Configure desk booking

Article
12/18/2024

Individual desk vs. desk pool

Microsoft Places brings support for individual desk booking to Microsoft 365, which allows end-users to select a specific desk instead of reserving from a desk pool.

Key concepts:

Each desk in your organization can be configured to be bookable, or remain non bookable.
A desk can be marked non bookable when it's assigned to a specific user or when it isn't available due to maintenance activities or for any other reason.
Desks can be configured individually or pooled with other nearby desks. Desk pools are referred to as "workspaces" in Exchange Online.
Both models, individual desks and desk pools can coexist side-by-side in your organization, but each physical desk can be configured in only one way.
Desks follow a strict hierarchy in the Places directory: building > floor > section > desk and desk pools.

Important

Individual desk booking is an enhanced feature which requires users in your organizations to be licensed for Teams Premium. Users must also be enabled for Places finder in order to book individual desks.
Currently, the new desk booking experience is only available in New Outlook which is available on Windows and on the web. We're working to bring this experience to other surfaces soon.

Prerequisites

Configure desks for individual booking

Step 1: Create sections and desks

Use the GetPlaceV3 cmdlet to find the PlaceId of the floor where the new section is to be located. Then, use the syntax in the example to create a new section on an existing floor, and then link the desks to that section.

Connect-MicrosoftPlaces
$building = Get-PlaceV3 -Type Building | Where-Object -Property DisplayName -eq 'NYC Times Square'
$floor = Get-PlaceV3 -AncestorId $building.PlaceId | Where-Object -Property DisplayName -eq "1"
$section = New-Place -type Section -Name "A" -ParentId $floor.PlaceId
$desk1 = New-Place -type Desk -Name "Desk 1" -ParentId $section.PlaceId
$desk2 = New-Place -type Desk -Name "Desk 2" -ParentId $section.PlaceId

Step 2: Make the desks bookable

To make a desk bookable, create a desk mailbox and associate it with the desk object by passing the mailbox Alias or Identity to the Mailbox parameter of Set-PlaceV3.

Important

Without linking a mailbox to the desk, which is the last command in this example, the desk will not show up in the booking UI.

Connect-ExchangeOnline
$mbx = New-Mailbox -Room "Desk 1"
Set-Mailbox $mbx.Identity -Type Desk -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $true
Set-PlaceV3 $desk1.PlaceId -Mailbox $mbx.Identity

Step 3: Add capabilities to desks (optional)

You can add metadata to each desk, for example to specify if it's wheelchair accessible, or list devices available on the desk. Refer to Set-PlacesV3 to learn more about supported metadata. Fully customizable tags can also be added, for example to indicate if the desk is height adjustable or near a window. This information allows end-users to choose the right desk based on their needs and preferences.

Connect-MicrosoftPlaces
Set-PlaceV3 $desk1.PlaceId -Tags "height-adjustable-desk"
Set-PlaceV3 $desk2.PlaceId -IsWheelChairAccessible $true

Step 4: Apply booking policies to desks (optional)

You can use Exchange PowerShell command Set-CalendarProcessing to apply booking policies, as needed.

Connect-ExchangeOnline
Set-CalendarProcessing <desk_mailbox_alias> -BookInPolicy <BookableGroupDL>

Configure desk pools

Step 1: Create the desk pool

Desk pools must be created in Exchange Online, where they're referred to as "workspaces".

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to create a mailbox for each desk pool, using the Workspace mailbox type.

Connect-ExchangeOnline
New-Mailbox -Room -Alias <mailbox_alias> -Name <workspace_name> | Set-Mailbox -Type Workspace 
Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity <mailbox_alias> -EnforceCapacity $True

Step 2: Make the desk pool available to book

Use Set-PlacesV3 to link the desk pool to a Section. This step is required for the desk pool to appear in the new desk booking experience.

Use the same cmdlet to configure the capacity of the desk pool (number of desks available to book in the pool). Using the Set-PlacesV3 cmdlet writes this information on Exchange Online, ensuring that the capacity is consistent in Outlook's Room finder.

You can follow the syntax in this example:

Connect-MicrosoftPlaces
$building = Get-PlaceV3 -Type Building | Where-Object -Property DisplayName -eq 'NYC Times Square'
$floor = Get-PlaceV3 -AncestorId $building.PlaceId | Where-Object -Property DisplayName -eq '1'
$section = Get-PlaceV3 -AncestorId $floor.PlaceId | Where-Object -Property DisplayName -eq 'A'
Set-PlaceV3 -Identity <mailbox_alias> -Capacity 10 -ParentId $section.PlaceId

Use the Add-DistributionGroupMember Exchange Online cmdlet to add the desk pool to a RoomList, to make sure the desk pool also appears in Outlook's Room finder:

Add-DistributionGroupMember <roomlistAlias> -Member <

Step 3: Add capabilities to desk pools (optional)

You can add metadata to each desk pool. For example, specify if it's wheelchair accessible, and add detail of devices available on the desk. Refer to Set-PlacesV3 to learn more about supported metadata. Fully customizable tags can also be added. For example, indicate if the desks are height adjustable. This information allows end users to choose the right desk pool based on their needs and preferences.

Connect-MicrosoftPlaces
Set-PlaceV3 -Identity <mailbox_alias> -IsWheelChairAccessible $True -Tags "Docking Station"

Step 4: Apply booking policies to desk pools (optional)

Use the Set-CalendarProcessing Exchange Online cmdlet to apply other booking policies, as needed.

Connect-ExchangeOnline
Set-CalendarProcessing <mailbox_alias> -BookInPolicy <BookableGroupDL>

Link peripheral devices and set up automatic work location update

You can use the capability from Microsoft Teams to link the peripheral devices present on these desks to the desk pool object in the directory. This allows users to seamlessly reserve the desk through automatic booking if they forgot to book in advance and more. You can get insights on desk utilization based on users connecting to monitors and other peripherals on the desk.

You may also want to enable automatic work location update policy so that when a user connects their laptop to these peripherals, their work location in M365 gets updated automatically after their one-time consent, making it easier than ever to connect with colleagues in the office.

This feature from Microsoft Teams currently supports only desk pools. Support for linking peripheral devices with individual desks is coming soon.

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