Amira van Weegen
Marketing Manager
March 6, 2026
Optimize office space efficiently: Reduce fixed costs with data, analytics & anny
6 mins
Key Insights
Office spaces are the second largest cost block in companies after personnel costs and are often dramatically underutilized due to hybrid work. Here's a quick look at the key points:
Office spaces are an underestimated cost factor: After personnel expenses, they account for 20-30% of total operating costs, especially in medium-sized companies in the DACH region.
20-40% of spaces remain permanently unused: Many companies are still planning according to pre-Covid standards and lack reliable utilization data.
Data-driven workplace analytics bring transparency: Tools like anny objectively show which spaces are used when, where vacancies exist, and which days have peak occupancy.
Concrete cost savings are measurable: Data-driven space reduction can significantly reduce rent, energy, and operating costs.
Optimized spaces improve the work environment: Fewer empty rooms, more vibrant zones for collaboration and focus work increase employee satisfaction.
Why Office Spaces Need to be Rethought Today
The world of work has fundamentally changed in recent years. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of hybrid work models, where employees split their time between home office and the office. The outcome: Offices designed for 100% occupancy are often half empty on many days.
A concrete example illustrates the problem: A company with 500 employees in Berlin-Mitte rents 5,000m² of office space. In reality, only an average of 250-300 people show up per day – this corresponds to 50-60% occupancy. The result: annual additional costs of €210,000 to €300,000 for spaces that no one uses.
Traditional space planning with rigid square meters per person and fixed long-term leases no longer fits with varying attendance rates. High fixed costs for rent, utilities, and cleaning meet high vacancy rates.
Typical occupancy in a hybrid work office: Monday: ~30% | Tuesday: ~90% | Wednesday: ~70% | Thursday: ~90% | Friday: ~25%
This article is aimed at workplace managers, office managers, HR executives, facility managers, and CFOs who want to optimize their office costs through data-driven decisions.
Common Pitfalls: How Office Spaces Are Still Being Wasted Today
Many companies still base their office planning on the pre-Corona standards of 2019. Back then, GEFMA standards were followed with fixed ratios: one desk per person, 10-15% of the space for meeting rooms, 8-12 square meters per full-time equivalent. These norms are based on an assumption that no longer holds true today: nearly 100% daily presence.
The reality is different:
Weekday | Typical Utilization | Challenge |
|---|---|---|
Monday | 30% | Almost empty site, full operating costs |
Tuesday | 80-90% | Desks scarce, meeting rooms overloaded |
Wednesday | 60-70% | Unequal distribution across floors |
Thursday | 80-90% | Peak load, parking spaces fully booked |
Friday | 25-30% | Home office dominates, office largely empty |
Private offices and fixed areas often operate at less than 50% capacity.
Hidden cost drivers emerge everywhere:
Permanently heated corridors and project areas without occupancy
Too many large conference rooms with only 20-25% usage
Empty zones that are still cleaned, heated, or air-conditioned
Energy costs of 2-4€ per m² monthly for unused areas
A typical real-world example: A tech company with 200 employees decides to expand meeting room capacity – a classic gut-feel decision. However, later data analysis shows: Small rooms for 2–4 people achieve an 85% utilization rate, while large conference rooms are only used 25% of the time. The company would have invested in the wrong resource.
Data Over Gut Feelings: Measure Office Utilization Objectively
Data-driven space optimization is based on three fundamental questions:
Who shows up when? – Daily and weekly attendance patterns
Which spaces are being used? – Desks, meeting rooms, project zones
What remains permanently empty? – Chronically unused areas and resources
The key metrics for a robust analysis are:
Metric | Target Value | Significance |
|---|---|---|
Desk Utilization | > 70% | Foundation for Desk-Sharing Ratio |
Meeting Room Utilization | 60-80% | Indicates demand for room sizes |
Peak Hours | 10 AM - 4 PM | Capacity Planning |
No-Show Rate | < 15% | Booking Discipline |
An important point for HR and works councils: It's about anonymous, aggregated data — not employee surveillance. Pseudonymization and opt-in check-ins ensure that there is no individual performance monitoring.
Traditional Methods vs. Digital Workplace Analytics:
Method | Accuracy | Effort | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Manual Counting | < 50 % | High | €500-2,000 per Audit |
Excel Sheets | 40-60 % | Medium | Personnel Costs |
Sporadic Inspections | 30-50 % | Medium | Personnel Costs |
Booking Software (e.g., anny) | 80-90 % | Low | SaaS License |
Workspace Management Tools like anny automatically generate this data from bookings, check-ins, and cancellations and display it on clear dashboards.
Efficiently Utilize Office Spaces with Workplace Analytics
Workplace Analytics provides the basis for informed decisions on space strategy. The necessary data is mostly generated through digital workplace management platforms, through which employees book workstations, meeting rooms, or parking spaces. From these bookings, usage patterns can be derived and office spaces analyzed based on data.
