Applicable plans: ❎ The free plan, ❎ The complete plan

There are two ways to book a desk or a parking spot:

• Choose it manually by clicking on the map
• Let Waldo pick for you based on smart criteria and fair-play rules

Waldo follows fair-play rules when assigning desks and parking spots. Everyone gets a fair shot — but some users might get a little extra help when they need it.

Let’s break that down 👇

Manual booking

When a user selects a desk directly on the map, no priorities apply. It’s first come, first served—but only from the pool of desks that have not already been booked by Waldo via the automatic booking process.

Automatic booking

When users let Waldo assign a desk, the system uses fair-play rules to decide who gets what. It calculates:

• A User Score for Desk for each user, for Desk.
• A User Score for Parking for each user, for Parking.
• A Desk Score for each available desk, per user
• A Parking Score for each available parking, per user

ℹ️  What is the difference between the User Score for Desk and the Desk Score?

The User Score for Desk is the chance a user has to get a desk when coming to the office.

The Desk Score is the chance a user has to get a great desk once a desk is assigned.

💡 What is the User Score for Desk?

The User Score for Desk is the chance a user has to get a desk when coming to the office. Waldo calculates a unique score per user, based on:

✅ Their priority level for the area (most important factor, which can only be set by an administrator)
👥 Whether it’s a Team Day
📆 How long it’s been since the user last got a desk

There are two User Scores: the User Score for Desk and the User Score for Parking.

If you want to increase your chances of getting a desk: don’t come too often 🤔

👉 More info about priorities here

💡 What is the User Score for Parking?

It is the same concept than the User Score for Desk. The User Score for Parking is the chance a user has to get a parking spot when coming to the office.

✅ Their priority level for the parking (most important factor, which can only be set by an administrator)
👥 Whether it’s a Team Day
📆 How long it’s been since the user last got a parking spot

💡 What is the Desk Reservation Score?

The Desk Score is the chance a user has to get a great desk once a desk is assigned.

Waldo calculates a score per desk, per user. This score updates daily and is based on:

⭐ Whether the desk is one of the user’s favorites
👥 How close the desk is to the user's teammates

Example:
For today, Bob has a User Score of 800 and Desk Scores of 100 (Desk D1), 90 (Desk D2), 120 (Desk D3). 
For today, Emma has a User Score of 1000 and Desk Scores of 10 (D1), 80 (D2), 110 (D3).
👉 Waldo will book the desk D1 for Bob and D3 for Emma.

Administrators can view Desk Scores in Admin Portal > Metrics > Reports > Users Calendars, under the Desk Reservation Score column.

💡 What is the Parking Reservation Score?

It is the same concept than the Desk Reservation Score. The Parking Reservation Score is the chance a user has to get a great parking spot once a parking spot is assigned.

⚙️ The global algorithm (how it works)

When Waldo assigns desks automatically:

1. It gathers all available desks in the selected area
2. It lists all users who requested a desk and calculates a User Score
3. It ranks users by User Score
4. Starting from the top user, it calculates Desk Scores for all available desks
5. Waldo books the desk with the highest Desk Score for that user

🧮 For the math lovers: If all desks are booked, the number of Desk Scores calculated is n(n + 1)/2. That’s millions of Desk Scores per day in our database!

🟨 The golden rule

Waldo never removes a desk that’s already reserved — even for a high-priority user.

By default, Waldo books 10 days ahead (e.g. on May 1st, it processes bookings for May 11th), between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.

If a high-priority user decides to come after bookings are processed, Waldo assigns the best remaining desk — without disrupting others.

🔖 Must-have tags

If a user has a must-have tag, Waldo only considers desks with that tag.
⚠️ Must-have tags don’t increase scores — they just filter options.

🟰 When users have the same priority

If two users have the same priority level:

• Waldo favors the one who hasn’t been to the office recently
• If both have been away for the same time, Waldo applies a random tiebreaker

Let's take an extreme example, and let's assume Bob and Emma have the same priority.

Monday: Bob and Emma are in the office
Tuesday: Bob only
Wednesday: Bob only
Thursday: Emma only
Friday 👉 Bob will have priority

Said differently: if priority is equal, the last person who had a desk loses.

💗 When users have no favorite desks

If a user has no favorite desks, Waldo gives them a small boost to get a desk that hasn’t been marked as a favorite by anyone else.

👥 Team Day exception

On a Team Day, team members — and especially their manager — get ultra-high priority. This priority beats even the highest User Score.

👉 More info here: How Team Days work

🍫"Favorite desk" vs "Teammates proximity"

In their preferences, users can choose what matters more to them:

• Favorite desks and nice-to-haves
• Proximity to teammates

If a user selects "favorite desk", Waldo boosts the Desk Scores of their favorite desks and lowers scores for those closer to teammates. The opposite applies when the preference is for "teammates proximity".

If you'd like to understand how this reflects into the Waldo Calendar, you can refer to this article.