Abandoned desk protection releases desk bookings that people do not use. Plans change, and people may not need what they booked in advance. Use desk check-ins and abandoned desk protection to get a clearer picture of who uses which desks and when.
Watch the tutorial or follow the guide below
Enable abandoned desk protection
You can turn on abandoned desk protection for a whole building or for specific desk groups, for flexible desks only. You must turn on desk check-ins first.
Enable for an entire building
- Go to Manage > Offices > and select a building.
- Scroll down to the "Policies" section and select Desks from the drop-down menu.
- Turn on Desk check-ins + Abandoned Desk Protection.
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After you turn on abandoned desk protection, you can adjust the abandoned desk threshold. This is the time Robin waits before it cancels an unconfirmed desk reservation.
Enable for flex desk groups
- On the Map search page, go to the Manage drop-down menu on the map > Layout Desks.
- Select a group of desks with your cursor.
- In the right panel, select the Policies tab.
- Select + to add a policy.
- Select Desk check-ins.
- Turn on Abandoned desk protection.
- Adjust the threshold (the time Robin waits before it cancels an unconfirmed desk reservation).
Best practice
Robin recommends an abandoned desk threshold of 4 hours. This gives employees a reasonable grace period to check in.
How it works
When employees reserve a hot/hotel desk with desk check-ins and abandoned desk protection turned on, they must check in between the start of the confirmation window and the end of the abandoned desk threshold.
Example: A desk has check-ins and abandoned desk protection turned on, with a 1-hour advance confirmation window and a 2-hour abandoned desk threshold. A user books a reservation for tomorrow at 9:00 am. To keep the seat, the user must check in between 8:00 am (1 hour before the start) and 11:00 am (2 hours after the start).
If Robin cancels your desk reservation automatically, Robin sends you an email like this:
See the ways employees can check in to a desk.
What happens when a desk is released
When abandoned desk protection releases a desk reservation, Robin cancels the reservation. It does not delete it. The reservation still appears on the desk export:
- The "Canceled at" field shows when Robin released the reservation.
- The "Cancellation type" field shows how it was canceled (automatically or manually).