Your office is one of your biggest expenses, but are you making the most of it? On any given day, many offices are less than half full, meaning you're paying for empty desks and missed opportunities for collaboration. This inefficiency creates headaches for everyone. Employees struggle to coordinate in-office days, and managers are left guessing about actual space needs. The right technology provides the clarity you need to turn your office into a valuable, well-used asset. This guide covers the tools that solve these problems, helping you decide whether to adopt a ready-made solution or take on the complex task of building space management software from scratch.
How to Improve Office Efficiency with Space Management Software
Effective space management tools enhance office utilization and support hybrid work environments.
- What it does: Tracks space usage, allowing teams to book desks and meeting rooms seamlessly.
- Why it matters: Boosts collaboration, productivity, and employee satisfaction while minimizing wasted office space.
- Key features: Desk booking, real-time attendance, floor plans, and space utilization reporting.
- Top picks: Officely, Zynq Workspace, and HubStar, each catering to different team needs.
- Who it’s for: Ideal for hybrid teams, office managers, and HR teams optimizing workspaces.
Office space is an expensive investment, so you need to make sure it pays off.
According to a 2023 survey by CBRE, only 40% of office spaces are occupied on any given day; the rest are sitting empty. That’s a lot of wasted resources and missed opportunities – either for better collaboration between coworkers or for space optimization.
Thankfully, with the right space management tools, you can track space utilization and attendance, see whether your current office layout makes sense for your people, and turn your office into a place where your team actually wants to come to.
We’ve rounded up the best tools to keep your workspace efficient and organized and make the most of each square foot.
What Is Space Management Software, Anyway?
So, what is space management software, exactly?
Space management software enables you to plan, monitor, and optimize how your office is used and helps you make the most of your physical office spaces. It’s particularly helpful for hybrid work setups because it enables your people to book desks and equipment hassle-free and keep office ops running smoothly and efficiently.
Ideally, it’ll also provide reports on space utilization and give you insights on how to make the most of your current space.
What Problems Does Space Management Software Solve?
Managing a physical office, especially in a hybrid setting, comes with a unique set of challenges. Without the right system, you're often left guessing. Are you paying for space that sits empty most of the week? Are your employees struggling to find a desk when they do come in? How can you coordinate team days without creating chaos? These questions can quickly become a headache for office managers and a source of frustration for employees. The core problem is a lack of visibility. You can't effectively manage what you can't see, leading to wasted resources, a clunky employee experience, and operational inefficiencies.
Space management software steps in to provide that missing clarity. It tackles the logistical nightmare of coordinating a flexible workforce by creating a single source of truth for your office. Instead of relying on messy spreadsheets or endless Slack threads, it offers a streamlined way to handle everything from desk reservations to meeting room scheduling. This technology helps you understand exactly how your office is being used, turning ambiguity into actionable data. It solves the fundamental problem of matching your office supply—desks, rooms, and resources—with your team's demand, ensuring the workplace runs smoothly for everyone.
The Benefits of Using Space Management Software
Adopting space management software isn't just about adding another tool to your tech stack; it's about making a strategic investment in your workplace. The right platform can transform your office from a simple cost center into a dynamic asset that supports your team and your business goals. By bringing intelligence to your space, you unlock a range of benefits that touch everything from your bottom line to your company culture. These advantages generally fall into four key areas: saving money, enhancing the employee experience, simplifying daily operations, and enabling smarter long-term planning. Let's break down what that looks like in practice.
Reduces Costs and Optimizes Resources
Office space is one of the biggest expenses for most companies, and unused square footage is essentially money down the drain. Space management software gives you a clear view of your office's utilization rates, showing you which areas are popular and which are gathering dust. This data is incredibly powerful. It allows you to make informed decisions about your real estate footprint, whether that means consolidating to a smaller office, reconfiguring your layout to better suit your team's needs, or even subleasing unused space to generate extra revenue. By optimizing your existing resources, you ensure every dollar spent on rent is working for you.
Improves the Employee Experience
For employees, a trip to the office should be seamless and productive, not stressful. Space management tools remove the friction from the hybrid work experience. Team members can easily see who will be in the office, book a desk next to their colleagues, and reserve a quiet room for an important call, all before they even leave the house. This level of predictability and control makes the office a more appealing destination. It fosters better collaboration and ensures that when employees make the commute, they have a designated, comfortable space waiting for them, which is a cornerstone of a successful hybrid work model.
