Space Utilisation

Space Utilisation metrics help you measure your performance. How well did you set your Demand Forecast and how effectively did you apply your Pricing Strategy? You use these key space utilisation metrics: Room Occupancy, Attendee Density, Total Revenue, and Revenue per Attendee. To measure overall performance, use Revenue per Area, a combination of the metrics. This displays the room size unit of measurement selected in the Database Setup (square metre or square feet).

See Multi Property Mode to learn how this page functions when you have access to several venues Any business that sells function space. For example, hotel, conference centre or a sporting arena..

Space Utilisation has four tabs:

Venue Occupancy

Shows your Function Room Occupancy, Attendee Density, Total Revenue, and Revenue per Attendee, combined for the selected function rooms. You can view the metrics either by day or summarized by month. You can filter data by selecting specific market segments, booking types, meeting class, function rooms, revenue streams, and days of the week.

Revenue per Area

Shows the total Meetings and Events revenue for your function rooms, per occupied square metre or square foot. This is the single best metric to assess overall how effectively you use your meeting space to generate revenue. Revenues include charges for food, beverage, room hire, and miscellaneous revenue streams. You can filter data by selecting specific market segments, booking types, meeting class, function rooms, revenue streams, and days of the week.

Utilisation by Function Room

Shows your Function Room Occupancy, Attendee Density, and Revenue Yield, separately for each Function Room. The tab allows you to compare your function rooms, based on how effectively you utilise their space to generate revenues. You can filter data by selecting specific market segments, booking types, meeting class, function rooms, revenue streams, and days of the week.

Weekly Input

Shows the actual revenue and attendee numbers for each function room and day, for a week at a time. These values are imported from your Sales and Catering system The system that you use to manage the bookings for your function rooms. Also known as a diary management, or meetings and events reservation system. Examples include Delphi and Opera..You might need to override them, for these reasons:

The Pre-select display options from Database Setup do not apply to Weekly Input. For example, the Weekly Input values contain House Use functions even if you unchecked that market segment.
Double counting. For example, the system double counts attendees if an event uses another meeting room as a breakout room as well as occupying a main meeting room.

SmartSpace uses these values to calculate space utilisation metrics. Therefore, review the imported data and, if necessary, override the values so that you see accurate data in the other tabs. See Verify the Weekly Input Values for Accurate Metrics for details.

See Multi Property Mode to learn how this page functions when you have access to several venues Any business that sells function space. For example, hotel, conference centre or a sporting arena..

View this video for an overview of Space Utilisation:

Using Space Utilitization

Venue Occupancy

On the menu bar, point to Performance.
Click Space Utilisation.The Space Utilisation page displays.
Click the Venue Occupancy tab.
Hover over a line or bar in the graph to view the values.
Click the calendar to select a start date in the Date range from field and an end date in the to field. The default date range is the current month's start and end dates.
Select to view the chart data Daily or Monthly. Click view to refresh the results.
Select to view the utilisation data by Room Count or Square Area.
This determines whether Room Occupancy displays as percentage of rooms occupied or percentage of total space occupied.
Click one or more filter buttons to change how you view the data. See Filters for a list of filters and how to use them.
In the legend at the bottom, click any of the metrics of Room Occupancy, Attendee Density, Total Revenue, and Revenue per Attendee to hide them in the chart.
Click the chart context menu to select a format to export the chart for presentation purposes.
Click the PDF option to convert and save the current page as a PDF file.

Revenue per Area

On the menu bar, point to Performance.
Click Space Utilisation.The Space Utilisation page displays.
Click the Revenue per Area tab.
Click the calendar to select a start date in the Date range from field and an end date in the to field. The default date range is the current month's start and end dates.
Select to view the chart data Daily or Monthly.Click view to refresh the results.
Click one or more filter buttons to change how you view the data. See Filters for a list of filters and how to use them.
Point to a line or bar in the graph to view the values.
Click the chart context menu to select a format to export the chart for presentation purposes.
Click the PDF option to convert and save the current page as a PDF file.

