This article is a user guide to how Calven books desks. If you're looking for more details about booking settings and automations, check out the following guides:
A good desk booking should support all the ways your office organically works. That's why Calven offers multiple ways to book desks, and an array of configuration options to meet your specific needs.
Auto-booking
Calven's auto-booking system is the most advanced in the world. Simply set your default schedule, and Calven will automatically book you desks on the days you've planned to be in the office, on a rolling basis.
If you'd like to edit specific days, you can always do that too - but keep in mind that it's best to do this before auto-bookings have been made for those days. Otherwise, it may be harder for Calven to find you a desk.
How far in advance will my desk be auto-booked?
Administrators can configure when auto-bookings will be made and when manual booking becomes available. On your desk booking pass, Calven will tell you when auto-bookings will be made - for questions about your office's specific cadence, contact your desk booking admin.
How does Calven know which desk to auto-book me?
If your primary group has been allocated to specific neighborhoods in the office, Calven will auto-book you within those neighborhoods. Within neighborhoods, depending on how your administrators have configured your office, Calven can either...
- Book you at desks you've chosen before: Calven will look at desks you've manually booked as your 'favorites' and try to book you them first and foremost, if available.
- Book you at desks near other members of your primary group: Calven will prioritize booking you as close as possible to other group members to encourage collaboration, especially in neighborhoods with multiple groups.
After allocated neighborhoods are booked, Calven will also fill any other overflow neighborhoods designated by administrators.
Some offices still use Calven's legacy "manual favorite desks" auto-booking algorithm.
In this algorithm, Calven will book you at desks you've manually chosen as favorites. If multiple people have chosen the same desk, Calven will prioritize booking the person who attends the office more.
If you have questions about your office's specific configuration, contact your desk booking administrator.
If your organization has auto-booking enabled but you don't want to be auto-booked a desk, you can opt out in your Calven profile.
Presence-based booking
While auto-booking is helpful for offices that need to plan far in advance and accommodate capacity constraints, presence based booking allows you to book on the fly, and let your desk booking follow you.
If your office has presence integrations configured, they can be used to automate the desk booking process and keep a realtime view of who's sitting where in the office.
Presence automations can be triggered in multiple ways:
- Book individual desks via booking panels like Embrava, CMS or Floorsense
- Book individual desks via monitor detection with the Calven presence agent
- Book neighborhoods via WiFi access point presence
- Change working location to the office via badge entry or network detection.
Manual Booking
If you'd rather pick your desk by hand, Calven also offers traditional manual desk booking. You can book desks manually via the floor plan on both the mobile and web apps. Administrators in your office can configure how far in advance desks are manually bookable - if you're trying to book a desk too far in advance, Calven will tell you when it will become available.
Permanently assigned desks
Calven also allows traditional assigned desks, for offices with fixed seating. Even if Calven auto-books desks for most users, you can still be assigned a permanent desk at any time.
Calven also allows you to release your assigned desk for others to use, the night before you're planning to be out of office.
To learn more about releasing assigned desks and other booking automations like waitlist, check out our booking settings guide.