The Canteen That Became the
Best Meeting Room in the Office

Short answer: One of our customers realized their canteen — roughly a quarter of their office's floor area — was only used two hours a day for lunch. They made it a bookable calendar resource, hung a room display outside the door, and now it works as a meeting room and quiet-work space the other six hours. Same rent, same room, several hundred percent more use out of the most expensive square meters they own.

A quarter of the office, two hours of use

Do the math most offices never do. This customer's canteen takes up about 25% of their total square meters. It's in heavy use from roughly 11:30 to 13:30 — and before this change, it sat empty the rest of the working day.

Rent, heating, cleaning and insurance don't pause between lunches. If your office costs are, say, €20,000 a month, a quarter of that — €5,000 — was paying for a room that worked a two-hour shift. Over a year, that's most of a salary spent on emptiness with good lighting.

The usual response is a shrug: "that's just what canteens are." The better response is to notice that the canteen is secretly the best-equipped room in the building.

The best-equipped meeting room you already own

Think about what's already in there: the coffee machine, a fridge with soft drinks, snacks, big tables, more chairs than any meeting room, natural light, and room to spread out. Offices pay to stock their fanciest conference room with exactly these things. The canteen has them by definition.

What it lacked was not equipment. It was bookability. Nobody dared plan a meeting there because nobody could answer two questions: is it free right now, and will it still be free at 14:00? Without an answer, the safe choice was to cram eight people into the small meeting room down the hall — while 25% of the office stood empty.

What they actually did

The setup took an afternoon, and none of it is exotic:

1. Created the canteen as a calendar resource — the same way you create any room in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
2. Blocked lunch with a recurring booking — an 11:30–13:30 event every workday. The calendar itself now protects lunch; nobody can double-book over it.
3. Mounted an iPad with The Room Display outside the door — live status, today's schedule, and tap-to-book for anyone walking past with a laptop and a need for quiet.

Now the display shows "Lunch" as a normal booking in the middle of the day, and the hours around it fill up with project meetings, all-hands prep, and people who just need a quieter table for two hours of focused work.

Why the display matters more here than anywhere

For a normal meeting room, a display is a convenience. For a repurposed space, it's the thing that changes behavior. Think of it as digital signage with a booking function: not broadcasting lunch menus, but showing live availability and taking reservations on the spot. A canteen has no meeting-room reputation — people will only start booking it when its availability is visible at the door and claiming it takes one tap. The display is what turns "technically bookable" into "actually booked."

The same logic applies to town-hall rooms used twice a month, showrooms, board rooms reserved for VIPs, and reception lounges. We've written a general guide to the numbers in the square-meter math.

The honest caveats

• Acoustics: canteens are built for chatter, not confidential calls. This room suits workshops, project meetings and quiet work — not your salary reviews.
• Kitchen noise: if staff prep lunch from 10:30, block that time too. The recurring booking should match reality, not the official lunch window.
• Cleanup culture: a bookable canteen needs the same leave-it-tidy etiquette as any room — see our meeting room etiquette rules.

FAQ

How do you stop meetings from being booked during lunch? A recurring calendar booking (e.g. 11:30–13:30 every workday) on the canteen's resource calendar blocks the time automatically — the display shows it as busy like any other meeting.

Do you need special hardware to make a canteen bookable? No — the canteen becomes a normal calendar resource in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and any iPad from 2017 onward can run the display outside the door.

What other office spaces are worth making bookable? Any large, single-purpose space with idle hours: town-hall rooms, showrooms, training rooms, board rooms, even well-furnished reception areas.

If your canteen is empty right now, this post is worth forwarding to whoever pays your office's rent.