Streamlines Day-to-Day Operations
If you're an office or HR manager, you know how much time can be consumed by the manual logistics of running a workplace. Space management software automates these repetitive tasks. Instead of fielding constant questions about desk availability or manually tracking who is in the office, you have a centralized system that handles it all. This frees up your time to focus on more strategic initiatives that contribute to company culture and employee well-being. From managing meeting room bookings to coordinating office-wide events, the software simplifies the complex web of daily operations.
Provides Data for Future Planning
Making decisions based on gut feelings is a risky strategy, especially when it comes to expensive, long-term commitments like office leases. Space management software replaces guesswork with concrete data. You can track trends over time, such as your busiest office days, the most requested desk types, or how often collaborative spaces are used. This information is invaluable for future planning. It helps you build a business case for office redesigns, justify your real estate budget to leadership, and confidently adapt your workplace strategy as your company grows and evolves.
Key Features to Look For in Space Management Software
Once you've decided to explore space management software, the next step is figuring out which features matter most for your organization. Not all platforms are built the same, and the best choice will align with your specific challenges and goals. Some tools are great for simple hot-desking, while others offer a comprehensive suite of features for managing a complex, multi-floor office. To find the right fit, it's helpful to look beyond the basic booking functionality and consider the capabilities that will make the biggest impact on your operations and your team's experience. Here are a few key features to keep on your radar.
Advanced Booking and Check-in Rules
A good system goes beyond just letting someone claim a desk. Look for software that offers advanced booking rules and customization. For example, can you assign specific desks or neighborhoods to certain teams? Can you set booking windows to prevent people from reserving a desk months in advance and forgetting about it? A crucial feature is an automated check-in system. This prevents "ghost bookings"—where a desk is reserved but never used—by automatically releasing the space if the person doesn't check in. This simple function maximizes your available space and ensures the desk booking system is fair for everyone.
Integrations with Your Existing Tools
The best software is the software your team will actually use. High adoption rates often come down to how well a new tool fits into existing workflows. That's why integrations are non-negotiable. A platform that works directly within the communication tools your team already uses every day, like Slack or Microsoft Teams, eliminates the need to learn and manage yet another app. This seamless experience makes booking a desk as easy as sending a message. Look for integrations with your calendar apps and HR systems as well, as this creates a connected and efficient workplace ecosystem.
Visitor and Move Management Capabilities
Your office isn't just for employees. A comprehensive space management tool should also help you handle visitors smoothly. Look for features that allow you to pre-register guests, assign them a temporary pass, and automatically notify their host when they arrive. On a larger scale, some platforms also include move management features. These tools can help you plan and execute office reorganizations or moves by visualizing new floor plans and managing seating assignments, which can be a huge help for growing or changing teams. This capability turns the software into a complete command center for your physical space.
Real-Time Occupancy Tracking
Knowing who booked a desk is one thing; knowing who is actually in the office right now is another. Real-time occupancy tracking gives you an accurate, live snapshot of your workspace. This can be achieved through manual check-ins within the app or, in more advanced systems, through sensors that detect physical presence. This real-time data is useful for everyone. Employees can quickly find an empty desk on a busy day, and facilities managers can get a precise understanding of peak usage times to better manage resources like cleaning services and office supplies.
Who Uses Space Management Software?
Space management software isn't just for one type of user; its benefits ripple across an entire organization. Different departments interact with the software to solve their unique challenges, all while contributing to the shared goals of efficiency and a positive workplace culture. At the forefront are Office Managers and Facilities Teams, who use it as their daily command center to oversee operations, manage resources, and ensure the office runs like a well-oiled machine. They rely on the software to automate tedious tasks and gain insights into how the space is performing.
Human Resources and People Teams are also key users. For them, the software is a powerful tool for shaping the employee experience. They use it to facilitate collaboration, support a flexible work culture, and gather data on workplace satisfaction. Finally, Senior Leadership and Finance departments depend on the software's analytics. The reports on space utilization and occupancy trends provide the hard data they need to make strategic decisions about real estate investments, optimize budgets, and plan for the company's future growth, ensuring the workplace strategy aligns with broader business objectives.
How to Choose the Right Space Management Software
With so many options on the market, selecting the right space management software can feel overwhelming. The key is to approach the decision methodically. The "best" platform is the one that solves your specific problems, fits your company culture, and can grow with you. Instead of getting swayed by a long list of features you may never use, focus on what will deliver the most value to your team and your business. Taking the time to define your needs and understand your options will pay off in the long run, leading to a smoother implementation and higher adoption rates.
