Configure office hotels

Available with the ArcGIS Indoors Spaces extension.

Office hotels are workspaces that can be reserved for temporary use for a few days or weeks. As an alternative to the traditional permanently assigned spaces, this approach allows an organization to efficiently manage space and reduce costs as a result.

Prerequisites

ArcGIS Indoors includes Indoor Space Planner, which allows you to plan the activity of occupants in indoor space, including assigning occupants to individual spaces or to activity-based work areas known as office hotels.ArcGIS Indoors includes Indoor Space Planner, which allows you to plan the activity of occupants in indoor space, including assigning occupants to individual spaces or to activity-based work areas known as office hotels. You can book office hotels through Indoor Viewer or the Indoors mobile apps, and bookings are managed through a Reservations layer in the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model or through Microsoft 365.

The option to create office hotels as restricted in Space Planner is enabled by default. To book restricted hotels, an occupant must be assigned to the hotel area in Space Planner. If a hotel is configured as unrestricted, no assignment is required and anyone from your ArcGIS organization can book a unit in the hotel area.

Note:

If a hotel is configured as restricted, the portal user signed in to Indoor Viewer or the Indoors mobile app must have an associated email address that matches the EMAIL field value of their record in the Occupants layer.

Configure with the Reservation layer

Using this workspace reservation configuration requires that you add the Reservations layer to an indoor map. Hotel bookings are managed in the Indoors data model and can be used to visualize real-time availability of the hotel units and can also be used for space usage analytics.

Add layers

Your organization must have the web map that was prepared and shared for use in Space Planner. Prepare and share the Space Planner web map before you configure office hotels so that the feature layer associated with that web map can be added to the mobile map to enable visualization of up-to-date information.

Complete the following steps to prepare a map for office hotels:

  1. Open an Indoors project in ArcGIS Pro and activate the map prepared for Indoors mobile apps.
  2. Add or update the source for the Occupants layer in the map from the occupants feature layer that is associated with the Space Planner web map.
  3. Add or update the source for the Units layer from the units feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  4. Add the Reservations layer.

    This editable layer is used for managing workspace reservations and visualizing them on a map.

    Note:

    To enable recurring bookings, you must include the RECURRENCE_ID and RECURRENCE_CONFIG fields in the Reservations layer.

  5. Configure the Floors property for these layers so that they support the floor filter in the app.

    Set the layer's LEVEL_ID field for the Floors property. You can then use the floor filter to visualize real-time occupancy of the rooms per floor for a facility in the floor-aware map.

  6. Add the Areas table from the feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  7. Save the project.
  8. Create and share the mobile map package.
Note:

If you're using an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, ensure that the layers are sourced from the default version. All changes made to the plans in Space Planner are merged to that version.

Configure with Microsoft 365

Using this workspace reservation method requires that your organization define resource mailboxes in Microsoft 365. The Indoors app sends a booking request through the Microsoft Graph API. The following permissions are required:

  • Sign in and read user profile—To confirm whether a user has access to resource mailboxes
  • Read user calendars—To get available times for rooms
  • Full access to user calendars—To create an event for the new bookings

Depending on how your organization has set policies in Microsoft Azure, you may require administrator consent for the requested permissions before the organization starts using Indoors to book rooms.

If your organization restricts access or protects apps using Microsoft Intune for mobile app management (MAM), you must use the ArcGIS Indoors for Intune app, available from the Apple App Store.

Add layers

Your organization must have the web map that was prepared and shared for use in Space Planner. Prepare and share the Space Planner web map before you configure office hotels so that the feature layer associated with that web map can be added to the mobile map to enable visualization of up-to-date information.

Complete the following steps to prepare a map for office hotels:

  1. Open an Indoors project in ArcGIS Pro and activate the map prepared for Indoors mobile apps.
  2. Add or update the source for the Occupants layer in the map from the occupants feature layer that is associated with the Space Planner web map.
  3. Add or update the source for the Units layer from the units feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  4. Configure the Floors property for these layers so that they support the floor filter in the app.

    Set the layer's LEVEL_ID field for the Floors property. You can then use the floor filter to visualize real-time occupancy of the rooms per floor for a facility in the floor-aware map.

  5. Add the Areas table from the feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  6. Save the project.
Note:

If you're using an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, ensure that the layers are sourced from the default version. All changes made to the plans in Space Planner are merged to that version.

