Desks and Places
Meeting Room 365 Desks and Places helps workplace and IT teams make Microsoft 365 bookable resources easy to find — meeting rooms, desk pools (workspaces), and (when your tenant exposes them) individual desks. The admin experience lives at admin.meetingroom365.com/places and focuses on what Microsoft’s own admin surfaces do not fully solve: Room Finder organization, rich resource metadata, floor plan images, and alignment with your room displays.
This guide is about the directory and desk-pool story in Microsoft 365 — not a replacement for Google or Exchange room calendars.
The Microsoft Room Finder gap
Employees discover bookable rooms and workspaces in Outlook and Microsoft 365 apps through Room Finder. What appears there depends on how your tenant is configured:
- Legacy Room Lists — the long-standing model: resources grouped into lists and floors, maintained largely through PowerShell.
- Places Room Finder — Microsoft’s newer hierarchy (Buildings → Floors → Sections → resources), available after your organization opts in to Microsoft Places Room Finder (a paid Microsoft offering).
Many tenants still run Room Lists while they evaluate or roll out Places. Either way, IT needs a practical way to see every resource, fix how it appears in Room Finder, and add photos, equipment, maps, and descriptions that Outlook alone does not manage. That is what the Meeting Room 365 Places area is for.
Meeting Room 365 also provides a free Interactive PowerShell Tool that walks you through Room List setup: room-finder-setup. Download and run it in your environment to create and organize lists without starting from a blank script.
Remote PowerShell for room mailboxes (for example subject visibility on room calendars) is a separate, optional tool under Powershell in the admin portal. See Room displays — calendar connections for RBAC and mailbox setup.
Two directory models
Use the model that matches what employees already see in Outlook.
| Model | When it applies | How IT organizes resources | Where to work in Meeting Room 365 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy Room Lists | Tenant has not opted into Places Room Finder | PowerShell and Room List mailboxes; use the interactive setup tool | Room Lists tab at admin.meetingroom365.com/places |
| Places Room Finder | Tenant has opted into Microsoft Places Room Finder | Buildings, floors, sections in Microsoft Places; desk pools and rooms nested in that hierarchy | Buildings tab at admin.meetingroom365.com/places |
Room Lists control Outlook Room Finder when you are on the legacy path. Buildings reflect the Places hierarchy when you are on the Places path. If you have opted into Places Room Finder, prefer Buildings; if Room Lists still drive Finder in your tenant, start with Room Lists and PowerShell.
You can open Microsoft Places admin for tenant-side space management; Meeting Room 365 complements that with metadata, maps, and links to your room displays.
Places metadata in the admin portal
Sign in to the admin portal with Microsoft 365 (the Places view needs Graph access to read place data in your tenant). From Places you can:
- Browse rooms, workspaces (desk pools), and desks imported from Microsoft 365.
- Edit Meeting Room 365 metadata per resource or floor: descriptions, location labels, equipment icons, room codes, photos, AV notes, and floor map images.
- See when a room already has a matching room display configured on the same mailbox — so door tablets and directory data stay aligned.
- Optionally sync display name or capacity from metadata back to the resource when you enable those toggles for a room.
Metadata is stored for Meeting Room 365 end-user experiences (Room Finder enrichment, future desk booking surfaces, and floor wayfinding). It does not replace creating the underlying room or workspace mailboxes in Microsoft 365.
Floor maps
Upload a map image per floor in Places metadata. Maps support wayfinding in desk and place experiences. They are separate from interactive floor map displays on room signage — many sites use both: a static floor image for desk pools and a live map display for meeting-room availability.
Desk pool booking (Microsoft 365)
Desk hoteling in this product is pool-based, not “pick desk 14B on a floor plan” at booking time:
- Employees reserve a workspace (desk pool) with a capacity — for example “Open area, 40 seats.”
- No specific desk is assigned in the reservation; people choose any open desk when they arrive.
- They can check in so coworkers know where to find them on site.
- Your organization can publish a desk booking policy (welcome text, advance booking norms, cancellation etiquette) from admin when desk booking features are enabled for your tenant.
Today, the live employee path is Outlook (and Microsoft 365 apps) — book the workspace the same way other bookable resources are reserved. Meeting Room 365 configures defaults (domain, service connection, contact email, policy) on the Desk Booking Setup tab for organizations rolling out the native app.
