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YAROOMS vs Microsoft Places
YAROOMS is a complete workplace management platform covering desk booking, room booking, visitor management, parking, workplace services, and analytics. Microsoft Places is a workplace coordination layer inside Microsoft 365 covering work plans, presence, room booking, and desk booking.
Last updated: September 1, 2026
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Platform scope | Space booking, hybrid work, visitors, parking, services, and analytics in one platform, with some features depending on plan. | Work plans, presence, room and desk booking, and space analytics inside Microsoft 365. |
| Pricing | From $99/month, published. Visitor Management is $99/location/month. | Core features are included with Microsoft 365. Individual desk booking, auto-release, and occupancy reports need a per-space license. |
| Visitor management | Included: pre-registration, host notifications, visitor photos, visitor analytics. | Not included. |
| Administration | Workplace teams administer through a web interface. | Places portal plus PowerShell for floor plans and analytics enablement. |
| Environment fit | Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, and self-hosted Enterprise deployments. | Microsoft 365 with Exchange Online mailboxes only. |
| Best for | Organizations needing a full workplace platform that integrates with Microsoft 365. | Microsoft-centric organizations needing coordination and space booking inside Microsoft 365. |
What Is the Difference Between YAROOMS and Microsoft Places?
YAROOMS and Microsoft Places differ on three things: what they manage, who administers them, and which environments they run in.
- What they manage. Microsoft Places covers work plans, presence, room booking, desk booking, and occupancy analytics for rooms, desks, and buildings. YAROOMS covers those, plus visitor management, parking, and workplace service requests, with analytics across all of them.
- Who administers them. Microsoft Places floor plans, analytics enablement, and badge devices are configured through PowerShell cmdlets, requiring Exchange or Places admin permissions. YAROOMS is administered by workplace and facilities teams through a web interface.
- Which environments they run in. Microsoft Places requires mailboxes in Exchange Online and is unavailable to users on Exchange on-premises. YAROOMS integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and Zoom, and offers a self-hosted deployment option.
How Do YAROOMS and Microsoft Places Compare on Platform Scope and Deployment?
YAROOMS and Microsoft Places both cover room and desk booking. Microsoft Places offers work plans and presence in Teams, Outlook, and the Places app. YAROOMS adds visitor management, parking, workplace services, room panels and desk signage, and hybrid work scheduling.
YAROOMS deploys in the cloud or self-hosted. Microsoft Places runs only in the Microsoft 365 cloud and requires Exchange Online mailboxes.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Platform scope | YAROOMS combines desk booking, room booking, hybrid work scheduling, visitor management, parking, workplace services, room panels and desk signage, and workplace analytics in one platform. | Microsoft Places is a coordination layer in Teams, Outlook, and the Places app, covering work plans, presence, room and desk booking, and space analytics. |
| Deployment model | YAROOMS offers cloud deployment and a self-hosted option. | Microsoft Places is available only through the Microsoft 365 cloud. |
| Environment and integrations | YAROOMS has no mailbox or identity provider requirement, and integrates with Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Calendar, Zoom, Slack, and an open API. | Microsoft Places requires mailboxes in Exchange Online. Users with Exchange on-premises mailboxes cannot access Microsoft Places. |
| Compliance | YAROOMS holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and is GDPR compliant. | Microsoft Places inherits the tenant’s existing Microsoft 365 compliance posture, so deploying Microsoft Places requires no new vendor security assessment. |
How Do YAROOMS and Microsoft Places Compare on Desk and Room Booking?
