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Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning · Hospitality

Meeting space utilisation per property: sold hours against available, and the days nobody sells

How a hotel group measures its meetings and events space from the function diary: sold hours over available hours per room per property, revenue per available square metre, the day-of-week and month pattern, the properties whose function space sells out on Tuesdays and sits empty on Fridays, the group bookings that took space without rooms, and the identity that function revenue in the diary equals function revenue in the ledger.

The short answerFunction space utilisation is sold hours over available hours per room per property, from the function diary, with revenue per available square metre beside it. Cut by day of week and month, it shows the properties whose space sells out midweek and sits empty at weekends, which is a packaging and pricing question rather than a demand one. Bookings that took function space without a rooms block are shown separately, because they displace room-generating events. The diary's function revenue reconciles to the ledger's, so utilisation is not a sales manager's estimate.

A hotel's function space is sold by a team that knows it is busy. The function diary knows it is busy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at sixty percent on Mondays and Thursdays, and empty from Friday to Sunday, and that a third of the midweek events brought no rooms. This guide sets out utilisation per room and property, revenue per square metre, the weekly pattern, space-only bookings, and the identity.

The measures

Per room, per property, per period:

Utilisation = sold hours ÷ available hours Revenue per available square metre = function revenue ÷ (square metres × available days)

By day of week and month: utilisation and revenue.

Per booking:

Space-only if function space is booked with no rooms block

The rows you need

  • Function diary: booking, property, room, date, start, end, revenue, rooms block reference.
  • Room master: room, square metres, operating hours, turnaround allowance.
  • Ledger: property, function revenue by period.

Property and booking identifiers only.

The identity

Σ diary function revenue = ledger function revenue, per property per period

A diary booking with revenue not in the ledger is unbilled or miscoded, and listed.

A worked view

Property Function space, m² Utilisation Revenue per m² per month Midweek utilisation Weekend utilisation Space-only share
P-114 1,200 52% $41 84% 11% 34%
P-207 600 61% $58 70% 48% 12%
P-088 2,400 38% $22 55% 20% 8%

Property P-114 sells out midweek, sits at a tenth at weekends, and a third of its midweek events bring no rooms. Property P-207 is smaller, earns more per metre and sells its weekends.

The pattern, P-114

Day Utilisation Reading
Monday 61%
Tuesday 96% Turning business away
Wednesday 94% Turning business away
Thursday 71%
Friday 22%
Saturday 8% Weddings and social: not sold
Sunday 4%

The property is refusing Tuesday business and not selling Saturday at all. Weekend packages and weekday pricing are the answer, and the diary says by how much.

Where it goes wrong

Available hours as twenty-four. Every property looks empty.

Utilisation without revenue per metre. The busy boardroom over the empty ballroom.

Weekly pattern averaged. Fifty-two percent describes no day.

Space-only unmeasured. The ballroom full and the rooms empty.

Every month, per room and per day

Mapped once, the function diary, the room master and the ledger produce utilisation, revenue per metre, the weekly pattern, space-only share and the identity per property every month. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The hospitality page describes the setup, and the segment mix guide covers the group segment that the function space feeds.

Questions people ask

What are available hours?

Operating hours per room per day, less turnaround time between events at a stated allowance, less closures. A room counted available for twenty-four hours makes every property look empty; one counted for its saleable hours is the fair denominator.

Why revenue per square metre?

Because a boardroom at ninety percent utilisation earning less than a ballroom at forty is the wrong thing to be proud of. Revenue per available square metre puts the two on one scale, and it is the number a group-level commercial director compares across properties.

Why separate space-only bookings?

Because a conference that fills the ballroom and puts its delegates in a competitor's hotel has taken the space that a rooms-generating event would have used. Space-only bookings are legitimate and they are measured separately, so the property can decide how much of its space to sell that way.