Documentation

7. Auto-Canceling No-Show Bookings & Releasing Unused Resources

Eliminate Ghost Bookings for Meeting Rooms, Equipment, and Shared Spaces

The Scenario

“Ghost bookings" waste valuable capacity and prevent others from accessing high-demand resources. Whether someone reserves a meeting room and never shows up, books a 3D printer or laser cutter and forgets to check in, or holds time on a specialized lab instrument or media studio, unused reservations lock out other users. Auto-cancellation automatically releases reserved rooms or equipment back into available inventory if the user fails to check in within a custom grace period (e.g., 15 minutes).

🏢 Coworking Spaces & Facility Management (Primary Example)

  • Example: Automatically release meeting rooms, huddle spaces, or private phone booths if the organizer doesn't scan a QR code or check in within 15 minutes of the start time.

🛠️ Makerspaces & Machine Shops

  • Example: Free up high-demand equipment reservations—such as 3D printers, CNC routers, or laser cutters—so waiting members can book the open machine time when someone misses their slot.

🔬 Research Labs & Core Facilities

  • Example: Protect calendar availability on shared core equipment (e.g., NMR spectrometers, confocal microscopes) by auto-canceling unconfirmed reservations after 20 minutes, ensuring expensive instruments stay utilized.

🎙️ Media & Production Studios

  • Example: Prevent ghost bookings in sound booths, podcast studios, or edit bays by requiring a check-in at the studio door or through the mobile app before releasing the room to other creators.

QReserve Subscription: Standard
Implementation Difficulty: Intermediate

Implementation Steps

    1. Navigate to Administration → Kiosks → + Create Kiosk.
    2. Enter a descriptive name for your kiosk (e.g., "Room A") and set Kiosk Mode to Resource Kiosk.
    3. Scroll to the Manage Resources section, search for the target space, select it, and click + Add Resource To Kiosk.
    4. Under the assigned resource parameters, enable the Check-in/out toggle to activate automated usage tracking.
      • Optional Configuration Options: Enable End Early On Check-Out to release unused time, or enable Booking/Requesting to allow on-demand reservations alongside check-in functionality.
      • Authentication Note: Enable Skip Pin if you prefer users to check in without entering a personal identification number.
    6. Once configuration is complete, return to the top of the page to copy the Kiosk URL or generate the QR Code for display.

⚡ Implementation Tip: Duplicate existing kiosks and update the assigned resource to rapidly deploy custom kiosks for additional spaces without repeating baseline setup steps.

Email Check-In Alternative: To enable check-in without hardware kiosks, navigate to Resource Profile → Reservation → Actual Usage and enable Enable reservation check-in/out from email and dashboard. This allows users to confirm their reservations directly via automated email notifications or their personal user dashboard.

🎬 [ ▶ Watch: Setting Up Auto-Cancel Rules for No-Show Bookings]
In this video guide, we walk through setting up check-in rules and grace periods for meeting room reservations. However, the exact same workflow applies to equipment reservations—such as releasing unused 3D printer slots in a makerspace, freeing up unconfirmed lab instrument time, or opening up media studio space when a creator fails to show.

📖 Learn more about kiosks

📖 Learn more about auto-cancelling reservations