Both YAROOMS and Microsoft Places support desk and room booking. Microsoft Places includes room and desk pool booking free, but individual desk booking, auto-release, and specific analytics features each need a per-space license as of April 1, 2026. YAROOMS includes named desk booking, approvals, check-in, and unattended-booking release in its base subscription.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Desk booking | YAROOMS supports named desk booking, hot desking, desk hoteling, assigned seating, interactive floor plans, QR and Wi-Fi check-in, and booking approvals. | Microsoft Places supports desk pools and individual desk booking. Desk pools are free. Each individually bookable desk needs a Teams Shared Space or Shared Space - Single Space license. |
| Room booking | YAROOMS room booking includes two-way Microsoft 365 sync, configurable rules, room panels, check-in, and release of unattended bookings. | Microsoft Places room booking runs on Exchange resource mailboxes and appears in Places finder, which shows rooms and desks with photos, floor plans, and amenities. Room Finder remains the Outlook and Teams calendar default. |
| Other bookable resources | YAROOMS supports parking booking and workplace service requests including catering, cleaning, and equipment. | Microsoft Places manages buildings, floors, rooms, workspaces, and desks only. It does not manage parking, lockers, or services. |
| Booking rules and policies | YAROOMS supports booking windows, capacity limits, approval workflows, buffer periods, restricted areas, and no-show handling, configured by workplace admins in the UI. | Microsoft Places booking policies are configured in the Places management portal and PowerShell. Reservation behavior also varies by desk mode: Reservable, Drop-in, Assigned, or Unavailable. |
| Check-in and no-shows | YAROOMS supports QR check-in, Wi-Fi check-in, and automatic release of unattended bookings. | Microsoft Places checks users in automatically via corporate Wi-Fi or a supported peripheral, at building, room, or desk level. |
Does Microsoft Places Include Visitor Management?
Microsoft Places does not include visitor management. Microsoft’s Places documentation, as of August 2026, covers no visitor pre-registration, host notification, badge printing, or reception capability. YAROOMS visitor management includes pre-registration, host and visitor notifications, visitor photos, custom registration flows, digital reception, and visitor analytics.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor management | YAROOMS includes visitor pre-registration, host and visitor notifications, visitor photos, custom registration flows, digital reception, and visitor analytics, available as a $99/month per location. | Microsoft Places does not include visitor management. |
| Digital touchpoints | YAROOMS provides a mobile app, room panels, digital desk signs, lobby display, and digital reception. | Microsoft Places relies on the wider Teams Rooms and Teams Panels hardware ecosystem, licensed and managed separately from Microsoft Places. |
| Branding | The YAROOMS workplace experience can be branded to the organization. | Microsoft Places remains a Microsoft-branded experience. Microsoft 365 and Entra offer tenant branding elsewhere, but not white-labelling of the Microsoft Places workplace experience. |
How Do YAROOMS and Microsoft Places Compare on Workplace Analytics?
YAROOMS workplace analytics covers bookings, space utilization, office attendance, no-shows, hybrid work patterns, and visitor data in one dashboard. Microsoft Places analytics covers intended versus actual occupancy for buildings, rooms, desk pools, and desks, with actual occupancy inferred from uploaded badge data or sensor signals.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics scope | YAROOMS reports on bookings, space utilization, office attendance, no-shows, hybrid work patterns, and visitor data in a single dashboard. | Microsoft Places reports intended versus actual occupancy for buildings, rooms, desk pools, and desks. |
| Actual occupancy data | YAROOMS derives utilization from booking and check-in data natively. | Microsoft Places infers building occupancy from badge-entry data the organization uploads, and room and desk occupancy from sensor signals. |
| Analytics setup | YAROOMS reporting is available as soon as spaces are configured. | Microsoft Places requires each building to be onboarded and enabled for Places analytics. Access is granted through a mail-enabled security group, and membership changes can take 24 hours to propagate. |
| Analytics limits | YAROOMS retains analytics data for 90 days on the Business plan and without limit on Enterprise. | Microsoft Places excludes desk pools with fewer than 10 desks from analysis for privacy reasons, and desk pool occupancy does not accommodate desk pools without reservations. For building analytics, uploaded badge data is retained 28 days and aggregated data 90 days. |
How Do YAROOMS and Microsoft Places Compare on Administration and Setup?