Define Your Needs and Compare Options
Before you even look at a demo, sit down with your team and outline your biggest challenges. Is your main problem chaotic desk booking? Are meeting rooms constantly double-booked? Or do you simply lack data on office attendance? Create a checklist of "must-have" and "nice-to-have" features based on these pain points. Once you have your list, you can start comparing different vendors. Most importantly, take advantage of free trials. There's no better way to understand if a tool is a good fit than to test it in a real-world scenario with a small group of employees. This will give you a feel for the user experience from both an admin and an employee perspective.
Understand the Pricing Models
Space management software is typically priced on a per-user, per-month basis, but models can vary. Some companies offer tiered plans where more advanced features are locked behind higher-priced packages, while others may charge additional fees for implementation or premium support. As you evaluate options, make sure you understand the total cost of ownership. Ask about any hidden fees and consider how the cost will scale as your company grows. Look for transparent pricing that makes it easy to predict your expenses and ensure the solution fits comfortably within your budget now and in the future.
The Best Space Management Software for Hybrid Work
If you’re building a hybrid workforce, you need the right tech stack to pull this off successfully. Space management and planning tools are an essential part of this, as they enable your people to book desks and equipment and know when to come to the office if they want to see their coworkers – and give you an accurate idea of how your office is used.
Below, you’ll find the top tools we recommend. We admit we’re a bit biased, but you’ll see why we’re putting Officely at the top of the list.
Officely: The All-in-One Space Management Solution
If you’re looking for a desk and room booking tool that you can implement immediately and have your people start using it on the same day (and continue using it without any added friction or effort), Officely is a top pick.
Officely fits seamlessly into your workflows, because it lives where your team already is: in Slack or MS Teams. Or, simply put, your people won’t have to remember to open yet another app to book a desk or a meeting room; they can do that directly in the chat tool they’re already using.
There are plenty of things that Officely does. Namely, it:
- Enables your team to book desks, rooms, equipment, parking spaces, or even spots for their dogs, directly from MS Teams or Slack
- Gives them (and you) real-time information about who’s coming to the office and when
- Allows you to easily organize workshops, afterwork drinks, or other social events at work
- Gives you an accurate idea of how your space is used, so that you can optimize it further
If you want to see for yourself how much easier it can be to manage your space usage with the right tool, sign up for a free demo – we’d love to show you around.
Othership: Built for Distributed Teams in Europe
Othership is a flexible working platform that supports remote and hybrid setups, especially for teams that are based in the UK. It gives users access to a network of workspaces they can book by the hour or day, enabling teams to stay flexible.
It’s particularly useful for remote teams who need to meet up to collaborate from time to time but don’t have a dedicated office space, and less so for hybrid workspaces.
Zynq Workspace: A Feature-Rich Tool for Larger Companies
Zynq Workspace is an office management platform for flexible workplaces and offers plenty of features, such as:
- Desk and conference room booking
- Visitor management
- Health and safety tools
- Collaboration tools
- Enterprise analytics on space utilization across offices
It helps you predict future space requirements and integrates with other software tools like Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, enabling you to sync data in real time. That said, it might be overbuilt and unnecessarily complex for smaller teams, making adoption a challenge.
HubStar: Smart Desk Booking with an AI Assistant
If you’re looking for a solution that optimizes space utilization and helps you make your employees’ time in the office frictionless with the help of AI, HubStar is a good fit. It tracks how desks, meeting rooms, and other resources are used, giving you clear insights on how to optimize layouts, reduce wasted space, and create a better experience for your people.
The platform is indeed impressive, but that comes at a cost: It can feel a bit complex to set up and use, especially for smaller teams. Plus, all its features might be more than what small teams need.
Skedda: Visualize Your Office with Interactive Floor Plans
Skedda enables you to book and manage desks, rooms, and other shared spaces. It provides interactive floor plans, meaning that your people can visualize and reserve specific workstations they want.
It offers customizable reservation rules and policies and can be used for coworking spaces, which can be pretty useful.
However, users mention that once you start making a few changes at once to your floor plans, things easily get complicated and unintuitive.
deskbird: Best for Microsoft Teams and Outlook integration
If your team’s entire workflow is built around the Microsoft ecosystem, deskbird is a strong contender. It’s designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and Outlook, allowing your employees to book desks and see who’s in the office without leaving the apps they use every day. This focus on deep integration makes it a straightforward choice for companies heavily invested in Microsoft’s tools. It’s an accessible option for getting started with space management, with plans that start at $1.80 per user per month and a 14-day free trial to see if it fits your team’s needs.