Utilisation by Function Room

On the menu bar, point to Performance.
Click Space Utilisation.The Space Utilisation page displays.
Click the Utilisation by Function Room tab.
Point to a line or bar in the graph to view the values.
Click the calendar to select a start date in the Date range from field and an end date in the to field. The default date range is the current month's start and end dates.
Click view to filter for those dates.
Click one or more filter buttons to change how you view the data. See Filters for a list of filters and how to use them.
In the legend at the bottom, click any of the metrics to hide them in the chart.
Click the chart context menu to select a format to export the chart for presentation purposes.
Click the PDF option to convert and save the current page as a PDF file.

Weekly Input

On the menu bar, point to Performance.
Click Space Utilisation.The Space Utilisation page displays.
Click the Weekly Input tab.
Click the calendar to select a date in the Choose end date field. The default end date is yesterday's date with the current week as the seven-day period.
Review the recorded values in the Attendees and Revenue columns by function room and date for the seven-day period.
Click Edit to edit the Attendees and Revenue values for a particular function room and date combination to reflect the actuals and avoid duplication.
Click Save to save your overrides or Cancel to discard them.
At the bottom left of the table, click last page >| and review Attendee Density, Revenue Yield, Room Occupancy, Attendee Summary, and Revenue Summary figures for each day.
At the bottom of the page, click Export to Excel to download a copy of the data in Microsoft Excel format.
Click the PDF option to convert and save the current page as a PDF file.

Data Details

To calculate the metrics, SmartSpace uses the data from your imported Sales and Catering system The system that you use to manage the bookings for your function rooms. Also known as a diary management, or meetings and events reservation system. Examples include Delphi and Opera. file, your selections on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup, and your filter selections. The metrics are based on either all market segments or the segments you selected in the Market Segment filter, regardless of your selections on the Pre-select display options tab in Database Setup.

Venue Occupancy

Metric	Description	Source	Calculation
Room Occupancy	Occupancy based on Number of Rooms : The percentage of function rooms sold compared to the number of available function rooms at the property. Occupancy based on Square Area Occupied: The percentage of function room square area sold compared to the total square area of function space available at the property. Note: Room occupancy never exceeds 100%, even if the function room has been utilized more than once in a day. Instead, multiple uses are reflected in a greater attendee density, which can be over 100%.	Occupied Rooms: Function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Attendees column on the Weekly Input tab. Overrides may indicate zero attendees while the function room is still occupied, for example. If any part of a parent room is occupied, the system counts it as one occupied room. This ensures that, for example, a parent room and its two child rooms, all of which have attendees, are counted as one room and not as three occupied rooms. Total Function Rooms: Number of function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Calculation) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	Daily View (rooms): The number of occupied function rooms divided by total number of function rooms. Monthly View (rooms): First combine the occupied function rooms for the entire month. Then divide by the result of multiplying the total number of function rooms with the number of days in the month. Daily View (area): The square area of occupied function rooms divided by total square area of function rooms. Monthly View (area): Total the square area of occupied function rooms for the entire month. Then divide by the result of multiplying the total square area of function space with the number of days in the month.
Attendee Density	The percentage of attendee capacity sold compared to the total optimum capacity for all function rooms. Room occupancy never exceeds 100%, even if the function room has been utilized more than once in a day. Instead, multiple uses are reflected in a greater attendee density, which can be over 100%.	Actual Attendees: The number of attendees from the Weekly Input tab and in function rooms that are checked for "Include in Occupancy (Attendees)", in the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup. Total Optimum Attendees: One of the Optimum Attendee Capacity columns in the Function Rooms tab of Database Setup is used as the basis for Attendee Density. The column is determined by your selection for "Default optimum attendee for occupancy % calculation", in the Settings tab of Database Setup . The "Grand Total" value at the bottom of the selected column serves as the basis for the Attendee Density calculation. Parent room and child room associations do not apply.	Daily View: The number of attendees for all rooms selected in the Weekly Input tab divided by Total Optimum Attendees for those rooms for each date. Monthly View: The number of attendees for all rooms selected in the Weekly Input tab divided by Total Optimum Attendees for each date, multiplied by the number of days in the month.
Total Revenue	The revenue achieved compared to the total optimal revenue for the designated function rooms.	Optimal Function Room Revenue: The total optimal revenue associated with any function room with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup. Function Room Revenue: The total revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	Daily View: Total Revenue for specific days. Monthly View: Total Revenue total for the month.
Revenue per Attendee	The average revenue generated per attendee based on recorded catering revenue and attendee numbers for the designated function rooms.	Actual Attendees: The number of attendees from the Weekly Input tab and in function rooms that are checked for "Include in Occupancy (Attendees)", in the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup. Total Function Room Revenue: Total revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab. Includes only function rooms that are checked for "Include in Occupancy (Revenue)", in the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	Daily View: Total Function Room Catering Revenue divided by Total Attendees for each date. Monthly View: Total function room catering revenue divided by total attendees for the month.

