Microsoft has finally unified the desk booking experience in Microsoft Places.
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Update from 30 August 2025:
The rollout of the new unified experience is expected to be completed by the end of September.
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At least until July, two different booking portals were available, one with inconsistent functionality.
- Outlook and the new Teams calendar supported individual desk booking, pooled desks, and meeting rooms.
- The Places web app and the Places Teams app supported pooled desks and meeting rooms, with no option to book individual desks. Individual desks were just hidden.
Trying to explain this situation to internal colleagues is nearly impossible – it simply makes no sense.
This situation is still documented. It took me a while to understand this box.
When testing the new desk modes, I noticed a change in the booking experience in Outlook and Teams calendar.
For comparison, here’s the booking experience back in July.
Same step in Outlook, but a different booking experience. Desk03 was available in Outlook and the Teams calendar, yet not in the Places web app.
Today, if I repeat the same booking step in the Places web app, I can now also reserve Desk03 — an individual desk configured as Reservable.
The same improved experience is also available in the Places app in Teams.
