

[webgeek]

All kinds of organisations (and groups which haven't officially filed papers as an organisation) require venues for regular meetings.

Finding them and making them aware of your facility will be quite another matter entirely.

 

[10032012]

business estate = yes
industrial estate = no

which one is it?

Beware that projectors on ebay etc that are second hand are typically a working weeks worth away from needing the expensive bulb replaced.

Have you worked out the cost of furnishing vs potential rent intake? You also need to consider how you can get people to access the room... will you need staff time? Will you just hand out keys so people can let themselves in? (a bit dodgy)

You need access between 8.30 and 8pm these days Mon - Fri to be competitive. Weekends optional. Here rooms are normally booked 8-12, 1-5, (each a half day rate), 8-5 (as a full day rate) and 6-8pm from time to time for out-of-office-hour meetings. They can be booked by the hour @ £15 (slightly cheaper for smaller room) at short notice but they normally get booked morning or afternoon a month or few in advance.

If you can get it to capacity you are looking at ~£90 per day. One warning though, facilities being good and parking are yesteryear requirements (yes still important today) but many clients will want catering, refreshments like coffee/tea, biscuits and water, and video conferencing abilities... I wouldn't bother with the latter, not many business utilize it on a day-by-day basis anyway. Food and refreshments are a must (and of course you can charge extra for it). You should look for a catering firm nearby who can sort that side out if and when your clients request it. A loyalty scheme for a 5% reduction for regular bookings is what seems to be the industry standard.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

business estate = yes
industrial estate = no

which one is it?

Beware that projectors on ebay etc that are second hand are typically a working weeks worth away from needing the expensive bulb replaced.

Have you worked out the cost of furnishing vs potential rent intake? You also need to consider how you can get people to access the room... will you need staff time? Will you just hand out keys so people can let themselves in? (a bit dodgy)

You need access between 8.30 and 8pm these days Mon - Fri to be competitive. Weekends optional. Here rooms are normally booked 8-12, 1-5, (each a half day rate), 8-5 (as a full day rate) and 6-8pm from time to time for out-of-office-hour meetings. They can be booked by the hour @ £15 (slightly cheaper for smaller room) at short notice but they normally get booked morning or afternoon a month or few in advance.

If you can get it to capacity you are looking at ~£90 per day. One warning though, facilities being good and parking are yesteryear requirements (yes still important today) but many clients will want catering, refreshments like coffee/tea, biscuits and water, and video conferencing abilities... I wouldn't bother with the latter, not many business utilize it on a day-by-day basis anyway. Food and refreshments are a must (and of course you can charge extra for it). You should look for a catering firm nearby who can sort that side out if and when your clients request it. A loyalty scheme for a 5% reduction for regular bookings is what seems to be the industry standard.

Thanks all...

£12-£15 an hour may not be worthwhile.

In no particular order.

there's a kitchen sink in the corner of the room for coffee and tea making, I have 3 caterers within half a mile who could provide buffets etc.,

In respect of furniture and projectors etc., I take your point about ebay but there are auction sites selling the wares of insolvent companies and you can often take your pick of a dozen boardroom tables, wide screen TV's, screens projectors etc.,! The idea was driven by low set up costs.

 

[Talay]

£13 an hour I paid a couple of months ago for a decent set up with full kitchen including cooking facilities. At a push, I guess it could have accommodated 30 to 40 seated and over a hundred standing with perhaps 60 or 70 in rows presentation style.

I couldn't believe the remarkably low price.

To be fair, it wasn't a board room and it didn't have full audio visual but neither was it the hundreds of pounds I suspect Regus would want for such a room.

My worry in your case would be whether the potential return justifies not just the initial investment but more so the ongoing and time consuming work required to generate bookings. My guess is that your time could be better deployed elsewhere if £13 an hour is all that could be achieved.

 

[10032012]

£13 an hour I paid a couple of months ago for a decent set up with full kitchen including cooking facilities. At a push, I guess it could have accommodated 30 to 40 seated and over a hundred standing with perhaps 60 or 70 in rows presentation style.

I couldn't believe the remarkably low price.

To be fair, it wasn't a board room and it didn't have full audio visual but neither was it the hundreds of pounds I suspect Regus would want for such a room.

My worry in your case would be whether the potential return justifies not just the initial investment but more so the ongoing and time consuming work required to generate bookings. My guess is that your time could be better deployed elsewhere if £13 an hour is all that could be achieved.

My thoughts exactly. Its not the initial capital outlay but the ongoing time requirements.

 

[Fred_the_frog]

Why don't you just rent it out as an office?

With meeting rooms you aren't really guaranteeing a regular income (Some days you might have the room booked 5 times, other days it might not be booked at all). You also have to spend money trying to find lots of people who might want to use it (so you can get it booked up).

If you make it into a small office, then you only need to find one person who wants it. Yeah, you will probably make less money monthly than if you were to have the room as a fully booked meeting room, but then again, what are the chances of that?

(It's easier to find one person who wants an office for a month than it is to find lots of people who want a meeting room)

 

[10032012]

Well the per-hour is just a standard rate card. I don't think, if I had a meeting room for hire, that I would accept one hour bookings... it would have to be half day or full day.

With an hour booking, its difficult to make them back to back... everyone is going to come 10-15 mins early, and many will overrun their timeslot... simple they pay for the next hour... but what about those who are waiting? The way round that is to expect people to use it for just 50 minutes and vacate 5 minutes early... but fi you are paying for an hour...