YAROOMS is administered by workplace and facilities teams through a web interface, with onboarding support to configure floor plans, policies, and integrations. Microsoft Places administration is shared between workplace and IT teams: the Places management portal handles day-to-day changes, while floor plans and analytics enablement need PowerShell or Graph.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Floor plans | YAROOMS provides interactive floor plans maintained in the admin interface. | Microsoft Places floor plans use the IMDF format, upload one building at a time, and Microsoft recommends a specialized mapping partner because IMDF correlation is complex. |
| Changing a floor plan | A YAROOMS floor plan is updated in the admin interface. | A Microsoft Places map cannot be edited in place. It must be deleted and re-uploaded, and can take up to an hour to appear. |
| Administration model | YAROOMS is administered by workplace and facilities teams through a web admin interface. | Microsoft Places day-to-day management runs in the Places management portal. Floor plans and analytics enablement use PowerShell or Microsoft Graph. |
How Do YAROOMS and Microsoft Places Compare on AI and Hybrid Work?
Microsoft Places has the stronger native hybrid coordination layer, with work plans, presence, and hybrid RSVP built into the Outlook and Teams calendar at no extra cost. YAROOMS provides hybrid work statuses, a team scheduling calendar, and an AI assistant inside Microsoft Teams and email. Microsoft Places AI features require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
| Area | YAROOMS | Microsoft Places |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid work coordination | YAROOMS provides a hybrid work scheduling calendar and colleague visibility tied to resource booking. | Microsoft Places provides work plans, workplace presence, in-person events, hybrid RSVP, and the Places card, included with supported Microsoft 365 plans. |
| AI assistant | YAROOMS provides an AI workplace assistant inside Microsoft Teams and email for natural-language booking. | Microsoft Places provides Copilot room booking and Quick book room recommendations. Both require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. |
How Much Does Microsoft Places Cost in 2026?
Microsoft does not publish a price for Microsoft Places. Core Microsoft Places features are included with supported Microsoft 365 plans at no additional cost: work plans, presence, check-in, in-person events, hybrid RSVP, room booking, and desk pool booking.
Individual desk booking, auto-release, and occupancy reports each require a per-space license: Teams Shared Space, Shared Space - Single Space, or, for rooms, Teams Rooms. Three Shared Space - Single Space licenses come free with each purchased Teams Shared Space license. Booking a room or a desk pool requires no space license.
What drives the total cost of Microsoft Places is how many bookable spaces an organization licenses, not how many employees it has. An organization with 600 employees and 120 bookable desks licenses the desks, not the people.
In comparison, YAROOMS pricing is published in full:
| Plan | Starting price | Users | Locations | Bookable spaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99/month | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Business | $399/month | 200 | 2 | 150 |
| Enterprise | $899/month | Unlimited | 5+ | Unlimited |
| Visitor Management | $99/location/month | N/A | N/A | Add-on to any plan |
YAROOMS plans are flat monthly subscriptions billed monthly or yearly, with 20% off yearly billing. See YAROOMS pricing for the full feature comparison.
What Are the Strengths and Limitations of Microsoft Places?
Microsoft Places is strongest at hybrid coordination for organizations already running Microsoft 365.
Strengths of Microsoft Places
- Coordination features are built into the calendar. Work plans, workplace presence, the Places card, and hybrid RSVP appear directly in Outlook and Teams, included with supported Microsoft 365 plans.
- Room and desk pool booking costs nothing extra. For organizations that only need to book a room or a pool seat, Microsoft Places covers it within existing licensing.
- Places finder and Places explorer became free in April 2026. Both previously required Teams Premium. Places finder shows rooms and desks with photos, floor plans, capacity, and amenities.
- There is no new vendor to onboard. Microsoft Places is part of Microsoft 365, so there is no separate contract or procurement process.
Limitations of Microsoft Places
- No visitor management. Microsoft Places includes no visitor pre-registration, host notification, badge printing, or reception capability.
- Floor plans require IT and PowerShell. Floor plans must be supplied as IMDF packages correlated to Places resource IDs and uploaded one building at a time. Changing a map means deleting and re-uploading it. Microsoft recommends engaging a specialized mapping partner because IMDF correlation is complex.
- Actual-occupancy data depends on signals the organization supplies. Microsoft Places infers building occupancy from badge-entry data uploaded by the organization, and measures desk use from reservations and building occupancy signals such as badging systems.
- Desk pool analytics has fixed thresholds. Microsoft Places excludes desk pools with fewer than 10 desks from analysis for privacy reasons, and desk pool occupancy does not accommodate pools without reservations. Buildings must also be onboarded to Microsoft Places and enabled for Places analytics before any data appears.