OfficeSpace: Best for scenario planning and testing different layouts
For office managers and facilities teams who love to plan, OfficeSpace offers powerful tools for visualizing the future of your workplace. Its standout feature is scenario planning, which lets you create and test different office layouts and seating arrangements virtually. This is incredibly useful if you’re considering a redesign or want to understand the impact of team growth on your current space. You can explore various “what-if” scenarios to make data-driven decisions before moving a single piece of furniture. Pricing is available upon request, and you can request a free demo to explore its planning capabilities.
Kadence: Best for connecting projects, people, and spaces
Kadence takes a unique approach by focusing on how your physical office can support specific projects and collaborations. The platform is designed to bring together the right people in the right space at the right time, aligning your office utilization with your company’s most important work. It helps answer the question, "Who do I need to work with this week, and where should we do it?" This makes it a great tool for dynamic, project-based teams that need their workspace to be as agile as they are. You can get started with a free trial, with paid plans beginning at $4 per user per month.
Tactic: Best for hybrid team collaboration
Tactic is built from the ground up with the hybrid team in mind. Its core focus is making it easy for employees to coordinate their office days and collaborate effectively when they’re together. The platform simplifies desk booking, viewing office schedules, and finding colleagues, which helps foster the in-person connections that can sometimes be lost in a flexible work model. If your main goal is to make office days more intentional and collaborative, Tactic offers a focused solution. It offers a 14-day free trial, and its pricing starts at $3 per desk per month.
Archie: Best for creating custom office maps
If having a visually appealing and highly customized office map is a priority, Archie is an excellent choice. This tool gives you the creative freedom to design interactive floor plans that perfectly match your office layout and branding. This level of customization can make the booking experience more intuitive and engaging for your team. It’s ideal for companies that take pride in their office design and want their space management software to reflect that. Archie offers a free trial, with paid plans starting at $109 per month, making it a good fit for teams that value aesthetics and user experience.
Floor Plan Mapper: Best for interactive maps with unlimited users
Floor Plan Mapper stands out with its straightforward pricing model that supports unlimited users. This makes it a cost-effective solution for larger organizations or those with a high number of occasional office visitors who need access to maps. The software provides interactive floor plans that help everyone find desks, rooms, and colleagues without any hassle. Its focus on accessibility and scalability is a major plus for companies that want to provide a consistent experience for every employee, regardless of how often they come into the office. You can try it for free, with paid plans starting at just $28 per month for unlimited users.
Whatspot: Best for small offices and shared workspaces
For small businesses, startups, or shared workspaces, Whatspot offers a simple and effective solution without overwhelming you with features you don’t need. It’s designed to be easy to set up and manage, making it perfect for teams that need a functional booking system without a steep learning curve. Its simplicity is its strength, allowing you to get your space management up and running quickly. Whatspot is also budget-friendly, offering a free plan for very small teams and paid plans starting at an accessible $16 per month, making it a great entry point into space management.
Envoy: Best for an all-in-one space information dashboard
Envoy offers a comprehensive suite of tools that go beyond just desk booking, positioning itself as an all-in-one workplace platform. It combines visitor management, deliveries, and space booking into a single, unified dashboard. This integrated approach provides a holistic view of everything happening in your office, making it easier for office managers to handle day-to-day operations. If you’re looking to streamline multiple workplace functions with one tool, Envoy is a powerful option. The company offers a free trial, with detailed pricing available upon request.
WorkInSync: Best for coordinating teams using flexible desks
WorkInSync is specifically designed to solve the logistical challenges of hot-desking and flexible seating arrangements. The platform excels at helping teams coordinate their schedules and book desks near colleagues they need to collaborate with. It includes features like team zones and neighborhood bookings to ensure that even in a flexible environment, teams can sit and work together effectively. This makes it a great choice for companies that have fully embraced a flexible desk policy but still want to promote in-person teamwork. You can request a free demo to see it in action, with plans starting at $2.50 per user per month.
Robin: Best for making smart choices about space use
Robin focuses on providing the data and analytics you need to make intelligent decisions about your office space. The platform tracks utilization trends, helping you understand which spaces are popular, which are underused, and how your employees are actually interacting with the office. These insights are invaluable for optimizing your layout, planning for future needs, and justifying real estate costs. If you’re a data-driven leader who wants to back up your workplace strategy with hard numbers, Robin is a top-tier choice. It offers a 14-day free trial, with annual plans starting at $1,500.
YAROOMS: Best for managing hybrid work schedules
YAROOMS is built to handle the complexities of hybrid work scheduling. The software makes it easy for employees to plan their week, book the resources they need, and see when their teammates are coming into the office. It’s designed to bring clarity and organization to a flexible work model, reducing the friction that can come with coordinating schedules across a distributed team. Its focus on the weekly cadence of hybrid work makes it a practical tool for maintaining team cohesion and productivity. YAROOMS offers a 14-day free trial, with pricing that starts at $99 per location per month.