Admins quickly identify key questions from the data: Which locations have been under their peak capacity for months? Which floors could be consolidated? Where is a reallocation of scarcely used rooms worthwhile?
Concrete measures can be derived from these patterns:
Rightsizing: Adjusting the space to actual usage
Consolidation: Merging floors or locations
Reallocation: Transforming unused areas into focus zones or collaboration spaces
Analytics should be used continuously – for example, with monthly reports and quarterly reviews. This allows the effects of measures to be checked and strategies to be adjusted as needed.
Example KPIs for CFO Reports:
Average workplace occupancy: 62%
Savings potential with 25% space reduction: €105,000 per year
Underutilized zones: 3 out of 8
Occupancy Analyses of Workspaces and Resources
A platform like anny collects booking data from workstations, meeting rooms, parking spaces, and special rooms like project rooms or creative zones. Utilization is presented per resource and resource type – for example, the average usage of a group of desks in Q3 2026.
This quickly shows companies whether they have too many or too few workstations for a team or location.
An example: A location in Munich with 120 desks shows an average of only 65 occupied workstations per day – corresponding to 54% occupancy. Based on this data, the company introduced a desk-sharing quota of 0.7 desks per FTE and reduced the number of workstations to 85. The annual savings: around €75,000.
Building Heatmaps and Space Visualization
With anny, office spaces can also be spatially analyzed. 3D floor plans visualize the use of individual areas. Heatmaps reveal at a glance which zones are persistently underutilized (“cold”) or heavily used (“hot”).
An example: On a floor, the north side with former individual offices is hardly booked, while open team areas in the south are regularly full. The analysis led to the deconstruction of individual offices and the creation of additional focus pods – increasing space efficiency by 18%.
Analysis by Days, Times, Teams, and Locations
Workplace Analytics also enables evaluations by weekdays, times of day, teams, or locations. Platforms like anny make it visible when offices are actually utilized.
For example, the data shows:
Hamburg: High utilization on Tuesday and Thursday
Cologne: Peak on Wednesday
Across locations: Very low usage on Mondays and Fridays
Such insights help teams coordinate common presence days and utilize spaces more efficiently. At the same time, CFOs and facility managers can make informed decisions about location strategies – such as the consolidation of multiple locations.
Identify Most and Least Used Resources
Another advantage of data-driven Workplace Analytics: Companies quickly recognize which resources are particularly in demand and which are scarcely used.
anny displays, for example, the most booked meeting rooms, desk zones, or parking spaces and simultaneously makes rarely used resources visible. This transparency helps plan investments more targeted and continuously optimize office spaces.Typical Pattern:
Resource Type | Occupancy | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
Small Meeting Rooms (2-4 persons) | 90% | Increase capacity |
Large Conference Rooms (12+ persons) | 20% | Reallocate or divide |
Focus Pods | 85% | Install more |
Project Rooms | 35% | Make more flexibly usable |
These analyses aid in planning new acquisitions such as additional phone boxes or meeting pods in a targeted manner. The evaluations should be integrated into monthly reports for the management and facility team.
Plan office spaces efficiently: From analysis to space strategy
The path from analysis to a concrete space strategy follows a structured process:
Step 1: Current State Analysis (3-6 months)
Capture utilization data with anny and define a baseline. Consider seasonal effects such as holidays or project peaks.
Step 2: Define Goals
Set concrete goals – like a 20% reduction in space by the end of 2026, higher room occupancy, or improved employee experience.
Step 3: Develop Scenarios
Calculate various options: consolidate floors, sublet partial spaces, merge locations. The data provides the foundation for informed decisions.
Step 4: Implement Adjustments
Adjust desk-sharing ratios, optimize room type mix, create new zones for collaboration vs. focus.
Step 5: Continuous Monitoring
Conduct the planned-actual comparison with the analytics dashboards of anny, track KPIs, and report to stakeholders regularly.
Reducing Fixed Costs: How Efficient Space Utilization Directly Impacts Expenses
Even a moderate reduction of space by 15-25% results in significant savings in rent and operating costs.
Sample Calculation:
Position | Before Optimization | After 25% Reduction |
|---|---|---|
Area | 1,000 m² | 750 m² |
Net Rent (30 €/m²) | 30,000 €/month | 22,500 €/month |
Additional Costs (5 €/m²) | 5,000 €/month | 3,750 €/month |
Annual Costs | 420,000 € | 315,000 € |
Annual Savings | – | 105,000 € |
In addition to rent, space optimization also affects other costs:
Electricity and Heating: Less space means lower energy consumption
Cleaning: Adjusted intervals in less used zones save 1-2 €/m²
Guarding and Reception: Consolidated spaces reduce personnel requirements
anny's data on daily utilization enables dynamic control: heating only in occupied zones, cleaning based on actual use. The cost savings potential in operating costs is an additional 10-20%.
