The Closing spaces feature gives admins precise control over when desks, areas, floors, or entire offices can be booked. Spaces can be closed in two ways: indefinitely, or for a defined period with an end date. This makes it easy to manage availability for scenarios like maintenance, company holidays, or short-term events, while keeping employees clearly informed.
The available closure options depend on your plan:
On Business and Starter plans, admins can permanently close areas, spaces, and resources, hiding them from users until they are reopened. This is similar to the simple Active/Inactive feature we had in place.
On the Professional plan and above, admins can schedule temporary closures with an end date, so spaces automatically become available again.
1. Overview
Closures can be applied to different levels of your workplace setup:
- Individual resources (desks, parking, custom resources)
- Areas
- Floors
- Entire offices
💡 Note: Meeting rooms continue to use the existing Active / Inactive toggle. Existing meeting room bookings are not cancelled, even if the office or floor they belong to is closed.
You can choose between:
- Indefinite closures: spaces are unavailable without an end date and are hidden from users.
- Temporary closures: spaces are unavailable during the specified start and end dates.
- Indefinite closures with a start date: spaces are unavailable without an end date and are hidden from users. You can set a future date for the closure to take effect.
Closures follow a clear hierarchy. If you close a higher-level entity (for example, a floor), everything below it (areas and resources) is automatically closed as well. On the user side, the highest-level closure reason is shown.
2. Manage closures
You can manage closures from Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces.
To create or delete a closure:
- Select the office, floor, area, or resource.
- Click Manage.
- Click Add closure, or choose to delete an upcoming closure.
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Choose how you want to close the space:
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Indefinite closure
This option is available on all plans and hides the space from users until it is reopened. -
Indefinite closure with start date
Set a start date for the closure and select Close indefinitely.This hides the space from users until it is reopened.
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Temporary closure (with end date)
Set a Start date and select an End date.The space remains visible to users but can’t be booked during the closure period.
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Indefinite closure
- (Optional) Add a Reason (shown to users for temporary closures).
- Click Confirm, then Save.
You can open Manage at any time to delete a closure.
⚠️ Meeting rooms: Meeting rooms continue to use the existing Active / Inactive toggle. Existing meeting room bookings are not cancelled, even if the office or floor they belong to is closed. Synced meeting rooms may also remain bookable via Outlook / Google Calendar, depending on your calendar setup.
Who can create closures?
- Global Admins: can manage closures for any office
- Office Admins: can manage closures for their assigned offices only
3. What happens to bookings
What happens to bookings:
- Future bookings during the closed period are automatically cancelled (current-day bookings are not).
- Users receive a notification email when a booking is cancelled due to a closure.
- Past bookings remain untouched for reporting and audits.
The user experience depends on the type of closure:
- Indefinite closures (no end date): spaces are hidden entirely and cannot be booked.
- Temporary closures (with an end date): spaces remain visible but are marked as unavailable. Users see why a space can’t be booked (closure reason) and for how long.
💡 Tip: Need to cancel bookings in bulk for a specific office, floor, or area (for example, when resetting a seating plan or for maintenance work)? Create a closure starting on the date you want: Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces > select the office/floor/area > Manage > Add closure.
All future bookings in that scope from the start date onward are automatically cancelled, and users receive an email notification, if they have notifications for bookings enabled. Once your changes are done, delete the closure (or set an end date) to reopen bookings.
4. FAQs
Since Closing spaces is a new and more advanced feature, we’ve added a detailed FAQ below to make sure all important questions are covered. It explains how closures work in practice, what users see, and how different plans are affected.
Admins can close individual resources (desks, parking, custom resources), areas, floors, and entire offices.
Meeting rooms are out of scope for this closure system. They keep the existing Active/Inactive toggle. Existing meeting room bookings are not cancelled, even if the office or floor they belong to is closed.
Bookings in the closed period are automatically cancelled for future dates. Current-day bookings are not cancelled.
Users receive an email notification, and past bookings remain unchanged.
During a temporary closure, spaces stay visible but can’t be booked. Users see that a space is unavailable and why (closure reason).
If the entire office is closed, the office appears unavailable.
If the closure is indefinite (no end date), the space behaves like inactive and is hidden from users.
The Active/Inactive toggle for desks, areas, floors, and offices is merged into closures.
- Inactive is now equivalent to an indefinite closure (hidden from users, bookings cancelled for future dates).
- Status labels are replaced with clearer closure labels (for example: No closures, Upcoming, Closed).
- Booking cancellations: users receive an email notification.
- Previous inactive spaces have been set to draft status and can be published when ready.
Meeting rooms keep the Active/Inactive toggle.
Closures cascade downward:
- Close an office → all floors, areas, and resources are closed.
- Close a floor → all areas and resources on that floor are closed.
- Close an area → all resources in that area are closed.
On the user side, the highest-level closure reason is shown.
💡 Note: Meeting rooms continue to use the existing Active / Inactive toggle. Existing meeting room bookings are not cancelled, even if the office or floor they belong to is closed.
Same level: overlapping or touching closures are merged into one continuous closed period. Users see the correct reason across the affected dates.
Different hierarchy levels: all closures remain active. Users see the highest-level reason.
Example: An area is closed Oct 3–14 (Renovation) and a desk in that area is closed Oct 12–15 (Repair). Users see the area as closed for Renovation, and the desk can show Repair in its own closed window.
No. Closures are full-day only and don’t support recurring schedules or partial-day time windows in the current version. Admins, however, can set multiple closures in advance.
Admins can set a start and end date, or leave the end date empty for an indefinite closure.
Professional plan and above includes temporary closures (closures with an end date).
On Business and Starter plans, you can close spaces indefinitely, exactly as done with the active/inactive toggles previously.
If you’d like to upgrade, contact success@deskbird.com.
Closed periods don’t count as available capacity. Utilisation and availability metrics exclude the closed time, while past bookings remain available for reporting and audits.
Auto-booking excludes closed or inactive resources. It won’t assign desks in closed areas, floors, or offices.
If an office is closed, the office status is reset for that period. Users must pick another office or another status.
If only a floor/area/resource is closed, users can still set an “In-office” status — but affected spaces can’t be booked.
Visitor bookings and office events are not cancelled due to closures.
Indefinite closures are designed to behave like the previous inactive state. Many admins prefer fully hiding spaces that are unavailable long-term to reduce confusion and questions from employees.
Temporary closures remain visible for transparency and planning, which is why only indefinite closures are hidden.