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The meeting Management Blog

Desk booking that
starts in your
Outlook calendar

Book a desk in Outlook, or next to your team on the floor plan. The booking lives in Microsoft Exchange, shows as Free in your calendar, and frees the desk for a colleague the moment you cancel.
Book a desk booking demo
Hybrid days, real desks

Desk booking should start where the workday is planned

Hybrid work made the office a place people choose. On the busy days, everyone comes in at once, teams end up scattered across floors, and the desk you hoped for is gone. On the quiet days, half the floor sits empty while a spreadsheet still says it is taken.

AskCody puts desk booking where people already plan their week: in Outlook and on the floor plan. Every desk is a workspace in Microsoft Exchange, so a booking made in Outlook or on the map is the same booking everywhere, and a canceled day frees the desk for someone else straight away.

A desk booking from Monday to Friday. On Monday at 16:00 an employee books desk 2.14 on floor 2 for Tuesday and Wednesday in Outlook, next to the Sales team. The booking shows in the calendar as Free, so colleagues can still book meetings with them. In AskCody Maps the floor plan shows free desks in blue, booked desks in red and desks that cannot be booked in gray, and desk 2.14 turns red. On Tuesday the booking is in Outlook, also in Outlook for iOS and Android, and the map shows where the Sales team sits. When the employee cancels Wednesday in Outlook, the map shows desk 2.14 free again for that day. In the touch-down area with 16 seats, people book a seat until it is full, a dashboard shows the free desks as people walk in, and the 17th request is declined because Exchange enforces the capacity. At the end of the week, Insights shows how the desks are really used.

Book in Outlook

How do you book a desk in Outlook?

Create an event in Outlook for the day you want to work in the office and open the AskCody Bookings add-in. Choose the location and, if you like, a purpose such as a floor or a quiet zone, or the equipment you need. Select Find, add the desk you want, and save the event. The desk is booked in Microsoft Exchange and sits in your calendar next to the rest of your week.

The add-in remembers your last location, so the next booking takes seconds. It works in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web, and your desk bookings travel with you in Outlook for iOS and Android.

See how to book a desk in Outlook

An Outlook event called Desk reservation with the AskCody Bookings add-in open beside it. The location Boston (desks) and the purpose 2nd floor (focus) are selected, and the add-in lists Desk 1 to Desk 5, with Desk 3 already booked from 09:00 to 16:00.
Book on the floor plan

Find a desk on the map, next to your team

AskCody Maps turns your floor plans into an interactive map. Free desks show in blue, booked desks in red, and desks that cannot be booked in gray. Find your spot, click it, choose the time, and you are booked. The booking is saved in AskCody Maps and in your Outlook calendar at the same time.

See where your colleagues are working that day and book the desk next to them, or pick a date on the map to plan the week ahead.

Learn more about AskCody Maps

AskCody Maps showing the Chicago office floor plan with free desks in blue and booked desks in red, next to Conference Room B, Conference Room C, the Workshop Room and the Help Desk. Desk 20 is selected, showing its computer monitor and USB-C dock, a date picker and a Book button.
Desks and neighborhoods

What is the difference between a desk and a neighborhood in AskCody?

In AskCody, every bookable place is a workspace, and its capacity decides how it is booked.

  • A single desk has capacity 1: one person per booking period. A second request for the same time is declined, just like a meeting room that is already booked.
  • A neighborhood, such as a team area, a hot desk zone or a department, has a capacity above 1. People book a seat in the area rather than a specific desk, until it is full. This is how desk hoteling works in AskCody.
  • Team days: add colleagues as attendees to reserve seats for the whole team, within the capacity of the workspace.

Free, not Busy

A desk booking sets your calendar status to Free, so colleagues still see you as available for meetings in Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

Minimum booking time

Your IT team can set a minimum duration per workspace in Exchange, for example a full day, and shorter requests are declined. It keeps the desks you have working for the days people actually come in.

