Meeting Room Booking Systems: Robin vs Joan vs Microsoft Places (KSA)
“Whose meeting is in the boardroom right now?” If your office has more than 8 meeting rooms and 50+ users, this question gets asked daily. Manual booking via Outlook calendar shared mailboxes worked for small offices; it doesn’t scale. Saudi enterprises are increasingly deploying purpose-built meeting room booking systems. This piece compares the major options.
What meeting room booking systems do
The platforms handle: real-time availability display (wall tablets outside each room showing busy/free state), one-touch booking and check-in (book the room from the tablet without using a laptop), no-show automatic release (rooms held by no-shows freed for others), analytics and utilisation reporting (which rooms are over- or under-used), integration with calendar systems (Outlook/Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), space-aware scheduling (find a meeting room of right size near right participants).
Robin
Robin is the dominant pure-play meeting room booking platform. Cloud-managed, deployed across thousands of organisations globally.
Strengths: excellent UX in mobile and web apps, deep analytics on space utilisation, wayfinding capabilities, hot-desking support alongside meeting rooms, strong API for custom integrations.
Considerations: subscription pricing (per user or per resource), some advanced features behind higher tiers, hardware (room tablets) sourced separately.
Best fit: mid-large enterprises prioritising UX and analytics. Tech-forward organisations.
Joan
Joan is purpose-built for room booking with proprietary e-paper displays. The displays look like elegant signage and last weeks on a charge.
Strengths: beautiful e-paper displays, simple deployment (battery powered, no cables in many configurations), straightforward feature set, competitive pricing.
Considerations: e-paper displays don’t show colour (visual brand integration limited), software ecosystem narrower than Robin.
Best fit: design-conscious organisations valuing aesthetic refinement, offices wanting cable-free deployment.
Microsoft Places
Microsoft Places is Microsoft’s built-into-M365 office space management offering. Combines room booking, hot-desking, and workplace insights inside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Strengths: bundled with Microsoft 365 licensing (no separate subscription), native Outlook/Teams integration, Microsoft’s investment in continuing development, Saudi-region data residency.
Considerations: newer than Robin or Joan, hardware ecosystem still maturing, advanced features still being added.
Best fit: M365-anchored organisations prioritising single-vendor consolidation. Future-proof for Microsoft-aligned roadmaps.
Condeco (Eptura)
Condeco is now part of Eptura — the larger workplace experience platform. Strong enterprise feature set with deep integration capability.
Strengths: enterprise feature depth (workspace planning, hot-desking, visitor management, hybrid work capabilities), strong reporting, mature integrations.
Considerations: higher cost, more complex deployment, enterprise-focused (not a fit for SMBs).
Best fit: large Saudi enterprises with comprehensive workplace experience programmes.
Envoy
Envoy started in visitor management and expanded into workspace booking. Strong if you also want visitor management consolidated.
Strengths: excellent visitor management (the historical strength), workspace booking integrated, modern UX.
Considerations: meeting room booking is secondary to visitor management focus, less feature-deep than dedicated room booking platforms.
Best fit: organisations prioritising visitor management with secondary workspace booking needs.
Decision matrix
Microsoft 365 organisation, single-vendor preference → Microsoft Places. Mid-market, value UX and analytics → Robin. Design-conscious office, simple feature set → Joan. Large enterprise with comprehensive workplace platform needs → Condeco/Eptura. Visitor management priority → Envoy.
Hardware considerations
Tablet hardware deployed at each room: most platforms offer purpose-built or recommend specific tablets. iPads in stand mounts work for some platforms. Crestron, Logitech, and Yealink make dedicated room tablets compatible with major platforms. Hardware cost: SAR 1,500-4,000 per room.
Wiring: most modern installations are PoE-powered to keep installation clean. Wi-Fi is acceptable but increases failure modes.
Cost benchmarks (50-room enterprise)
Robin: ~$5/user/month + tablets. ~SAR 75,000-150,000 first year all-in.
Joan: ~$10-15/room/month + e-paper displays. ~SAR 60,000-120,000 first year.
Microsoft Places: bundled with M365 (varies by license tier) + tablets. ~SAR 40,000-100,000 incremental first year.
Condeco/Eptura: enterprise pricing, typically SAR 100,000-300,000+ first year.
Get help with platform selection
For meeting room booking system selection and deployment, contact our team. Pair with unified communications, Microsoft Teams, and IT support.