Platform: desk pools and Places metadata require Microsoft 365. They do not apply to Google Workspace, Exchange-only room mailboxes, or Dibs displays.
Desk booking app (preview)
Meeting Room 365 is shipping a native iOS desk booking app (desks-ios) for employees who want a dedicated mobile experience — floor maps, pool availability, check-in, and policy text in one place.
| Status | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Now | TestFlight, invite only — contact Meeting Room 365 if you want early access for a pilot group. |
| Later in 2026 | Broader public release on the App Store is planned. |
| Until then | Train employees to book desk pools in Outlook; use Places for metadata, maps, and IT setup. |
The app consumes the same workspace resources and Places metadata you manage in admin. It is an additional front end — not a separate calendar system.
Connection to room displays
Room displays and Desks and Places solve different problems but share the same meeting rooms:
| Surface | Primary job |
|---|---|
| Room displays | Live calendar on the door — availability, walk-up book, extend, end early |
| Desks and Places | Directory richness — Finder layout, photos, equipment, floor maps, desk pools |
When a room mailbox powers both a display and Places metadata, the admin Rooms tab can reflect the link so you edit description, photo, and equipment once. Walk-up booking still happens on the display; desk pool booking happens in Outlook (and later in the iOS app).
Lobby status boards summarize meeting room availability from displays; they do not replace desk pool booking.
Supported and not supported
| Capability | Supported | Not supported |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 rooms in Room Finder / Places | Yes — metadata, photos, maps | — |
| Microsoft 365 workspace desk pools | Yes — pool capacity booking via Outlook today | Per-desk reservation at booking time |
| Legacy Room Lists setup | Yes — free PowerShell setup tool | — |
| Places Room Finder hierarchy (Buildings tab) | Yes — when tenant opted in | — |
| Desk booking iOS app | TestFlight (invite); App Store later 2026 | Android desk app (not described here) |
| Google Workspace / Exchange / Dibs calendars | — | Desk pools and Places admin |
| Booking meeting rooms from Places admin | — | Use room displays or Outlook |
| Visitor check-in | — | Visitor management |
Best fit for
Desks and Places is a strong fit when you:
- Run Microsoft 365 and use or plan hybrid desk hoteling alongside meeting rooms.
- Need Room Finder to show sensible buildings and floors — whether via Room Lists or Places.
- Want photos, equipment icons, and floor maps on resources without custom PowerShell-only workflows.
- Already use Meeting Room 365 room displays and want one admin home for room metadata and display alignment.
- Are willing to pilot the iOS desk booking app on TestFlight while keeping Outlook as the day-to-day booking path for everyone else.
It is usually not the first product to deploy if you only need door tablets — start with room displays. Add Desks and Places when Finder, desk pools, or metadata become a workplace priority.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to opt into Microsoft Places Room Finder to use desk pools?
No. Desk pool (workspace) booking uses standard M365 workspace resources. Places Room Finder is Microsoft’s optional premium directory experience. You can run legacy Room Lists and still book desk pools in Outlook while you enrich resources in Meeting Room 365.
How do we set up Room Lists?
Use the free Interactive PowerShell Tool. Room Lists are created and maintained with PowerShell; the tool guides the steps. After lists exist, use the Room Lists tab in Places to review hierarchy and attach metadata.
Can employees pick a specific desk when they book?
Not in the Meeting Room 365 model documented here. Reservations are against a pool; individuals choose a physical desk on arrival. Check-in can communicate which desk they took.
How do employees book a desk today?
In Outlook (or Microsoft 365 mobile): find the workspace / desk pool resource and reserve it like a meeting room. Train users on your pool names and policy text.
How do we get the iOS desk booking app?
It is TestFlight invite only today. Ask Meeting Room 365 support or your account contact for pilot access. Public App Store release is planned later in 2026.
Does this work with Google Workspace room displays?
Room displays can connect to Google calendars. Desks and Places is Microsoft 365 only because it relies on Microsoft Graph place and workspace APIs.
Where does RBAC fit in?
For room displays and automated calendar access, Microsoft recommends application RBAC (client credential) rather than per-mailbox passwords. Desk booking setup in admin similarly recommends an app-only service user for the service connection. See Configure RBAC via PowerShell and calendar connections.
Is there an extra charge for Desks and Places?
Consult Pricing and billing for your plan. The Room Finder PowerShell setup tool is free. Pilot access to the TestFlight app is arranged with Meeting Room 365 — not a separate self-serve download today.