Room Reserve? But, why? Claudia explains…

Here’s a post from Claudia Hackworth, our Senior Account Manager.

Q: I already have Events at my library (or are considering it), but not Room Reserve. Can’t we just book outside groups into the Event calendar instead of adding Events?

A: Well, of course you can, but there are a LOT of great reasons why we created 2 separate modules – Events manages the programs, and Room Reserve manages the spaces and equipment. Here are some things to think about as you decide what will work best in your library’s situation:

1. Adding a room reservation into Events is somewhat cumbersome – Events was designed to manage the program, not the room and group info. That’s why there are two modules. With only Events, you can’t ask the group questions you require in your room request form, so either someone’s going to fit it into the internal notes field (not easily available for viewing OR searching), or staff will have to keep paper lying around. PAPER! In 2010!!

2. Without Room Reserve, the public can’t see what rooms are available. That means the requesting process becomes bogged down in patrons asking a staff person to find them a room, every single time. Don’t your librarians have better, more librarian-like things to do?

3. Without Room Reserve, you can’t track ‘bad patrons’ or ‘no shows’ or ‘deny future requests’ information. Events doesn’t store such info.

4. With Room Reserve, you CAN differentiate well between room usage (library programs versus outside group usage), so your statistics are neat and clear!

5. You can’t charge people $$, deposits or fees, on rooms or equipment, without enabling Room Reserve. Are you trying to find a new income stream for the library? Here’s a great way to help make it EASY for the public to give you money!

6. Without Room Reserve, the requesting group will either: A) not be able to see the reservations they’ve made, or B) the larger public will be confused that a private group meeting is on your library program calendar. They also can only cancel their own reservations if you have Room Reserve!

7. If you use Room Reserve, then ANY staff member can at least help a patron submit a room request, tell them where their meeting is being held, etc. At the most they can book the room for them, change it, add equipment, etc.

8. You can’t send automated request confirmations, reservation confirmations/denials, or reminders for Room Reservations with just Events.

9. If you TRY to manage separate attendance statistics in Events for both outside groups and library programs, ensuring accurate statistics is going very difficult and require a lot of data massage. Who likes data massage??

10. You cannot manage room setup, equipment, maximum/minimum capacities, combined rooms, etc. in Events.

11. It’s EASY to request equipment for library programs within Events if you also have the integrated Room Reserve software!

12. With Events alone, you cannot limit how far into the future reservations can be made (it’s up to the staff person entering it if you just use Events), nor can you limit the number of reservations within a given time period (say, 3 reservation in 6 months). Room Reserve does all this for you.

13. You need Room Reserve if you think you’ll ever need/want to manage study rooms or tutoring rooms, either mediated or unmediated.

14. Do you want a demo?? Just email sales@evancedsolutions.com and we’ll get one set up just for your library.