How desks and workspaces work

Two kinds of workspace. On the left, a single desk, desk 2.14, with capacity 1. The first request for Tuesday from 08:00 to 16:00 is sent and accepted, and the desk turns from free to booked. A second request for Tuesday from 09:00 to 12:00 is declined, because the desk is already booked and Exchange declines the overlap. On the right, a neighborhood, the Sales area, with capacity 10, where people book a seat in the area rather than a specific desk. Five of 10 seats are booked. A team booking with 4 attendees is accepted, so the whole team sits together, and the area fills to 10 of 10. An 11th request is declined, because Exchange enforces the capacity.

On the screen

Show free desks as people walk in

Dashboards put an airport-style overview on a screen at the entrance or on each floor: which desks are free and which are booked, updated in real time from the same bookings.

Visitors find their way too, and nobody has to open a laptop to see where there is room today.

Learn more about Dashboards

An AskCody Dashboard on a screen showing the time and date and six desks: Desk 2 and Desk 5 are available, and the others show who has booked them and for which hours.
Set up in Exchange

Fast to set up, simple to maintain

Desks in AskCody are workspaces in Microsoft Exchange, the resource type Microsoft introduced for desks and flexible spaces. Your IT team sets the capacity once in Exchange, and AskCody does the rest.

  • Add desks in two steps: add the Exchange calendar to AskCody, then set it up as a resource in the AskCody Admin Center. Adding or removing a desk later follows the same two steps.
  • Decide who books what: resource groups mapped to Entra ID security groups decide who sees which desks in the AskCody Bookings add-in. Desks outside a group are open to everyone.
  • Sign in with Microsoft: single sign-on with Entra ID for the AskCody Portal.

How to add desks to AskCody

One system, not two

Every booking lives in Microsoft Exchange, so Outlook, AskCody Maps, Dashboards and Insights all show the same desks and the same bookings. There is no separate desk system to keep in sync, and nothing new for employees to learn outside Outlook.

Included in the AskCody Platform

Desk booking is part of the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year, including 10 workspaces, 5 meeting rooms and 1 reception. A workspace is one license, whether it is a single desk or a neighborhood with 20 seats. See pricing

Booking meeting rooms too? Same add-in, same calendar. See meeting room booking, or welcome guests with visitor management.

Desk insights

See how your desks are really used

Insights shows how desks and workspaces are booked over time: utilization per desk, type and location, and the booking patterns behind your busiest days. Built on Microsoft Power BI and available in the AskCody Portal.

Combine desk bookings with insights on meeting rooms to decide how much office you need, based on data rather than gut feeling.

Discover AskCody Insights and Analytics

AskCody Bookings Insights filtered to desks, with a utilization graph per desk from January to December and a table of bookings, average duration and utilization for Desk 1 to Desk 8.

Made to empower you

Hear how IT, workplace and conference services teams run bookings with AskCody
Henry Chace, CIO, Burns & Levinson
Henry ChaceCIO

Henry needs us to be user-friendly

"The pilot helped us understand just how much time we could give back to the attorneys and assistants and the price of that time. The POC helped us actively compare the cost of the solution, and the ease it was bringing to the cumbersome process we had before. My best advice is to try it. You will see quickly that the ease of use, ease of management, and overall time savings are worth it."

Burns & Levinson logo

 

Nabil Zerdazi, IT Project Manager, Olympus
Nabil ZerdaziIT Project Manager

Nabil needs us to be integrated in Outlook

"The AskCody Outlook add-ins provide us capabilities to easily book rooms, request services, and manage visitors from Outlook while linking them with the Outlook calendar invitation."


Olympus logo

 

Susann Holloway, Conference Services Manager, Eversheds Sutherland
Susann HollowayConference Services Manager

Susann needs us to support productivity

"We're finding that our secretaries may have been managing two or three attorneys and partners before. Now they're managing maybe five or six. It's only possible to manage that increased workload because they can handle everything in one spot with AskCody."