Add email IDs

Your organization must have resource mailboxes in Microsoft 365 for each space that can be reserved so a unique email address is associated with that space. Resource mailboxes can be room mailboxes or workspaces.

Note:

Ensure that the scheduling options, in particular the maximum duration, are set based on the requirements of your organization. If a resource mailbox is a workspace and has a capacity defined, you can book the space multiple times until the capacity is reached.

Complete the following steps to associate units with email IDs:

  1. Right-click the Units layer and click Attribute Table.
    Tip:

    You can filter the records to show only the rows with a hotel value as the ASSIGNMENT_TYPE using the following: ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = "Hotel".

  2. Update the SCHEDULE_EMAIL field with the unique email IDs for each hotel unit.
  3. Click the Edit tab.
  4. In the Manage Edits group, click Save.
    Note:

    Ensure that the USE_TYPE column has appropriate values for each hotel unit. These values are presented as options when booking workspaces.

  5. Save the project.
  6. Create and share the mobile map package.
Note:

You need to sign in to your Microsoft account in the ArcGIS Indoors mobile app to book office hotels.

Book an office hotel

The Hotel button appears on the quick access menu for maps that have office hotels configured. The hotel view displays a list of available office hotels based on location and duration. You can filter the list based on location, site, building, floor, and duration. You can book and manage daily or weekly recurring office hotel bookings. If you have an equipment filter configured, you can also filter the listed office hotels by available equipment.

When a unit associated with an office hotel is selected on the map, the Book button appears on the info card. Tap the button to display a schedule of existing bookings for that room. To book the office hotel, tap an available time slot to prepopulate the start and end times or use the time fields to set the times.

Note:

Booking requests can be declined if they conflict with any scheduling limits specified in Space Planner.

In Microsoft Outlook for Mac, you cannot modify an all-day event within a recurring series to a partial-day booking if the recurring series was created in Indoors for iOS with Microsoft 365.

If office hotels are configured using the Reservations layer, users must have a role of Data Editor or higher in your ArcGIS organization in ArcGIS Online to book a hotel. If office hotels are configured using the Reservations layer, users must have a role of Data Editor or higher in your ArcGIS organization in ArcGIS Enterprise to book a hotel.

If the map was configured for hotel booking using Microsoft 365, the Indoors app sends a request using the Microsoft account that the user has signed in with in Indoors. Users receive an automated email specifying whether the request was accepted or declined, and an event is added to their calendar. This experience is similar to using Microsoft apps such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams when booking rooms. You can also view, edit, and cancel the acceptance status of office hotel bookings on the Booked tab.

Book an office hotel for someone else

You can configure reservation managers in Space Planner who can book and manage office hotel bookings and recurring bookings for other people if you configured workspace reservations using the Reservations layer. If a user is configured as a reservation manager for a hotel, an option appears in the Hotel panel to book a hotel unit for someone else. If the hotel is configured as restricted, reservation managers can only book the hotel for people who are assigned to it.

If feature editing for the Reservations layer is set to Editors can only edit their own features, when reservations are made by a reservation manager, the options to check in, check out, or cancel a reservation are only available to the reservation manager.

View an office hotel booking

If the map is configured for office hotels using the Reservations layer, you can view your booked rooms on the Booked tab in the Hotel panel. You can select your booking to open the info card and perform various actions. Actions include adding a reminder to your preferred calendar app on the device, and editing or canceling the booking. Reservation managers have two buttons on the Booked tab. The For you button lists your hotel reservations and the For others button lists rooms booked for other occupants. As a reservation manager, you can view, edit, or cancel office hotel bookings for yourself and others.

When you search for an occupant, the app displays their seating assignment, home office assignment, and any active or upcoming hotel reservations so that you can locate them. You can view the details of the hotel unit they have reserved, get directions, and route to it. You can also access an occupant's additional assignments using the Locations button on the info panel.

If the map was configured for hotel booking using Microsoft 365, the Indoors app sends a request using the Microsoft account that the user has signed in with in Indoors. Users receive an automated email specifying whether the request was accepted or declined, and an event is added to their calendar. This experience is similar to using Microsoft apps such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams when booking rooms. You can also view, edit, and cancel the acceptance status of office hotel bookings on the Booked tab.

Note:

Indoors for iOS integrates with the native Calendar app. Integration with third-party calendar apps is not supported.

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