Microsoft offers several ways to book desks through its 365 ecosystem: Microsoft Places, Teams, Outlook/Exchange resource mailboxes, and Microsoft Bookings. 

Places is the most advanced option, allowing admins to define buildings, floors, and desks, with reservations made through Outlook, Teams, or the Places app. Teams also supports automatic desk reservations when users connect to peripherals, while Outlook/Exchange lets desks be set up as resource mailboxes. Bookings, originally designed for appointment scheduling, can be repurposed for desk reservations through a web or Teams interface.

However, these options provide basic booking functionality, and each has significant limitations compared to dedicated desk-booking apps such as Dibsido.

Microsoft Places requires complex setup, often using PowerShell, and lacks a simple out-of-the-box floor map. Teams booking is limited to desktop clients and requires Premium licenses for individual seat selection. Outlook/Exchange resource mailboxes offer only a plain list view, making seat selection cumbersome in larger offices, and Bookings feels like a workaround with no concept of office layout or hot-desking features.

In practice, Microsoft’s native solutions work for simple scenarios within a Microsoft-only environment but fall short in user experience, visualization, and ease of administration. They lack the intuitive mobile-first interfaces, interactive maps, flexible policies, and built-in analytics that specialized SaaS platforms like Dibsido provide, making them less suited for organizations seeking a modern, frictionless hybrid workplace experience.