The Best Hot Desk Booking Software List
After carefully reviewing many different options, here’s my shortlist of the 10 best hot desk booking software solutions which I’ve described in detail out of the 30 options I’ve included in total:
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The pandemic has transformed the way we work, and hybrid schedules are here to stay. To make the most out of office floor plans, hot desk booking software has risen to the occasion. Hot desks (a.k.a. first-come-first-served desk reservations) allow employees to access unused workstations in a pinch. The distinction for desk hoteling is reservations for workspaces are submitted in advance.
Hot desk booking software describes one element of a new wave of space utilization tools. These systems also allow users to reserve other items like meeting rooms, equipment, or parking spaces. Beyond that, they provide management teams with detailed analytics, to uncover workspace trends.
In this article, I'll review the 10 best hot desking software and their related space management functions. I'll highlight their core features, as well as elements that make them unique.
What is Hot Desk Booking Software?
Hot desk booking software is a modern type of workplace management software. A more sophisticated offshoot of meeting room booking software, teams and employees can use it to reserve meeting rooms, desk spaces, and other office spaces. The software usually has an interactive floorplan that shows available desks, rooms, and spaces that employees can reserve for use. Some also help with equipment and facility management, allowing staff to book computer monitors and other tools.
Detailed Overviews of the 10 Best Hot Desk Booking Software
Below are my detailed descriptions of each hot desk booking software solution that landed a place in my top 10 shortlist. I've highlighted each system's key features, explained why I included them in this list, and added a screenshot of each to show you their user interface. Plus, I've also included 20 more bonus systems below if you'd like more options to consider.
deskbird
Best desk & room booking solution for integrating with MS Teams and Outlook
deskbird offers a highly intuitive and flexible solution for booking desks and other resources that can be easily accessed by your team members from anywhere. With just two clicks, you can easily reserve a space, whether it's a desk, meeting room, parking spot, or any other facility.
Why I picked deskbird: I included their system because I found their integrations helpful and easy to use. You can book using Microsoft Teams, Slack, their web platform, or their mobile app. In addition, their software integrates with Outlook and Google calendars, so you can avoid scheduling conflicts and get real-time analytics. Another great feature is the HRIS integration, which offers users a seamless experience while enhancing data accuracy for optimized workforce and office analytics.
deskbird Features and Integrations:
In addition to their desk booking tool, deskbird also offers health policy reviews before checking in, check-ins via QR codes, and incognito bookings if you want your trip to the office to stay anonymous. The platform administrators can keep track of space utilization data, assign specific zones to teams, and limit access to essential areas whenever necessary. On top of that, deskbird provides a handy integration with HR systems. This integration streamlines absence tracking, offering users a seamless experience while enhancing data accuracy for optimized workforce and office analytics.
Integrations are available with numerous calendar programs, communication tools, and active directory systems. Additionally, they offer a mobile application for Android and iOS devices and HRIS platforms, such as Bamboo HR, WorkDay, Personio, Sage, Factorial, HiBob, Rippling, and Sap Success Factors.
Pricing for deskbird’s workspace booking tool starts at $1.80/user/month. They also offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card or other strings attached.
Tactic
Best hot desk and meeting room booking software for coordinating in-office schedules
Tactic’s workplace experience software makes the office a more valuable piece of your company's hybrid work plan. This flexible platform provides a variety of tools that help bring your team together on their own terms.
Why I picked Tactic: With on-demand desk booking and meeting room reservations, team members can plan their preferred hybrid work schedule at the beginning of each week. Using the interactive office map, employees can see which days their team members will be in the office, allowing them to easily coordinate meetings and events, and facilitate in-person collaboration.
Tactic Features and Integrations:
Tactic's features are designed to ensure a safe working environment for all. Their system includes optional health check-ins for office visitors, capacity management tools, and detailed analytics to support contract tracing as needed. On top of all that, the system can also track the vaccination status of your workers—a modern requirement for certain industries.
