How it works
A landing pad is usually a cluster of desks, counters or high tables near an entrance, a reception area or a block of meeting rooms. The desks are not bookable and not assigned. People sit down, plug in and leave.
It meets a need that bookable desks handle poorly: short, unplanned stays. A person with a gap between meetings, a colleague visiting from another office or someone in for one meeting would otherwise book a full-day desk, or sit at one that someone else has booked.
Because nobody books a landing pad, its use does not show in booking data. Teams measure it with presence signals, such as network presence, QR code or kiosk check-ins or sensors, and size it from that walk-in demand.
How to measure it
- Count walk-in use from presence signals, since landing pads have no bookings.
- Watch the busiest hours. Landing pads are often fullest around midday and between meeting blocks.
- Check whether people use the landing pad for whole days. If they do, it is working as unbooked general seating.
Examples
- A regional office keeps a row of high desks next to reception for colleagues visiting from headquarters.
- A floor with many meeting rooms places a few touchdown desks between them for people between calls.
Common mistakes
- Making landing pad desks bookable, which turns them into ordinary desks and removes the drop-in space.
- Leaving landing pad use out of utilization reports because there are no bookings.
- Putting landing pads far from entrances and meeting rooms, where short-stay visitors do not look.
How Kadence helps
Kadence Automatic Bookings records people who turn up without a booking, and the Kadence Agent checks people in when it detects them on the office network, so drop-in visits still count in attendance and occupancy reports. Floor plan search helps visiting colleagues find a person, desk or room on the web and in the mobile apps.
Workplace occupancy · Desk booking software · Desk booking policy template
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a landing pad and hot desking?
Hot desking lets anyone take any free shared desk, often for a whole day. A landing pad is a small, separate set of drop-in desks meant for short stays and visitors. Many offices use both: bookable or hot desks for full days and a landing pad for short visits.
How many landing pad desks does an office need?
Size it from measured walk-in demand at the busiest times, not from headcount. Presence data shows how many people are in for short stays or visiting from other sites. Start small near entrances and meeting rooms and adjust as the data comes in.
Should landing pad desks be bookable?
No. The point of a landing pad is that people can sit down without planning. If people need to plan a full day, give them bookable desks elsewhere and keep the landing pad for drop-in use.
Related terms
- Hot desking and hoteling Two ways to share desks: hot desking is first come, first served; hoteling means reserving a desk in advance and checking in.
- Walk-in usage Desks or rooms used without a booking. If it isn't captured, utilization reports undercount real demand.
- Workspace types The settings an office offers, such as desks, focus rooms, phone booths, huddle rooms and lounges, each suited to a kind of work.
- Bookable vs non-bookable space Separating spaces people can reserve from first-come, first-served ones (lockers, phone booths), while still showing both on the map.
- Activity-based working (ABW) A workplace model in which people move between settings designed for different tasks instead of working at one assigned desk.
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