Smartway2: Best for monitoring office occupancy levels
If your primary concern is understanding and managing office occupancy, Smartway2 offers a robust solution. The platform is excellent for monitoring how many people are in the office at any given time, which is crucial for everything from health and safety compliance to resource planning. It provides real-time data on space usage, helping you avoid overcrowding and ensure that facilities like parking and cafeterias are adequately prepared. For companies that need tight control over their workplace density, Smartway2 provides the necessary tools. You can request a free demo to learn more, with pricing available upon request.
Accruent EMS: Best for very large companies
Accruent EMS is an enterprise-grade solution built to handle the scale and complexity of very large organizations. It’s a powerful, all-encompassing platform that covers everything from room and desk booking to complex event scheduling and facilities management. This tool is designed for corporations with multiple locations, extensive real estate portfolios, and complex operational needs. While it may be too much for smaller companies, it provides the depth and security that large enterprises require from their software. Given its enterprise focus, pricing is available upon request after a consultation and demo.
OfficeRnD: Best for employee self-service booking
OfficeRnD empowers employees by making it incredibly easy for them to book their own spaces. The platform is designed with a user-friendly, self-service approach, allowing team members to find and reserve desks, meeting rooms, and other resources with just a few clicks. This focus on employee autonomy reduces the administrative burden on office managers and gives people the flexibility to manage their own work environment. It’s a great fit for companies with a culture of trust and independence. OfficeRnD offers a 14-day free trial, and its paid plans start at $185 per month.
Cloudbooking: Best for global companies needing multi-language support
For international companies with a diverse, global workforce, Cloudbooking is an ideal choice. Its standout feature is multi-language support, ensuring that employees in different countries can use the platform in their native language. This makes for a more inclusive and user-friendly experience across your entire organization. The software is built to handle the needs of a global enterprise, offering robust features for managing spaces across multiple time zones and locations. If you operate on a global scale, Cloudbooking provides the necessary localization and support. You can request a demo to see it in action, with pricing provided upon request.
Frequently Asked Questions
We're a small team. Is space management software really necessary for us? Even for smaller teams, this kind of software can be a game-changer. It’s less about managing a huge number of people and more about establishing clear, simple habits for how you use your space. It removes the back-and-forth of coordinating office days over chat and gives you a solid foundation to build on as your company grows. Think of it as getting ahead of the logistical headaches before they even start.
How do I get my team to actually use another piece of software? That’s the million-dollar question, isn't it? The key is to choose a tool that doesn’t feel like another tool. Instead of asking everyone to log into a separate platform, look for software that integrates directly into the communication apps your team already uses every day, like Slack or Microsoft Teams. When booking a desk is as easy as sending a message, adoption happens naturally because you’re not disrupting anyone’s workflow.
Can't I just manage desk bookings with a shared calendar or spreadsheet? You certainly can, but it often creates more work than it saves. Spreadsheets and calendars are manual, prone to errors, and don't give you a real-time view of who is actually in the office. They can't handle things like automated check-ins to free up no-show desks or provide you with data on how your space is being used. A dedicated tool automates all of that, giving you and your team a much smoother experience.
My main goal is to get people to collaborate more. How does this software help with that? This is where space management software truly shines. Its greatest benefit for collaboration is visibility. When employees can easily see which of their teammates are planning to be in the office on any given day, they can make intentional choices about when to come in. It helps turn the office from just a place to work into a destination for specific, collaborative projects with the right people.
With so many options, what's the single most important feature I should look for? While interactive floor plans and advanced analytics are great, the most critical feature is how well the software fits into your team's existing daily routine. Look for deep integrations with the tools you already rely on. If a platform works seamlessly within your current communication channels, it will feel less like a mandate and more like a helpful extension of the way you already work, which is the secret to long-term success.
Key Takeaways
- Make Data-Driven Decisions About Your Space: Use the analytics from space management software to see exactly how your office is being used. This data helps you optimize your layout, justify your real estate budget, and plan for future growth without relying on guesswork.
- Choose Tools That Fit Your Team's Existing Workflow: The best platform is one your employees will actually use. Prioritize software that integrates directly into tools like Slack or Teams to remove friction and ensure high adoption from day one.
- Match Features to Your Most Pressing Problems: Before you start looking at demos, identify your core challenges, whether it's chaotic desk booking or poor attendance visibility. Use this list to compare options and take advantage of free trials to find the right solution for your team.
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