And the safety features don't stop there. With Tactic's visitor management tools, you can provide guests with a delightful digital check-in process, allowing you to easily collect their information, photo, and necessary signatures. Tactic puts a heavy emphasis on their user experience to eliminate common technology frustrations.
Integrations are available with many popular scheduling and communication apps, such as Slack, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Zoom. All features are also available through their Android and iOS apps.
Pricing for Tactic starts at $2.50/desk/month. All plans include a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Eden
Best hot desk and room booking software with a full workplace software suite
Eden’s HR and workplace experience software is modular by design, so you only have to pay for the products you need—making it an affordable option for businesses who want to maintain a flexible, hybrid workforce. Their system includes separate modules for desk booking, room scheduling, visitor management, COVID-19 team safety, deliveries, and internal ticketing, which can be used for IT support, HR requests, and more.
Why I picked Eden: Within their desk booking module, system administrators can limit which desks are available for booking, to ensure social distancing between workers. Their system also supports office neighborhoods, allowing employees from the same department to book spots close to each other for improved collaboration. The system also tracks office space and desk usage metrics, making it easier for operations teams to analyze their usage and reduce wasted space.
Eden Features and Integrations:
In addition to their desk and room booking modules, Eden also has an embedded ticketing system, which can be used for any type of employee service request, such as HR and People Operations requests, IT support, facilities needs, or document formatting requests. Designed to act as a central hub for service requests, this module also includes analytics so teams can understand what type of support their employees need the most.
Integrations are available with Google Calendar, Slack, Microsoft Teams, common HRIS platforms like Gusto, Hibob, and BambooHR, and many other access control and single sign-on directory service applications.
Pricing for Eden is very transparent and modular, depending on the type of booking services you need. For their hot desk booking service, pricing starts at $2.25/desk/month, sold in sets of 25 desks. Their room scheduling software can also be added for free for up to 10 rooms, and their COVID-19 safety features can also be added for free for 1 location up to 50 employees.
Kadence
Best hot desk booking platform for coordinating your people, projects, and spaces
Kadence is a full suite of easy-to-use hybrid working software designed to improve the coordination of people, space and time to help your teams work smarter. Their next-generation operating system for hybrid working was designed to unleash the potential of people, powering a more positive way of working.
Why I picked Kadence: Their intuitive user interface and interactive floor maps (web and mobile versions) help your employees find and book available desks in seconds. Their platform also includes analytics on desk bookings, occupancy, or wasted bookings, to help you get a better understanding of your office space utilization.
Kadence Features and Integrations:
Features include an auto-release capability that eliminates no-shows and improves availability. Another unique team collaboration function is their “Personal Kadence” profile feature that helps office managers and teams get a clear view of employee’s personal preferences, and generates a list of who’s booked to come into the office on any given day to help with efficient meeting coordination.
Kadence integrates fully with Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Google calendars so your teams can easily find, and book available spaces all within the tools they already use.
Pricing for Kadence starts at $4/user/month. They also offer a free demo.
NSpace
Best hot desk platform for advanced workplace utilization metrics
NSpace is a hot desk booking software that allows users to book available desks or workspaces on a daily basis. Using their mobile app, employees can book desks remotely, ensuring a smooth transition between home and office work environments.
Why I picked NSpace: I included their NSpace in this list because of their advanced permissions. NSpace allows team administrators to grant specific users restricted or unlimited access to hot desk bookings, depending on their workplace roles. For instance, if an employee requires a temporary workspace, an administrator can grant them access to a hot desk. At the same time, administrators can limit permanent office space access to senior staff only, ensuring that the workspace is appropriately utilized.
You can also use NSpace to customize your desk settings, which is essential for hybrid teams, as your workspace's layout may change over time. You can update the desk type, number, and location as needed, ensuring that employees can find an available workspace quickly and easily.
NSpace Features and Integrations:
For NSpace, its biggest standout feature is its space utilization dashboard which provides information on how often specific work areas are being used, and by whom. These details are tracked in real-time, giving you detailed and up-to-date analytics on your workspace usage.
