Book desks for a whole team/group

Desks Professional and above

With group booking, you seat a whole team in one area with a single booking. You choose the area, the time and the people, and deskbird assigns a desk to each person automatically. That saves you booking desk by desk for team days, onboarding weeks or workshops. Group booking is available in the deskbird web app for admins, managers and group managers.

1. How group booking works
2. Before you start
3. Book desks for a group
4. How desks are assigned
5. What happens to existing bookings
6. FAQs

1. How group booking works

A group booking covers one area, one day and one shared time range for at least 2 people. You can add whole groups, individual people, or both. Before you confirm, you see who gets which desk.

• Everyone in the booking gets a desk in the same area.
• deskbird picks the desk for each person (see How desks are assigned).
• If someone already has a desk booking at that time, the group booking replaces it (see What happens to existing bookings).

💡 Tip: To book a desk for a single colleague, see Book a desk on behalf of a colleague. For external visitors, see Book a desk for a guest.

2. Before you start

• Role: Group Managers can book for members of the groups they manage. Managers, Office Admins and Global Admins can book groups too, and so can users with a custom role that includes Manage bookings for other users. Other users can't make group bookings.
• Plan: Desks Professional and above.
• Device: the deskbird web app. Group booking isn't available in the mobile app.
• People: at least 2 people per group booking.
• Space: an area with enough free desks for everyone you want to book.

⚠️ Other plans: On other plans, Office Admins and Global Admins see the Group option with an upgrade prompt. Managers, Group Managers and users don't see it.

3. Book desks for a group

1. Open Book in the deskbird web app and choose the date and floor.
2. Click an area on the floor plan and choose Advanced, or click the area card in the list view. The booking window opens.
3. Under Book for:, select Group.
4. Set the start and end time, or turn on Full day. The time range applies to everyone in the booking.
5. In Add groups or people by name, search for a group or a person and select them. Groups show their number of members in brackets. Repeat until everyone you want to book is in the list (at least 2 people).
6. Check the list under N people in this booking. Each group has its own block, and people you added one by one appear under Added individually. Each person shows the desk they will get, and List view lists every desk in the area with the person booked on it. Clear the checkbox next to a person to leave them out, click the X next to a group to remove the whole group, or click Deselect all to clear every selection.
7. Click Confirm group booking (N).
8. A dialog shows how many bookings will be created and the time range in which overlapping bookings are replaced. Click Confirm bookings (N) to book, or Back to make changes.

The counter next to the area name (for example 8/10 desks available) shows how many desks are still free once everyone in the list has a desk, so you can see at a glance whether everyone fits.

💡 Tip: Confirm group booking stays disabled until at least 2 people are in the list and everyone has a desk. If there are more people than free desks, clear some people from the list or choose a larger area.

After you confirm, a dialog shows how many desks were booked for which day. View bookings opens the list of all bookings for that day, and Done closes the dialog. Everyone in the group gets a calendar invite and an email for their new booking. If a booking can't be created, a notification names the person and the reason. Closing the booking window does not cancel the group booking.

4. How desks are assigned

deskbird gives each person a desk in the selected area, in this order:

1. Their assigned desk.
2. Their favorite desk in that area.
3. The desk they already have booked in that area.
4. Any free desk in the area.

You see the result before you confirm: the desk number next to each name in the list, and each person's spot on the floor plan in Map view.

5. What happens to existing bookings

• If someone in the group already has a desk booking that overlaps the time range, the group booking replaces it.
• If someone is already checked in to an overlapping booking, that booking isn't replaced. It ends when the group booking starts.
• People whose booking is replaced get an email. It shows the old booking crossed out, the new booking, who made the group booking, and a See your bookings button.

⚠️ Check the preview: Replacing happens for everyone in the list at once. Review the people and desks before you click Confirm bookings (N), especially for colleagues who may have booked a desk elsewhere for that time.

6. FAQs