Read the Eversheds Sutherland case study

Eversheds Sutherland logo
 

Common questions about
desk booking in AskCody

How do I book a desk in Outlook?

Create an event in Outlook for the time you want to work in the office, open the AskCody Bookings add-in, choose your location and any purpose or equipment, and select Find. Add the desk you want and save the event. The desk is booked in Microsoft Exchange and shows in your calendar.

The add-in works in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web. See how to use the AskCody Bookings add-in.
Can I book a desk next to my team?

Yes. AskCody Maps shows where your colleagues are working that day, so you can book the free desk next to them. In a neighborhood with a capacity above 1, you can also add your colleagues as attendees and reserve seats for the whole team, within the capacity of the area.
Does a desk booking make me look busy in my calendar?

No. A desk booking sets your calendar status to Free, so colleagues still see you as available for meetings in Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Meeting room bookings show as Busy as usual.
What is the difference between a desk and a neighborhood?

Both are workspaces in AskCody, and capacity is the difference. A single desk has capacity 1, so only one person can book it for a given time. A neighborhood, such as a team area or a hot desk zone, has a higher capacity: if the capacity is 10, 10 people can book a seat in it at the same time, and the 11th request is declined because the area is full.

That makes neighborhoods a simple way to run desk hoteling: people book a seat in the right area instead of a specific desk. Learn how desks and workspaces work.
Can employees book desks from their phone?

Yes, in Outlook for iOS and Android. Every desk is a workspace in Microsoft Exchange, so it can be booked from Outlook on the phone as well as on the desktop, and every desk booking is an event in your Outlook calendar wherever you open it.

The AskCody Bookings add-in, with its search and filters, works in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web.
Can we control who can book which desks?

Yes. In the AskCody Admin Center, you put desks into resource groups mapped to Entra ID security groups. Only members of those groups see the desks in the AskCody Bookings add-in. Desks that are not in a resource group are open to everyone in the organization. See how to restrict who can book rooms and desks.
How do we set up desks in Microsoft 365?

Each desk or neighborhood is a resource mailbox in Exchange with the type Workspace. Your IT team sets the capacity to be enforced and, if you want one, a minimum booking duration. Then you add the calendar to AskCody and set it up as a resource. See how to set up desks and workspaces.
Does desk booking require hardware at the desks?

No. Desk booking works in Outlook and AskCody Maps, with no sensors or devices at the desks. We recommend labeling each desk, for example Desk 20, so people can find the one they booked. If you want a screen at the entrance, Dashboards show free and booked desks in real time.
Is it possible to use Microsoft single sign-on (SSO)?

Yes. You can use Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on for a convenient and secure login to the AskCody Portal, so users sign in with their Microsoft account. See the requirements for Microsoft single sign-on.
How much does desk booking with AskCody cost?

Desk booking is included in the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year, including 10 workspaces, 5 meeting rooms and 1 reception. You can add more workspace licenses as you grow. One workspace is one license, whether it is a single desk or a neighborhood with many seats. See pricing.
Does AskCody integrate with both Outlook and Microsoft 365? And what about Teams?

Yes, natively.

AskCody is natively integrated with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 and Outlook. There are no manual processes, outdated third-party tools, unintegrated SharePoint sites or paper-based booking. Everything works inside the familiar Outlook interface, built on modern integrations into Exchange and on Microsoft Azure.

And Microsoft Teams? AskCody is built into Outlook and Exchange, so every Microsoft Teams meeting gets the right room, services and visitor setup, with no extra app to deploy. Desk bookings show as Free, so your availability in Teams is not affected.

Bookings always stay in Microsoft Exchange: no middle layer and no duplicate system of record. See how AskCody integrates with Microsoft 365.

See desk booking in your own Outlook

Book a demo and see how Outlook, the floor plan and your team's desks come together in one booking. Desk booking is included in the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year.
Book a desk booking demo