Executive summary
- The biggest friction point in hybrid work is no longer the technology, but the co-ordination of knowing who’s in the office and when.
- Microsoft Places integrates directly into Outlook and Teams to show you which of your colleagues are nearby, making the commute worthwhile.
- AI features can even recommend the best days to come in based on your team’s schedule, and a recent licensing change means most Microsoft 365 users now get access to far more Places features than before.
Introduction
We’ve all done it.
You wake up early on a rainy Tuesday. You iron a shirt, battle the traffic for 45 minutes, and grab an overpriced coffee on the way to the office. You sit down at your desk, look around, and realise… nobody else is here.
You spend the next eight hours sitting in an empty room, on video calls with people who are sitting in their kitchens.
You might as well have stayed in bed.
This is the “ghost town” effect. And as we settle into 2026, it’s still the single biggest complaint we hear from businesses trying to manage hybrid working.
We’ve solved the technical side of working from anywhere. The laptops are fast, the cloud storage works beautifully, and the video calls rarely drop out. But we’re still relying on guesswork or frantic chat messages to figure out where everyone actually is on any given day.
But there’s a better way. If you use Microsoft 365, the solution is already waiting for you to switch it on.
It’s called Microsoft Places.
The problem with the modern commute
For the last few years, deciding when to go into the office has felt a bit like a lottery.
Employees want the flexibility to work where they feel most productive. Business owners and managers, on the other hand, want the connection and collaboration that happens when people are physically together. The friction happens when these two desires clash. You want to go in when your team is there, because that’s when the magic happens – the whiteboarding, the problem-solving, the quick questions over lunch.
But standard calendars are terrible at showing location. They tell you if someone is free, but they rarely tell you where they are.
If people keep making the commute only to find an empty office, they stop coming in altogether. The office has to earn the commute. That means giving your staff the tools to co-ordinate their schedules so they actually see the people they need to see.
Making the journey worthwhile
Microsoft Places fixes this coordination problem by acting as a connected workplace app right inside Teams and Outlook.
It allows everyone to set and share their work location schedule ahead of time. Before you even leave the house, you can use the Places card in your calendar to see who is planning to come in. If you spot that your main project team are all booked in for Wednesday, you can click a button to join them. Suddenly, the commute has a purpose.
The coordination doesn’t stop once you arrive, either.
The workplace presence feature lets you type “@nearby” in a Teams group chat to ping colleagues who are physically in the same building. It’s a brilliant way to pull people together for an impromptu cup of tea or a quick catch-up, without disturbing everyone who is working remotely.
The magnetic effect of management
For business owners and managers, the ghost town problem is frustrating because you’re paying for an expensive office that sits half-empty.
You don’t necessarily want to force everyone back five days a week, but you do want to ensure that when people come in, it counts. Rather than issuing top-down mandates, Places allows managers to act as a natural magnet for their teams.
Because location schedules are visible across the team, a manager simply sets their own office days in their calendar. The system highlights this to everyone else, and staff can see at a glance when their manager or project lead is planning to be around. It bunches people together organically. Instead of five people spread thinly across the week, you get all five in on the same day.
The result can be that the energy levels go up, and the office actually feels like a place of work again.
Let Copilot do the heavy lifting
Because this is 2026, Microsoft has naturally baked artificial intelligence into the platform.
If you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, Microsoft Places gets considerably smarter.
Copilot can understand your schedule and recommend which days are best to come into the office, telling you exactly why – whether that’s because your manager is in, there are a lot of in-person meetings scheduled, or simply because most of your regular collaborators are planning to be there. It takes the mental arithmetic out of planning your week.
The Places Finder feature also solves the eternal nightmare of finding the right meeting room. Rather than booking a space based purely on how many chairs it has, you can see photos of the room, interactive floor plans, and details about the audio-visual technology available. With Copilot, it can even manage the bookings for you – finding the right space based on your needs, and automatically rebooking if a scheduling conflict pops up.
How to get started with Microsoft Places
The best news about Microsoft Places is that you might already be paying for it.
As of 1st April 2026, Microsoft has significantly expanded access to Places as part of a broader licensing update. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Core features – included in most M365 plans. Setting your work location, seeing your colleagues’ plans, the Places card in your calendar, and Places Finder are all available on Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, and E5. No additional licences required.
- Desk reservations and space analytics – Teams Shared Space licence. If you want auto-release policies, advanced desk booking, and occupancy data, you’ll need this add-on. Notably, it’s priced per space rather than per person, which makes good sense – it’s the desks and rooms that are the limited resource, not the people booking them.
- AI-powered features – Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. For intelligent scheduling recommendations, automated room bookings, and Copilot-driven insights, you’ll need a Copilot licence. It’s an add-on, but when you weigh it against the cost of paying for office space that nobody is using efficiently, it tends to pay for itself.
Stop guessing, start co-ordinating
Hybrid work is here to stay. But the chaos of commute roulette doesn’t have to be.
Microsoft Places turns your office from a random collection of hot desks into a coordinated hub. It respects the flexibility your staff love but brings back the connection that makes coming in worthwhile.
If you want to see how Places works, or if you need help configuring your floor plans and licences to get the most out of it, we can help.
Speak to your Get Support Customer Success Manager today or call our friendly team on 01865 594 000.