Spatial Insights for CRE: How Butlr Improves Space Utilization

How Butlr improves space utilization — practical benefits

Optimize real estate footprint

• Identify underutilized spaces that can be repurposed, subleased, or consolidated.
• Right-size leased space during renewals or expansions using historical utilization trends.

Improve workplace efficiency

• Align office layouts with how employees actually use collaboration zones, meeting rooms, and focused work areas.
• Convert rarely used rooms into more valuable functions like touchdown areas or amenities.

Reduce operational costs

• Link occupancy with HVAC and lighting to run systems based on demand, cutting energy consumption.
• Optimize cleaning schedules to focus on high-traffic areas, reducing labor and supply costs.

Increase revenue and tenant satisfaction

• Use data to justify premium pricing for high-demand spaces or flexible workspace offerings.
• Improve tenant experience with evidence-based amenities, booking accuracy, and safer occupancy levels.

Enhance space booking and utilization

• Detect “ghost bookings” where spaces are reserved but not used and enable policies or nudges to reduce waste.
• Implement dynamic room allocation and booking rules informed by real occupancy patterns.

Support health, safety, and compliance

• Monitor real-time occupancy against safety thresholds during events or emergencies.
• Provide anonymized reporting that meets privacy expectations while supporting audit needs.

Use cases across property types

Butlr’s sensing and analytics apply to many CRE verticals:

• Office buildings: Track desk and room use, enable hoteling, and guide office reconfiguration.
• Retail: Understand customer flow, optimize layouts, and focus staffing during peak windows.
• Hospitality: Monitor common-area usage, meeting room demand, and housekeeping prioritization.
• Education and healthcare: Track room and corridor usage to plan schedules, cleaning, and security.
• Co-working and flex spaces: Price and package offerings based on real utilization and demand signals.
• Industrial and logistics: Monitor entry/exit points and high-traffic zones to improve workflow and safety.

Implementing Butlr in your CRE strategy — actionable steps

Set clear objectives

• Define what you want to improve (e.g., reduce leased area, cut HVAC costs, increase meeting room availability).
• Choose measurable KPIs tied to those objectives.

Start with a pilot

• Deploy sensors in a representative building or a cluster of spaces to validate accuracy and ROI.
• Run pilot long enough to capture weekly and seasonal patterns (typically 4–12 weeks).

Plan sensor placement

• Focus on ceilings over rooms, entryways, and corridors for reliable detection.
• Combine zone-level and doorway placements to capture both occupancy and flow.

Integrate with systems

• Connect Butlr outputs to BMS, room-booking platforms, workplace apps, or CAFM tools to automate actions.
• Use APIs and dashboards to visualize trends and trigger workflows.

Establish governance and privacy practices

• Communicate transparently with tenants and occupants about anonymous sensing and data use.
• Implement data retention, access controls, and compliance checks.

Iterate and scale

• Use pilot learnings to refine KPIs, sensor density, and dashboard configurations before portfolio-wide rollouts.

Measuring ROI and business outcomes

Track a combination of operational and financial metrics to measure impact:

• Space utilization increase: Percent rise in effective usage of targeted rooms or floors.
• Area reduction potential: Square footage identified for repurposing or sublease.
• Energy savings: Reduction in HVAC and lighting costs tied to demand-driven controls.
• Cleaning cost reduction: Lower custodial hours or supplies from prioritized schedules.
• Booking efficiency: Reduced percentage of no-shows and improved meeting-room availability.
• Tenant satisfaction: Improvement in survey scores or retention linked to workspace quality.

Example outcomes organizations often realize:

• Lowered operating costs through targeted HVAC schedules.
• Reduced wasted meeting-room reservations and better meeting access.
• Decisions to downsize or reclassify space with evidence-backed data during lease renewals.

Privacy, accuracy, and limitations

Butlr’s thermal sensing emphasizes privacy by design, but buildings operating teams should still consider important implementation factors.

• Privacy safeguards: Ensure data collected cannot be reverse-engineered to identify individuals and communicate policies publicly.
• Sensor coverage: Incomplete deployment may miss patterns; plan sensor density appropriate to analysis goals.
• Environmental factors: Extreme temperature conditions or obstructions can affect thermal sensing accuracy; validation is important.
• Integration complexity: Connecting to existing BMS or workplace systems requires coordination with IT and facilities.

Being aware of these considerations helps set realistic expectations and build a reliable program.

Final thoughts

Spatial insights are becoming foundational for modern CRE operations. By delivering anonymous, heat-based occupancy and flow analytics, Butlr helps landlords, operators, and workplace teams convert raw movement into actionable strategies that improve utilization, reduce costs, and enhance tenant experiences.

Start with clear objectives, run a focused pilot, and use the resulting data to prioritize changes that generate measurable impact. With thoughtful deployment and governance, spatial intelligence transforms space from a static asset into a dynamic lever for performance.

Final thoughts

Spatial insights are becoming foundational for modern CRE operations. By delivering anonymous, heat-based occupancy and flow analytics, Butlr helps landlords, operators, and workplace teams convert raw movement into actionable strategies that improve utilization, reduce costs, and enhance tenant experiences. Start with clear objectives, run a focused pilot, and use the resulting data to prioritize changes that generate measurable impact. With thoughtful deployment and governance, spatial intelligence transforms space from a static asset into a dynamic lever for performance.