Other features include detailed floor plans of your office space, with extra tools to help staff members see who else will be in the office on the same day, so they can choose where they want to sit. Their sleek and modern interface is also easy to navigate, making the booking process quick and hassle-free. Once a booking is made, your staff will receive an automatic notification in their preferred communication channel.
Integrations are available with major calendar apps, including Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
Pricing plans start at $3/desk or $15/meeting room. You can also request a free demo through their website.
Tribeloo
Best for creating customized spaces and managing multiple locations
Tribeloo is a hot desk booking software that offers an array of features to help you manage your workplace and support in-person and hybrid collaboration on your team.
Why I picked Tribeloo: This is an effective desk and workspace booking software that allows you to define 'neighborhoods' and other unique workspace divisions. You can also manage multiple locations and set specific booking rules for these different locations. For example, you can add maximum capacities for shared spaces or add access permissions to certain employees or teams.
The software provides a visual floorplan for employees to book desks and rooms through. It allows you to set up policies and safety screenings for employees to read and agree to when they book spaces. Employees can also add team members to their group to see who's in and out of the office, and add conferencing to meetings they're booking with hybrid attendees.
Tribeloo Features and Integrations:
Features include visual floorplan, desk and room booking, assigned desks, multiple site management, custom areas and wings, special requests, pre-screening forms, and analytics and reporting tools.
Integrations include Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, so your team can book desks and rooms directly from the platforms they use already.
Skedda
Best hot desk booking platform with an interactive floor plan and full mobile access
Skedda’s customized booking system allows you to control the allocation of all your corporate spaces including desks, meeting rooms, studios, labs, or anything else you want to make reservable.
Why I picked Skedda: Their system is designed to remove the hassle of manually managing spaces by automating the process and enabling self-service bookings. This means you only have to set up your bookable items and automated user rules and permissions once. After that, your staff will be able to help themselves.
To ensure easy access, Skedda also has full-featured native apps for Android and iOS devices that work for users, as well as owners and administrators.
Skedda Features and Integrations:
Their floorplan maps are interactive, making it easy to view and make bookings directly from the map interface. Included in the floor plan is a time-of-day range-slider, so users can determine exactly when their favourite spot will be available again.
Users can also make reservations through their booking calendar, which allows platform admins to review bookings using day, month, grid (all listings) or list (per space or user) views. For pay-per-use venues, the platform also makes it easy to collect payments from users during their initial booking, which is saved for convenient reuse.
Integrations are available with commonly used calendar programs such as iCloud, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook (and Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 to generate meeting invites and video-conferencing links), and with communication tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, Basecamp, Mailchimp, and many others.
Pricing for Skedda starts at $7 per month. A 30-day free trial of their premium version is available, as well as a free demo. They also have a freemium version with limited features for up to 5 bookable spaces.
WorkInSync
Best for hybrid workplace scheduling using virtual assistant software
WorkInSync is a hybrid workplace scheduling solution with all the standard features you’d expect for a hot desk booking application, and more.
Why I picked WorkInSync: The system helps managers stay on top of their hybrid employees by asking staff to fill out an Employee Preference Report once per week, indicating the days they would like to work from home or in the office. When staff are ready to make a booking, they can browse the interactive booking platform to find seats near other team members, and search for workstations with special features, including cubicles with ergonomic chairs, or dual monitors.
Within the same process, employees can also book parking spaces too. On the day of a booking request, the system automatically sends a health risk assessment questionnaire to ensure employees have no cold or flu symptoms before heading to the office.
WorkInSync Features and Integrations:
The platform boasts several unique features that I haven’t seen in other systems. To improve productivity, their software has integrations with Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri so employees can reserve desk spaces during their drive to the office. Once they arrive, the platform’s Mask Detector feature asks employees to confirm they’re wearing a face mask by uploading a selfie of them wearing it.