Revenue per Area

The filters on this tab control which metrics are included in this chart's data.

Metric	Description	Source	Calculation
Revenue per Area	The total catering revenue for function room space, generated per square metre or per square foot, depending on the unit of measurement selection in Database Setup.	Value for Square Metres or Square Feet: The Total square area value from the last row in the Function Rooms tab, in Database Setup. Total Function Room Revenue: Total catering revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	Daily View: Total function room catering revenue divided by total square metres or feet for each date. Monthly View: Total function room catering revenue divided by daily square metres or feet and multiplied by the number of days in the month.

Metric

Description

Source

Calculation

Revenue per Area

The total catering revenue for function room space, generated per square metre or per square foot, depending on the unit of measurement selection in Database Setup.

Value for Square Metres or Square Feet:

The Total square area value from the last row in the Function Rooms tab, in Database Setup.

Total Function Room Revenue: Total catering revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab.

Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

Daily View: Total function room catering revenue divided by total square metres or feet for each date.

Monthly View: Total function room catering revenue divided by daily square metres or feet and multiplied by the number of days in the month.

Utilisation by Function Room

The filters on this tab control which metrics are included in this chart's data.

Metric	Description	Source	Monthly Calculation
Function Room Occupancy	The percentage of days each function room was sold compared to the number of days in the range selected. Note that room occupancy never exceeds 100%, even if the function room has been utilized more than once in a day. Instead, multiple uses are reflected in a greater attendee density, which can be over 100%.	Occupied Rooms: Function rooms occupied for the corresponding date(s) on the Weekly Input tab. If one or more parts of a parent room are occupied, the system counts it as one occupied room. This ensures that a parent room and its two child rooms, all of which have attendees, are counted as one room and not as three occupied rooms. Function rooms shown on this graph are those for which the "Include in Occupancy (Calculation)" checkbox is selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	The number of days each included function room was used during the date range divided by the total number of days in the date range.
Attendee Density	The percentage of attendee capacity sold compared to the total optimum capacity for all designated function rooms. Note that room occupancy never exceeds 100%, even if the function room has been utilized more than once in a day. Instead, multiple uses are reflected in a greater attendee density, which can be over 100%.	Total Optimum Attendees: One of the Optimum Attendee Capacity columns in the Function Rooms tab of Database Setup is used as the basis for Attendee Density. The column is determined by your selection for "Default optimum attendee for occupancy % calculation", in the Settings tab of Database Setup. The "Grand Total" value at the bottom of the selected column serves as the basis for the Attendee Density calculation. Total Attendees: The attendee value for the function room from the Weekly Input tab. *Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	The sum of attendees for the included room for all days included in the range divided by (the optimum capacity for the room multiplied by the number of days in the date range).
Revenue Yield	The percentage of revenue achieved compared to the total optimal revenue for the designated function rooms.	Optimal Function Room Revenue: The total optimal revenue associated with any function room with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup. Function Room Revenue: The total revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab. * Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.	Average Revenue Yield: The total function room revenue for the function room for the range of dates selected divided by (Optimal Function Room Revenue multiplied by the number of days in the date range).

Metric

Description

Source

Monthly Calculation

Function Room Occupancy

The percentage of days each function room was sold compared to the number of days in the range selected.

Note that room occupancy never exceeds 100%, even if the function room has been utilized more than once in a day. Instead, multiple uses are reflected in a greater attendee density, which can be over 100%.

Occupied Rooms: Function rooms occupied for the corresponding date(s) on the Weekly Input tab. If one or more parts of a parent room are occupied, the system counts it as one occupied room. This ensures that a parent room and its two child rooms, all of which have attendees, are counted as one room and not as three occupied rooms. Function rooms shown on this graph are those for which the "Include in Occupancy (Calculation)" checkbox is selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

The number of days each included function room was used during the date range divided by the total number of days in the date range.