- Exchange on-premises users are excluded. In hybrid Exchange environments, users with on-premises mailboxes cannot access the Places app, Places finder, or work plans.
- Scope stops at rooms and desks. Parking, lockers, equipment, catering, and workplace service requests are outside Microsoft Places.
When Should You Choose YAROOMS or Microsoft Places?
Why Do Organizations Look for Microsoft Places Alternatives?
Microsoft Places is designed as a coordination layer inside Microsoft 365. Organizations look elsewhere when their requirements fall outside that design.
- The requirement grows past rooms and desks. Microsoft Places manages buildings, floors, rooms, workspaces, and desks. Organizations that also need visitor management, parking, or workplace service requests end up running several systems.
- Workplace teams want to change floor plans themselves. Updating a Microsoft Places floor plan means producing a new IMDF package, deleting the existing map, and re-uploading it through PowerShell. This is an IT task, not a workplace-admin task.
- Part of the workforce sits outside Exchange Online. Users with on-premises mailboxes cannot access Microsoft Places, so organizations mid-migration or running permanent hybrid Exchange cannot deploy it to everyone.
- Occupancy reporting needs infrastructure they do not have. Microsoft Places gets building occupancy from badge-entry data the organization uploads. Without a badge system to feed it, Places reports intent and reservations rather than actual occupancy.
When Should You Choose Microsoft Places Over YAROOMS?
Microsoft Places is the better choice when:
- The organization runs entirely on Microsoft 365 with all mailboxes in Exchange Online.
- The requirement stops at coordination and space booking: work plans, presence, room booking, and desk pools. These cost nothing beyond a supported Microsoft 365 plan.
- IT has capacity to build and maintain the setup, including the buildings hierarchy and IMDF floor plans.
- Adding a vendor is a hard constraint. Microsoft Places is part of Microsoft 365, so there is no separate procurement.
When Should You Choose YAROOMS Over Microsoft Places?
YAROOMS is the better choice when:
- The workplace needs more than rooms and desks, such as visitor management, parking, or workplace service requests alongside space booking.
- Workplace teams need to change floor plans themselves, without producing IMDF packages or using PowerShell.
- Part of the workforce sits outside Exchange Online, on on-premises mailboxes or Google Workspace.
- Utilization reporting is needed without badge or sensor infrastructure, since Microsoft Places infers building occupancy from uploaded badge data.
Why choose YAROOMS?
YAROOMS is the better fit when workplace management extends beyond Microsoft 365 coordination into visitors, parking, services, analytics, and mixed technology environments.
A Complete Workplace Platform
YAROOMS brings desk booking, room booking, visitors, parking, services, and analytics together. Microsoft Places is strongest when the requirement stays inside Microsoft 365 coordination and space booking.
Workplace Admin Friendly Setup
YAROOMS is managed through a web interface for workplace and facilities teams. Microsoft Places uses the Places portal, plus PowerShell or Graph for floor plans and analytics enablement.
Flexible Environment Fit
YAROOMS works with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, and self-hosted Enterprise deployments. Microsoft Places requires Exchange Online mailboxes.
Microsoft Places Alternatives: Frequently Asked Questions
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"The YAROOMS team was incredibly supportive throughout the entire implementation process. Even when we encountered issues, their commitment to resolving them reinforced our trust in our partnership. Plus, the user interface is super intuitive, which has made it a breeze for our team to use."
Hector Garcia
Assoc. Director, Marketing
Customer and Employee Engagement
"As we expand with the business, we want partners that can grow with us. And we really appreciate your flexibility and adaptability. If we have to bring in more desks, renumber or relocate them, change the meeting rooms or office maps, we can be sure that the YAROOMS team will do it promptly and professionally."
Richard Coope
Project Manager
Future-Ready Workplace
"I couldn't be happier with the smooth transition and support we received. From invoicing to customer support, all questions were answered within hours, and any issues we had were resolved almost immediately. For a company with multiple locations, this software is a dream!"
Dani Partain
Executive Assistant
Deputy Superintendent of Operations
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