After that, the next step is a temperature check using WorkInSync’s digital thermal hand scanner, which checks and records employee temperatures to ensure no fevers are developing. QR code scans also work in tandem with their Contactless Access Management module and Digi-Pass, ensuring contactless check-in for booked desks or meeting spaces.
Integrations are available with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Assistant, Microsoft Outlook, G-Suite Calendars, Microsoft ADFS, Okta, One Login, Honeywell EBI, and Siri.
Pricing for WorkInSync starts at $2.50/user/month. A free plan is also available for organizations with less than 50 employees. A free demo can also be requested via their website.
Envoy
Best hot desk system with a modular configuration and a linked health questionnaire
Envoy’s hot desk booking system makes it easy to manage the desk booking process from end-to-end.
Why I picked Envoy: Facility managers can control which spaces are bookable, permanently assigned, or unavailable to facilitate social distancing. Interactive workspace maps and neighborhood features are also included. Employees can reserve spaces through Envoy’s mobile app or web interface, or seat assignments can roll out automatically depending on each employee’s function or project team.
Envoy Features and Integrations:
Analytics are built right into the system to ensure space optimization. They also have a feature called ‘unused desk protection’ which allows employees to free up their desk space if they no longer need it so space is never wasted. For employees using the hot desking feature, the system will ask them to complete a health questionnaire before allowing them to make a booking. For longer-term arrangements, employees can reserve the same desk for multiple days or weeks in advance, or request a permanent desk assignment.
In addition to their desk booking features, Envoy also has separate modules for visitor management, managing office deliveries, booking meeting rooms, and protective safety measures for staff.
Integrations are available with 85+ common software applications including access control platforms like braXos, Genetec, Honeywell and Proxy, and communication platforms like Cisco Webex, CXApp, Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Ring Central, Workplace by Facebook, Zoom and many others.
Pricing for Envoy Desks starts at $3/desk/month, sold in packs of 25 desks. A freemium version with limited features is also available for up to 25 active desks.
Officely
Best hot desk booking tool for hybrid teams that use Slack
Officely is a hot desk booking software that helps businesses manage meeting rooms, desks, and other shared spaces. Their cloud-based solution allows users to see desk availability in real time, book meeting rooms and desks, and track space usage. One feature that really sets them apart is their full integration with Slack. This means users can receive updates on who's in the office, or when they'll be in next, all within their Slack workspace.
Why I picked Officely: Their software allows employees to reserve space for specific days or times and cancel reservations if they no longer need the space. Users can make individual or group bookings, and also reserve spaces and amenities like parking spots or rooms for private luncheons. Users will receive a confirmation email with all the details about their reservation, including a floor map for easy navigation.
To assist with workforce management, Officely allows employers to limit the time each employee can spend in the office, ensuring everyone can use the space. Moreover, Officely provides employers with data on how their employees use the office, allowing them to make informed decisions about office utilization. The system's overall flexibility helps make hybrid work arrangements more manageable for employers and employees.
Officely Features and Integrations:
Officely allows system administrators to customize their built-in health surveys, such as their automated COVID-19 or vaccine check-ins, which can be incorporated into the desk booking process. Once a health survey is completed, the results are automatically logged into a secure system. This feature helps businesses monitor employee interactions for contract tracing purposes, creating a record of anyone who may have been exposed to the virus. It also helps businesses stay compliant with any local or national guidelines on reporting cases of COVID-19.
Integrations are available natively with popular calendar programs like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. In addition, Officely is fully integrated with Slack.
Pricing for Officely starts at $2.50/user/month. They also offer a freemium plan with limited features for up to 10 users too.
