The Problem with Shared Meeting Rooms
In most offices and coworkings, meeting room booking runs on a whiteboard, a shared spreadsheet or a front desk that answers the same question all day: "Is the Board Room free at two?" Double bookings happen, rooms sit empty while people think they are taken, and outside guests who want to rent a room for a workshop have to email and wait.
Meetario gives every room its own online booking page with a live schedule. Members and guests see what is free, pick a time and get a confirmation by email. You get notified about every booking. This guide uses a coworking with two rooms as an example: Room A (6 people) and the Board Room. For a short overview, see Meetario for meeting rooms.
How Rooms Work in Meetario
Each room is an event type with resource mode switched on. Resource mode makes the room behave like a place rather than a person:
- A room is only blocked by its own bookings, so Room A and the Board Room can be booked at the same time by different people.
- Room bookings never block your own personal meeting types, and your personal Google or Outlook calendar does not block the rooms.
- Room bookings are not copied into your personal calendar, so it stays clean. You still receive a notification for each booking.
- The public page says "at {your company name}" instead of "with {your name}", which is exactly how a room should be presented.
Step-by-Step Setup
- Create the first room. Go to Event Types → New Event Type and pick the Individual tile. Name it "Room A (6 people)". Putting the capacity in the name helps people choose the right room at a glance.
- Choose the slot length. Set Duration. For meeting rooms, 30 minutes works well because many meetings are short. For rooms rented to outside guests, 60 is common.
- Switch on resource mode. In the Scheduling section, tick This is a room or resource.
- Allow longer bookings. Tick Clients can book several slots in a row and set Up to N slots per booking. With 30-minute slots and a limit of 8, people can book from 30 minutes up to 4 hours. On the booking page they will see "How long do you need?" and choose the length before picking a start time.
- Give the room a short reset. A Buffer After of 10 or 15 minutes leaves time to clear the table and air the room before the next group.
- Use working hours as opening hours. In the Availability section, set the weekly hours, for example Monday to Friday 08:00–20:00, and leave Saturday and Sunday off if the building is closed. Rooms are only bookable inside these hours.
- Collect the details you need. Add custom fields such as "Company name", "Number of people" or "Need a projector?".
- Save and duplicate the setup for the Board Room. You can give it different hours, a different slot length and, if you charge for it, a different price.
Running Several Rooms in Parallel
Because each room has its own independent schedule, there is nothing special to configure for parallel use. If a startup books Room A from 10:00 to 12:00, the Board Room stays fully available for the same hours. Each room only looks at its own bookings.
This also means you can add rooms gradually. Start with your most popular room, see how members use it, then add the rest. A phone booth or podcast corner can be set up the same way.
Charging Outside Guests
If you rent rooms to non-members, turn on Paid Event in the Payment panel on the right side of the event type form, enter the Price, choose the Currency and the Gateway. Connect the gateway first via the avatar menu → Workspace integrations: Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Adyen, Checkout.com, Mangopay, Worldpay and Hyperwallet are supported, the money goes straight to your account and Meetario takes 0% commission. The price is per slot, so a 2-hour booking of a 60-minute room costs twice the price. See Hourly Pricing, Minimum Booking Length and Cleaning Buffers.
A common pattern is two event types for the same space: a free one shared only with members and a paid one for the public. Keep in mind that these are two separate schedules, so a booking in one does not block the other. If both are open at the same time, it is safer to keep a single event type per physical room.
Notifications for Everyone
Every booking triggers a round of notifications automatically:
- The person who booked gets an email confirmation and email reminders before the booking. On the confirmation screen they can also opt in to Telegram or Viber reminders, or tick the WhatsApp option on the form, if you have connected those messengers.
- You (the owner) get a new booking notification by email and in any messenger you connected: Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber or Slack. A Slack channel for the front desk is a handy way to keep the whole team informed.
Putting the Booking Calendar on Your Website
Members will use the rooms more if booking is one click away. Each room has its own link, and your profile page at /booking/{your-username} lists them all. Even better, create a widget that shows every room on your website or intranet. The full walkthrough is in Add a Room Booking Calendar to Your Website.
Tips
- Put capacity and equipment in the room name or description, for example "Room A (6 people)" and "Board Room, 12 seats, TV screen".
- Use Minimum Notice (for example 1 hour) if the room needs to be prepared before each booking.
- Use Book Up To (for example 30 days) so nobody reserves the Board Room every Monday for the next year.
- Post the room link on the door as a QR code, so people can book the next free slot on the spot.
- Keep your personal calendar separate. Since room bookings do not land in your personal Google or Outlook calendar, use Meetario notifications or the events list in your dashboard to see who is coming.
Get Your Rooms Online Today
Sign up for Meetario for free, create your first room and share the link with your members. Running a creative space instead? Read How to Rent Out a Photo Studio by the Hour.