Catering and services

Easily add food, equipment, and other services to your meetings whenever needed. Catering & services help you create and manage on-demand services, turning regular meetings into great experiences. Improve your team’s productivity and comfort by offering a premium meeting environment that meets everyone's needs.

Event organizers can request different and entirely customizable services for each meeting: food, drinks, IT equipment, stationery, creative supplies, hygiene items, really whatever the meeting attendees may need for a pleasant and efficient meeting.

1. Add catering and services

Navigate to the Admin Portal, go to Meeting room settings, and select Catering & services.

When you click Add category, you can add the category name, the different items belonging to  it, the provider email, and an optional description:

Each category can have different providers, e.g., catering@deskbird.com and itequipment@deskbird.com. The assigned service providers receive email notifications with detailed requests for the required items, the meeting time, and the date.

They are also informed of any changes to the event or service request, such as date/time changes or updates to quantities and notes. Time and date updates are shared with all providers, while specific service updates are shared only with the relevant service category owner.

2. Enable it per meeting room

Catering and services can be enabled or disabled on a per-meeting room basis via the toggle on the bottom right side of each meeting room:

After enabling catering for the desired meeting rooms, return to the web app and navigate to Book > Meeting Rooms. In the upper right corner, you'll find various filters, such as capacity. You can now also filter meeting rooms based on whether catering is active.

3. Add catering and services to your meeting

As soon as you have set up the categories, adding the necessary items for each meeting will be as easy as it gets.

As you can see from the picture, the meeting organizer can specify quantities and add notes for each service item needed.

4. Export the catering & services data

Admins can export all existing and future service requests into a CSV file.

Add the category or categories you need a report on and the data range, and click Export.

The CSV file will include the requester's email, the service provider's email(s), time and date, requested categories, and all the different items.

Exporting data on catering and service requests helps in better planning and managing budgets. It shows trends and popular services, helping allocate resources more efficiently. It also supports making smart decisions by adjusting service offerings based on the popularity and frequency of requests and measuring the impact of services on meeting outcomes and employee satisfaction.

5. What is the difference between Catering & services and Meeting room equipment?

Catering and services is a separate feature from Equipment. 

Equipment includes items like whiteboards or projectors that are permanently available in a specific meeting room. It acts as a filter when users search for a meeting room that meets their specific requirements (e.g., a room with a mouse and projector).

Catering and services, on the other hand, is tailored for specific events and meetings. It makes meetings easier, facilitates service requests, and communicates those requests to service providers.

6. Access

Catering & services is available within the Enterprise plans. If you are interested, please contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or our Customer Service Team at support@deskbird.com.