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The 10 Best Hot Desk Booking Software: Quick Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top hot desk booking software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | deskbird Best desk & room booking solution for integrating with MS Teams and Outlook | 14-day free trial | From $1.80/user/month | Visit Website |
2 | Tactic Best hot desk and meeting room booking software for coordinating in-office schedules | 14-day free trial | From $2.50/desk/month | Visit Website |
3 | Eden Best hot desk and room booking software with a full workplace software suite | Free demo available | From $2.25-$4/user/month | Visit Website |
4 | Kadence Best hot desk booking platform for coordinating your people, projects, and spaces | Free trial available | From $4/user/month | Visit Website |
5 | NSpace Best hot desk platform for advanced workplace utilization metrics | Free demo available | From $3/desk or $15/room | Visit Website |
6 | Tribeloo Best for creating customized spaces and managing multiple locations | Free demo available | From $3.33/user/month | Visit Website |
7 | Skedda Best hot desk booking platform with an interactive floor plan and full mobile access | 30-day free trial | From $7/month | Visit Website |
8 | WorkInSync Best for hybrid workplace scheduling using virtual assistant software | Free demo available | From $2.50/user/month | Visit Website |
9 | Envoy Best hot desk system with a modular configuration and a linked health questionnaire | Free plan available | From $3/desk/month | Visit Website |
10 | Officely Best hot desk booking tool for hybrid teams that use Slack | Free plan available | From $2.50/user/month | Visit Website |
Other Hot Desk Booking Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make it into my top 10 shortlist for the best hot desk booking software, but they're still worth checking out:
- SpaceIQ
Best hot desking software and space management suite with advanced wayfinding features
- FLYDESK
Best hot desk booking solution with weekly schedules and leave management
- Zynq
Best hot desk and office space management software for hybrid teams
- Cloudbooking
Best desk and room booking software with advanced real estate planning tools
- Condeco
Best hot desk booking tool for flexible desk workflows and team collaboration features
- OfficeSpace
Best hot desking solution for advanced desk allocation usage data & analytics
- Ronspot
Best 3-in-1 hybrid workplace reservation tool for booking hot desks, parking spots, and meeting rooms
- HotDesk+
Best multilingual hot desk booking software with built-in tools to help companies achieve net zero emissions
- Robin
Best workplace management software for employee productivity features
- Smartway2
Best hot desk booking solution for hybrid collaboration and safety features
- Othership
Best hot desk booking platform for building a sense of community
- Deskfound
Best for hot desk management via Google Workspace or a Slack integration
- YAROOMS
Best plug-and-play desk booking solution with digital signage & visitor management solutions
- Teem
Best hot desk & desk hoteling software for touchless mobile bookings and sanitation flags in between users
- Meetio
Best hot desking app for QR code check-ins and a find-a-colleague feature
- Pronestor
Best for booking flexible and fixed desks in real-time, with an auto-release feature (14-day free trial available)
- Joan Desk
Best for an embedded health screening questionnaire
- Billie
Best hot desk booking app for desk neighbourhoods to keep team members together or create designated quiet zones
- MRI Workplace Central
Space utilization tool focused on optimizing floor plans to reduce cost and inform strategic decision-making, while validating employee needs.
- Sharing Cloud Instant Flex
Best room booking tool for QR codes and infra-red presence sensors to manage usage data
Selection Criteria for the Best Hot Desk Booking Software
Wondering what I look for when selecting the best hot desk booking software for this list? I'm happy to explain my process.
To start off, I scoured the web to create a long list of all the hot desk booking software solutions out there. In this case, the list was very long! I then set to work assessing each software vendor's website in greater detail to pinpoint the systems with features that go above and beyond the rest.
With my list already pared down, I then used the selection criteria below to make my final choices for this list. With these criteria as a framework, I was able to compare each system systematically to the rest of the pack to select the best options for this list.
I also drew on my years of experience using meeting room booking software (the ancestor of hot desk booking software) to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value for administrators and employees alike.
Here’s a shortlist of the main criteria I assessed to determine my top 10 picks:
Key Features
These are the key features I assessed when creating this list of the best hot desk booking software:
- Self-service bookings: The ability for employees to make bookings themselves, rather than bottlenecking requests through administrators or managers.