The savings can be reinvested in modern work environments with acoustic elements, phone booths, and collaboration areas, improving the workplace for everyone.
anny as an enabler for efficient office space utilization
anny is a German SaaS platform that makes all resources—desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces, equipment, events, visitors—centrally bookable. All bookings and check-ins automatically provide the data basis for reliable workplace analytics.
The key advantages:
No additional sensors needed
Hosted in Germany, GDPR-compliant
ISO 27001 certified
Seamless integration into existing systems (calendars, HRIS, smart locks, SSO)
anny is suitable for companies of all sizes as well as public institutions and many more who want to make data-driven decisions about their office spaces.
Desk and room booking as a data source
Employees book workspaces, meeting rooms, and parking spaces via the web, app, MS Teams, or directly in the calendar through anny. Bookings, cancellations, and check-ins are automatically included in occupancy statistics—without extra effort for the office team.
Rules and workflows can be individually controlled:
Maximum occupancy per zone
Booking windows and lead times
Team quotas and permissions
A company with multiple locations can set different booking rules for each site and still see all occupancy data centrally. This central data basis is crucial for reliable spatial decisions.
Workplace analytics & 3D maps with anny
anny provides 3D maps that mirror the real office environment with workspaces, rooms, and zones. In the analytics dashboards, managers get an overview of:
Occupancy per location and floor
No-shows and cancellation rates
Resource usage by type
Trends over time
Specific example: A monthly report for Q3 2025 shows occupancy per location (Berlin: 72%, Munich: 68%, Cologne: 45%). The data led to the decision to give up a floor in Cologne.
Reports can be exported—for management presentations, lease negotiations, or discussions with landlords.
Implementation: Achieve efficient office space utilization in 4 easy steps with anny
Step 1 – Record Status
Introduce anny, map initial desks and rooms, define booking rules, onboard staff. The rollout is smooth thanks to web, app, and calendar integration. During implementation, a personal CSM is at hand to guide through the process.
Step 2 – Collect Data
8-12 weeks of data collection without major structural decisions to establish a robust foundation. Initial trends are noticeable after just 4 weeks.
Step 3 – Analyze & Develop Scenarios
Evaluate heatmaps, peak days, and resource usage. Collaborate with HR, Facility, and Finance to interpret and identify opportunities.
Step 4 – Implement Measures Consolidate spaces, adjust lease agreements, repurpose areas, refine desk-sharing models, and adjust energy and cleaning schedules.
This cycle should be repeated regularly — at least annually — to adapt to changing work practices and team structures.
Conclusion: Utilize office spaces efficiently – make decisions based on data, not guesswork
Hybrid work models without data-driven management almost inevitably lead to surplus areas and unnecessary fixed costs. The answer to this challenge doesn't lie in gut feeling but in transparency about actual office usage.
With Workplace Analytics, companies can identify which areas are truly needed and which are not. The result: targeted space reduction, optimized resources, and a better working environment for everyone.
anny provides exactly this transparency as a central booking and analytics platform. GDPR-compliant, hosted in Germany, and suitable for companies, public institutions, and universities.
Next Steps:
Start for free for smaller teams
Schedule a demo for cross-location solutions
Evaluate your own space situation based on actual data and make decisions that pay off.
FAQ on Efficient Use of Office Space
How long should we collect data before making decisions on space reduction?
For reliable decisions, we recommend at least 12-20 weeks of data collection with anny. This allows for consideration of seasonal effects such as holiday periods or project peaks. In industries with significant fluctuations – like consulting with pronounced project phases – observing for half a year can be beneficial. Initial trends can be identified after the first 4 weeks, but major rental decisions should be based on longer data periods.
How can works councils and employees be involved in the introduction of Workplace Analytics?
Transparency and communication are crucial. Clearly explain early on what data is being collected and that there is no individual performance monitoring. A company agreement for anonymized, aggregated evaluations builds trust. Workshops or Q&A sessions for employees help convey benefits like better workspace availability and modern areas.
How does efficient use of space impact employee satisfaction?
It's not about merely cutting space, but about creating areas that match actual usage and working styles. Modern, well-utilized spaces with focus and collaboration zones are generally perceived as more attractive than half-empty open-plan offices. Surveys show: Employee satisfaction increases by 15-25% in optimized spaces. Involve employees in the space strategy through feedback sessions.
For what company sizes is data-driven space optimization with anny worthwhile?
A data-driven solution typically pays off from around 50-100 office workstations, as space and operating costs weigh heavily here. anny is scalable – from smaller teams with one location to organizations with multiple locations and campus structures. Evaluate the potential benefit through a simple comparison: annual rental and operating costs vs. potential savings from just 10-20% space reduction.
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