Attendee Density

The percentage of attendee capacity sold compared to the total optimum capacity for all designated function rooms.

Total Optimum Attendees: One of the Optimum Attendee Capacity columns in the Function Rooms tab of Database Setup is used as the basis for Attendee Density. The column is determined by your selection for "Default optimum attendee for occupancy % calculation", in the Settings tab of Database Setup. The "Grand Total" value at the bottom of the selected column serves as the basis for the Attendee Density calculation.

Total Attendees: The attendee value for the function room from the Weekly Input tab.

*Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

The sum of attendees for the included room for all days included in the range divided by (the optimum capacity for the room multiplied by the number of days in the date range).

Revenue Yield

The percentage of revenue achieved compared to the total optimal revenue for the designated function rooms.

Optimal Function Room Revenue: The total optimal revenue associated with any function room with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

Function Room Revenue: The total revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab.

* Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

Average Revenue Yield: The total function room revenue for the function room for the range of dates selected divided by (Optimal Function Room Revenue multiplied by the number of days in the date range).

Weekly Input

Note: The filters that apply to the other tabs, do not apply to the Weekly Input tab.

Legend	Description	Source
Not Overridden value	Original Attendee and Revenue values that are not edited.	Original Attendee and Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and catering system export files. Includes function rooms with either the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) option selected, the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) selected, or both. These checkboxes are selected on the Function Room Tab in Database Setup.
Overridden value	Attendee and Revenue values that have been edited.	Original Attendee and Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and catering system export files. Includes function rooms with either the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) option selected, the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) selected, or both. These checkboxes are selected on the Function Room Tab in Database Setup.
Not included in Attendee or Revenue Occupancy	Attendee and Revenue values that cannot be edited.	Original Attendee and Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and catering system export files. When a function room has either the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) or the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) option selected, there is no ability to edit the non-selected value in this column. A function room without either selected is not listed on the Weekly Input tab.

Legend

Description

Source

Not Overridden value

Original Attendee and Revenue values that are not edited.

Original Attendee and Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and catering system export files. Includes function rooms with either the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) option selected, the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) selected, or both. These checkboxes are selected on the Function Room Tab in Database Setup.

Overridden value

Attendee and Revenue values that have been edited.

Not included in Attendee or Revenue Occupancy

Attendee and Revenue values that cannot be edited.

Original Attendee and Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and catering system export files. When a function room has either the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) or the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) option selected, there is no ability to edit the non-selected value in this column. A function room without either selected is not listed on the Weekly Input tab.

Metric	Description	Source
Function Room	The name of the function room.	Function room data from the individual event rows in the Sales and Catering system The system that you use to manage the bookings for your function rooms. Also known as a diary management, or meetings and events reservation system. Examples include Delphi and Opera. export file. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) and Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkboxes selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Attendees	The actual recorded attendee number for a function room on a specific date.	Attendee data from the individual event rows in the Sales and Catering system export file. See Verify the Weekly Input Values for Accurate Metrics for best practice to avoid double counting of attendees. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Revenue	The actual recorded revenue for a function room on a specific date.	Revenue data from the individual event rows in the Sales and Catering system export file. See Verify the Weekly Input Values for Accurate Metrics for best practice to avoid double counting of revenue. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Attendee Density (Attn. dens.)	The percentage of attendee capacity sold compared to the Total Optimum Attendees for all designated function rooms.	Total Optimum Attendees: One of the Optimum Attendee Capacity columns in the Function Rooms tab of Database Setup is used as the basis for Attendee Density. The column is determined by your selection for "Default optimum attendee for occupancy % calculation", in the Settings tab of Database Setup. The "Grand Total" value at the bottom of the selected column serves as the basis for the Attendee Density calculation. Total Attendees: The attendee value for the function rooms from the Weekly Input tab. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Revenue Yield (Rev. Yield)	The percentage of revenue achieved compared to the total optimal revenue for the designated function rooms.	Optimal Function Room Revenue: The total optimal revenue associated with any function room with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup. Function Room Revenue: The total revenue of function rooms with recorded or overridden values in the Revenue column on the Weekly Input tab. Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Revenue) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Function Room Occupancy (Room Occ.)	The percentage of function rooms sold compared to the number of available function rooms at the property.	Occupied Rooms: Function rooms selected for the corresponding date on the Weekly Input tab. If any part of a parent room is occupied, the system counts it as one occupied room. This ensures that a parent room and its two child rooms, all of which have attendees, are counted as one room and not as three occupied rooms. Total Function Rooms: The number of function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Calculation) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.
Attendee Sum (Att. Sum)	The total number of attendees for a function room.	Attendee data from the individual event rows in the Sales and Catering system export file. *Includes only function rooms with the Include in Occupancy (Attendees) checkbox selected on the Function Rooms tab in Database Setup.