- Mobile device accessibility: This is an essential feature, as it allows users to book from anywhere, anytime, while also enabling touchless check-ins via mobile devices.
- Detail-rich floor plans: Users should be able to visually locate the workspace they want to book from an accurate, and often interactive map. Some platforms even include wayfinding features that help users orient themselves within the workspace.
- Flexible booking options: The best platforms offer flexible workspace types (e.g., for desks, conference rooms, kiosks, parking stalls, and equipment) as well as flexible booking arrangements (e.g., hourly, all-day, multiple days, etc.).
- Team zones or neighbourhoods: This feature creates designated areas for specific teams or departments, ensuring better team collaboration while in the office. This feature is also useful for creating designated quiet zones.
- Search tools to find colleagues: To further enhance productivity and collaboration, hot desk booking systems allow users to search for other employees to find out when they’re going to be in the office, and where they’ll be sitting.
- Health & safety features: This covers built-in health screening questionnaires, occupancy limits, social distancing parameters, data to assist with contact tracing, and automations that flag desks for sanitization in between users.
- Usage metrics: The best systems keep track of usage data to support higher-level workspace analysis processes. This helps you quantify the cost of unused space and understand where you can optimize or reduce floor space.
- User permissions: Many tools let you set custom access permissions for different team members. This helps keep specialized or authorized areas bookable only for those with designated access.
User Interface
I chose desk booking software with clean, colourful, and visually attractive user interfaces (UI) that make the booking process enjoyable for staff at all levels. I also assessed whether each system had a mobile app for Android and iOS, or at the very least, a mobile-friendly UI. Employees may want to book a desk while they’re commuting, so a desk booking solution they can access on-the-go is a real plus.
Usability
I looked for hot desk booking software that’s simple and user-friendly, with clear menus and navigation. I also gave bonus points to systems that allow you to book through interactive office maps, making it easy to find the flexible desk or room you’d like to book. Other usability features like single sign-on, digital signage, and scannable QR codes at bookable workspaces are also pretty common.
System Flexibility
To help you get the most out of this software, I selected systems that include a wide range of booking options for managing flexible workplaces. This includes different types of bookings, like hourly, all-day, or multiple-day desk or room scheduling. I also gave preferential treatment to flexible work systems that allow you to book more than just desks.
Integrations
I picked booking platforms that integrate with commonly used office programs like Outlook, Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and calendar tools. These can not only make the desk booking tool easier to use, but they also help support a hybrid workplace where some employees work from home, and others work from the office.
Price
I appreciate software with transparent pricing models and the ability to scale up to add more bookable spaces easily. Since some systems have modular designs, pricing details are not always readily available as prices are customized based on the specific modules needed. However, in general, you can expect to pay between $1 to $5 per user, or per desk space, per month.
Hot Desk Booking Software: FAQ
Do you have general questions about hot desk booking software and how it works? You’ve come to the right place! Here are some answers to commonly asked questions I’ve received on this topic:
What is hot desking?
What are the benefits of hot desking?
What's the difference between hot desking and hoteling?
Just how common is hybrid working?
What are some tips for introducing hot desking?
Other Workforce Management Software Reviews
While the hot desking trend certainly isn't going away, there are other types of software that can help you optimize your workforce management practices even more. To save you hours of digging around, take a look at these other specialty software lists instead:
- Office Space Management Software Systems
- Office Management Software for Core Functions
- Remote Employee Monitoring Software Systems
- Workforce Management Software
- Employee Scheduling Software
- Productivity Tracking Software
- Remote Working Software for Distributed Teams
- Time Tracking Apps
- Remote Collaboration Software for Hybrid Teams
- Team Communication Apps
- HR Analytics Software
- Workforce Planning Software
If you’re looking for more details to support your workforce planning efforts, I recommend reading our article on best practices for workforce planning.
Stay in Touch
I hope this article highlighted the value of using hot desk booking software to streamline space management in your workspace.
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Related read: HR Software: What It Costs And How To Decide What’s Best For Your Company
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