A Practical Guide to Pricing Your Meeting Rooms for Maximum Profit

Look at your empty meeting room. It’s not just a space; it's a non-performing asset. Every hour it sits unused, it's costing you money in rent, utilities, and missed opportunities.

Your meeting rooms are one of the most significant potential profit centres in your coworking space. They can serve your internal members, attract the wider local business community, and dramatically increase your revenue per square foot. But pricing them is a delicate balance. The price is too high, and they sit empty. The price is too low, and you devalue your offering, leaving money on the table.

This guide provides a practical framework for calculating your costs, understanding your market, and setting a pricing strategy that maximises both bookings and profit.

Step 1: Know Your Numbers – Calculate Your Break-Even Rate

You cannot set a profitable price until you know your costs. The goal here is to calculate your "Hourly Break-Even Rate"—the absolute minimum you need to charge to cover your expenses for that room.

1. Calculate Space Cost: Determine the room's percentage of your total floor space. If the room is 100 sq ft and your total space is 5,000 sq ft, it accounts for 2% of your space. Allocate that percentage of your monthly rent/mortgage to the room.
   

2. Add Operational Costs: Factor in the room's share of monthly utilities, high-speed internet, insurance, and cleaning costs.
   

3. Factor in Amenity Costs: Add the monthly cost of consumables (coffee, tea, water, whiteboard markers) and the amortised cost of the technology (divide the price of the screen, webcam, etc., by its expected lifespan in months).
   

4. Get Your Hourly Rate: Add it all up to get a total monthly cost for the room. Then divide that by the number of potential bookable hours in a month (e.g., 8 hours/day x 20 weekdays = 160 hours).
   

This final number is your baseline. You must always charge more than this to be profitable.

Step 2: Survey the Landscape – Research Your Competition

Your prices don't exist in a vacuum. You need to know what the market will bear. Spend an afternoon researching your local competitors.

• Who to Check: Look at other coworking spaces, hotel meeting rooms, serviced offices, and even public libraries with bookable rooms.
  

• What to Note: Create a simple spreadsheet and track their hourly/daily rates, capacity, included amenities (is coffee extra?), and the quality of their tech.
  

• Find Your Position: This research will help you position yourself. Are you the premium, high-spec option with flawless tech? Are you the convenient, budget-friendly choice for quick huddles? Your pricing must accurately reflect your market position.

Step 3: Choose Your Pricing Strategy – The Core Models

With your costs calculated and your market researched, you can now build a smart pricing structure.

• The Member vs. Non-Member Model (Non-Negotiable): This is fundamental. Your members should always receive a significant discount (typically 30-50% off the non-member rate) or have a certain number of free hours included in their monthly plan. This is a core perk of membership.
  

• Tiered Pricing by Size & Spec: Not all rooms are created equal. Create clear tiers:
  

  • The Huddle Room (2-4 people): Your lowest-priced, entry-level option for quick chats and calls.
    

  • The Boardroom (6-10 people): Your mid-tier, professional standard for formal meetings.
    

  • The Conference/Training Room (10+ people): Your premium offering with top-tier AV equipment, commanding the highest price.
    

• Dynamic Pricing (The Pro Move): Maximise revenue by charging based on demand.
  

  • Peak Hours (e.g., 10 am - 4 pm, Tue-Thu): Charge your standard or a premium rate.
    

  • Off-Peak Hours (e.g., mornings, late afternoons, Mondays/Fridays): Offer a 15-25% discount to encourage bookings and increase overall utilisation.
    

• Bulk Credits and Packages: Offer a "10-Hour Meeting Pass" for a fixed price, providing a discount on the standard hourly rate. This is ideal for freelancers and small businesses that require regular but not daily access, and it secures revenue upfront.

Step 4: Rewarding Loyalty and Enhancing Value with meed

Your pricing strategy attracts customers to your door. A smart rewards strategy keeps them coming back and makes your members feel genuinely valued. This is where a simple loyalty platform can tie everything together.

• Reward Your Best Customers: With a tool like meed, you can create a simple, digital "Meeting Room Rewards" programme. Every time a member books and pays for a room, they get a digital stamp. After five stamps, they can unlock a reward, such as 50% off their next booking or a free hour. This encourages them to book all their meetings with you, rather than with the hotel down the street.
  

• A Powerful Welcome Perk: A key benefit of coworking is access to professional amenities. When a new member signs up for your space, they can instantly join your meed programme. As a welcome gift, you can automatically send them a digital voucher for "One Free Hour in a Huddle Room." It’s a fantastic perk that immediately shows them the value of your ecosystem.
  

• A Unified Community Experience: meed allows you to reward the total engagement of your members. They can earn rewards for their monthly membership, for attending community events, and for using your add-on services like meeting rooms. It consolidates a series of separate transactions into a single, cohesive, and rewarding community experience, increasing loyalty and lifetime value.
  

Pricing Your Meeting Rooms with meed

By combining an innovative, data-driven pricing strategy with a value-enhancing rewards programme, you can transform your meeting rooms from a simple amenity into a thriving, high-margin profit centre.