Best Practices

Analyse Step by Step

Start in the Venue Occupancy tab by viewing only the Room Occupancy metric. Click in the legend to hide the other two metrics. Focus on busy days when you had more than 75% Room Occupancy. Those are medium to high demand dates when your Pricing Strategy should have been able to push for higher attendee numbers and revenue. On dates with a lower threshold you were likely not very selective in what demand to accept. Then, add back Attendee Density to analyse those dates with high Room Occupancy.
Check dates with low Attendee Density. It might mean that you accepted lower density in exchange for higher revenues, for example by charging set-up or very high room rental. To find out, add back the Revenue Per Attendee metric. If that metric is also low, check your Demand Forecast - did you underestimate demand and therefore accept too much low-density, low-revenue demand?
Investigate dates with high Attendee Density. If the Revenue Per Attendee values are low, it might mean that attendees were double counted. See Verify the Weekly Input Values for Accurate Metrics for details. Otherwise, it probably means that you sold function rooms twice.
To investigate further, or to compare performance by function room, use the Utilisation by Function Room tab.

Analyse Past Periods

Use the graphs to look at past dates only. Since the data includes bookings of every status, including Prospect The booking status of an unconfirmed event. You have no verbal or written confirmation, but you might hold space provisionally., forward looking data is not very accurate for most of our clients.

Promote Space Utilisation Metrics

These metrics are very useful for checking strategy, but you might need to promote them. For example, you might not have used a metric like Revenue Per m² or sq ft in the past. It is the most direct reflection of how effectively you use your meeting space to generate revenue, but it will take you a while to detect patterns and know when values are unusually high or low. Promote the metrics by regularly reviewing them with team members in meetings, for example in a weekly Revenue Meeting. It’s great way to get Meetings and Events on the agenda!

Verify the Weekly Input Values for Accurate Metrics

You need to check attendee numbers to ensure accurate metrics, ideally every day. Here are two examples of why this is important:

The attendee values from the Sales and Catering system import might include double counting. For example, an event for 100 attendees has a meeting room for 100, a lunch for 100 and five breakout rooms for 20 each. In the Sales and Catering system that double counts attendees as 300. The system uses 300 to calculate space utilisation metrics. To avoid incorrect metrics, like Attendee Density, use the Weekly Input tab to override the 300 attendees to 100.
The values include business types that are unchecked in Pre-select display options under Database Setup.For example, you might have unchecked the market segment for House Use functions. But the attendee and revenue data for each function room includes that market segment. Override the input so that the value excludes House Use.

When you override attendee revenue or values, they are displayed in purple colour. The system uses those to calculate the metrics and doesn't override them during later data imports. Therefore, update the Weekly Input values only after the values from your Sales and Catering system The system that you use to manage the bookings for your function rooms. Also known as a diary management, or meetings and events reservation system. Examples include Delphi and Opera. are final.

Note that SmartSpace validates and corrects other potential data import issues:

If the data import of a single booking contains two event lines for the same day and the same function room, the system totals the values for revenue on each line. For attendee numbers it takes only the maximum attendee value on the events lines to avoid duplication.
The system automatically filters out duplicate attendee numbers when you serve food and beverages in the same room as the meeting or event.

Accurate Configuration Ensures Meaningful Metrics

All Space Utilisation metrics are based on your selections in Database Setup, see the definitions in the Data section. For example, meaningful Attendee Density values depend on you accurately defining how many attendees each function room can accommodate, in the Optimum Delegate Capacity field.