Facilities: Labs, Rooms and Equipment
Your shared spaces - the AI lab, the maker space, the pitch room, the meeting lounge. Startups book them by the hour rather than renting them by the month, which makes this a different job from Office Management and a genuinely different screen.
What you will learn
- How facilities differ from office space, and why they are separate modules
- How to list a facility with amenities and availability
- How blocked timeslots control when something can be booked
- How to handle booking requests
- How to use utilisation reports to justify what you own
Facilities versus office space#
Office Management is about occupancy - who has a desk or cabin, for months at a time. Facility Management is about shared resources booked by the hour: a lab, a meeting room, a piece of equipment. Different rhythm, different screen, and on some plans they are licensed separately.
| Office Management | Facility Management | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Desks, cabins, private offices | Labs, workshops, meeting rooms, equipment |
| Booked by | Months | Hours |
| Core record | An allocation | A booking against a timeslot |
| Money | Rent, settlements, payouts | Usually free to your cohort |
| Tabs | Eight | Three |
You may not have this module
Facility Management is not included in every subscription tier. If it shows a padlock in your menu, it is not part of your plan - see Your Subscription, Chat and Notifications.
Listing a facility#
Add Facility opens a full page rather than a dialog, because there is more to say about a lab than about a desk. A live preview on the right tracks what you have filled in.
- Facility Name and Description - say what is actually in there, not just what it is called.
- Type: Workshop, Meeting Room, Equipment and similar. The type appears as a badge in the directory.
- Total Units - how many people or simultaneous users it supports.
- Location - 'Innovation Block, 1st Floor' beats 'Room 4'.
- Status: Active facilities can be booked; inactive ones stay on record but disappear from the booking list.
Amenities#
The amenity checklist here is built for labs and workshops rather than offices, which is a good sign you are in the right module. There is a box to add your own if something is missing.
- Equipment-oriented options: GPU Clusters, Workstations, Lab Equipment, Clean Room, 3D Printers, Tools, Safety Equipment.
- Studio-oriented options: Recording Equipment, Stage, Professional Lighting, Seating, Storage.
- Custom amenities can be typed in and added.
Tip
Be specific in amenities. 'Lab Equipment' tells a founder nothing; adding a custom amenity like 'Keysight oscilloscope' tells the one founder who needs it that your lab is worth booking.
Controlling when it can be booked#
This is the part with no equivalent in Office Management. Rather than setting opening hours, you block the times a facility is not available - and everything else stays bookable.
- Quick Presets apply a block across Weekdays, the Weekend, or All Days in one click.
- Each day of the week can also be blocked individually with the plus button.
- The counter at the top tells you how many blocks are in place.
- A Visual Calendar underneath shows appointments day by day, so you can see the effect of what you have blocked.
Careful
The logic is inverted from what people expect. With no blocks at all, a facility is bookable around the clock - including 3am, which is exactly the sort of slot that turns up in real request lists. Block your closed hours before you publish a facility.
Handling booking requests#
Requests are where startups ask for time in a facility. Each row shows who is asking, which facility, the exact time slot they want and their stated purpose.
- Search by startup or facility, and filter by status.
- The Purpose column is the useful one - a one-word purpose usually means the request needs a conversation, not an approval.
- Rejected requests stay in the list, which is what you want when someone asks why they did not get the lab.
Tip
If most of your requests are rejected, look at why before assuming your startups are being unreasonable. Unrealistic time slots usually mean your blocked hours were never set up, so the booking form offered times you were never going to approve.
Reports that justify the equipment#
The Reports tab answers the two questions a director or funder actually asks: is the expensive equipment being used, and what should we buy next?
Low utilisation, high cost
A lab at 1% that cost a fortune is a conversation to have early. Either promote it to your cohort or stop paying to maintain it.
High demand, limited slots
A facility near the top of Most Requested with low utilisation usually means your blocked hours are too restrictive, not that demand is low.
Evidence for a grant
'Our AI lab ran at 20% utilisation across 40 bookings this year' is the sort of line that supports a capital equipment request.
Spot the unused
Facilities sitting at 0% either are not known about, are badly named, or should be repurposed.
Common questions#
It is not included in your subscription tier. That is a plan matter, not a permissions one - no role change will unlock it. Check the Plans page to see which tier includes it.
Office Management is long-term occupancy - desks and cabins held for months, often with rent attached. Facility Management is hourly booking of shared resources like labs and meeting rooms. Separate modules, separate screens.
You have not blocked your closed hours. With no blocks in place a facility is bookable around the clock. Use the Weekdays or All Days preset to block overnight, then adjust per day.
Set its status to inactive. It stays in your records and reports but stops appearing as bookable. Do not delete it - you would lose the usage history.
Facility Management is built around availability rather than rent. Charged, long-term occupancy belongs in Office Management, which has the pricing, settlement and payout machinery.
That is common and worth investigating rather than hiding. It usually means either the facility is not known about, or your blocked hours leave too few bookable slots. Compare utilisation against the Most Requested list to tell the two apart.
