Sensors vs. Wi-Fi vs. Access Badges vs. Reservation apps

Choosing the Right Occupancy Tracking Method: What You Need to Know

Modern workplace management depends on accurate occupancy data, but how you collect that data matters. Should you install occupancy sensors, use your office Wi-Fi, or rely on employee badge swipes? Maybe you figure the room reservation app is doing enough for you?

Each method comes with trade-offs in accuracy, granularity, and privacy. This guide outlines the key differences to help you select the right fit. 

🟢 Occupancy Sensors: Precision and Real-Time Insight

Occupancy sensors are dedicated devices  deployed in the workplace to detect presence. There are various types, from motion and infrared sensors to optical people counters ( cameras with AI) but their common purpose is to directly measure when people are in a space and sometimes count them. Many solutions use ceiling-mounted sensors with computer vision or thermal imaging to track utilization of spaces.

How it works: Sensors are installed in areas you want to monitor (open office areas, conference rooms, etc.). They continuously detect people’s presence. The data is sent to a central platform, which aggregates occupancy counts and usage over time. These systems provide a real-time floorplan view of occupied vs. free spaces and can log historical utilization metrics. 

MySeat’s technology, , uses accelerometric sensors to capture real-time interactions with furniture and equipment with fully anonymous data. We focus only on precise counts and minute physical interactions, not identities.

Accuracy: Occupancy sensors are by far the most accurate method available for measuring space usage. They don’t rely on any intermediary (like someone connecting to Wi-Fi or badging in); they directly detect if a human is present. Entry sensors placed at doorways can count people entering/exiting  but they don’t tell you where people spent their time during the day. There are multitudes of resource reservation apps nowadays but companies realize they do not solve all the problems.

In fact, industry data suggests that roughly 50% of meeting rooms booked using apps are not actually utilized.  Sensors do catch that, ensuring your utilization metrics aren’t undercounted.

Granularity: Accelerometric sensors provide rich, granular data. You can monitor occupancy at the level of individual desks and rooms (with the right sensor placement). They also offer real-time updates. This granularity means you can see not just building-level occupancy, but which areas are busy and when. For instance, sensors can reveal that a particular collaboration area is occupied 80% of the day, or that Desk #42 hasn’t been used in a week. Such detail is invaluable for fine-tuning layouts and cleaning schedules. Neither Wi-Fi nor badges alone can give this desk-by-desk resolution.

Pros:

• Highest accuracy in people counting and presence detection. Sensors don’t depend on user behavior like logging into a network or badging consistently
• Captures true utilization and exact duration of occupancy.
• Real-time monitoring and alerts (e.g., “conference room occupied” status can be shown live on a dashboard or digital floor map).
• Rich insights: We can classify activity (meeting vs. solo work) or differentiate between multiple people in a space versus one person. This feeds advanced analytics like peak occupancy by area, average dwell time, etc.
• Privacy-protected by design: Our occupancy sensors are built with privacy in mind. They have always been GDPR-compliant by design, meaning they anonymize data and cannot reveal personal identities. This counters the misconception that sensors = surveillance cameras.

Well-designed occupancy sensors don’t function as security cams; they only output granular occupancy data, available or occupied!

(Perceived) Cons:

• Cost & Installation: Sensors require hardware installation across your space, and can be either leased or purchased. which represents an upfront investment. However, our installations are quick and painless, as MySeat handles all the steps from A to Z; a turnkey service. Our technology is wireless, so no electricians or building management staff are required to complete the installations. We can deploy over several floors in a single day.

• Scalability of deployment: Equipping multiple sites with sensors can be seen as a significant effort… but don’t worry, we take care of everything. Some companies opt to pilot sensors in key locations rather than everywhere at once, phasing the installations according to project schedules. We have the ability to do installations anywhere in the world, but we can also train your staff remotely to complete the installation if preferred.

• Upkeep: While low-maintenance, sensors may need occasional battery changes, but ours are life-time guaranteed . You’ll have live access to the MySeat platform for the data, with customizable modules as per your preferences that we can adapt as your workplace questions evolve, and you will never have to change a signe battery.
  
• Perception and Buy-in: There can be initial employee apprehension about sensors (the “Big Brother” concern). It’s crucial to communicate what the sensors do and don’t do, emphasizing privacy. Once employees understand that the sensors don’t identify individuals or record video, and are there to improve the workplace, most concerns subside. Transparency is key: take a look at our article focused on privacy concerns and how our technology is anonymous by design. Unlike the PIR and Radar occupancy sensors, the MySeat sensors is fully embedded in office equipment far from the occupant body, and therefore invisible, which makes it much less anxiogene for employees.

Use case fit: Sensors are ideal if you need high-fidelity data. Large organizations managing expensive real estate choose sensors to confidently drive portfolio decisions (e.g., rightsizing space). They’re also great for optimizing space layouts. You can see exactly which zones are popular. Essentially, for precision and real-time automation, sensors win. As one comparison noted, if granular info and 95% accuracy is the priority, sensors deliver.

Request a Workplace Utilization Study to explore how sensor data can improve your office strategy.

🟡 Wi-Fi Analytics: Convenient, But Limited

Wi-Fi occupancy tracking uses device connection signals to estimate presence. It can offer quick, low-effort insights, but only within certain limits, and a certain cost.

How it works: Phones and laptops send out probe requests to nearby Wi-Fi access points. By counting connected or pinging devices, the system estimates how many people are in a space.

Key Considerations:

• Misses people without connected devices (or with Wi-Fi disabled)
• May overcount when users carry multiple devices, such is the case with most of us these days!
• Lacks precision: Location estimates depend on access point density.
• Cannot confirm active presence: a laptop left on a desk may be counted even if no one is there and beacon calming will discard users that are not actively generating traffic on the network (e. g, working offline or on a desktop app).
• Privacy compliance depends on anonymization and IT controls

Wi-Fi systems are suitable to count traffic in public areas to gauge occupancy trends, like comparing busy vs. quiet days across locations. However, they lack the desk and room-level clarity needed for decisions like reconfiguring layouts, adjusting ratios or tracking space availability in real time.

In short: Wi-Fi gives you estimates, not exact counts, and cannot distinguish between usage patterns or types of space.

🟠 Badge Data: Good for Attendance, Not Utilization

Badge access logs are a common starting point for workplace analytics, but they offer only a partial view.

How it works: Each time someone badges into a building or floor, the system records a timestamp. These logs show how many people entered, but little else.

Limitations:

• Shows entries, not duration or location
• Cannot detect if a person stayed all day or left after 30 minutes
• Lacks real-time data (unless badge-out is enforced, which is very rare, specially with fire code regulation)
• Cannot track usage within the office (e.g., desks, rooms, zones)
• Easily skewed by tailgating or unlogged exits
• Reveals Identity to analysts who have access to datasets for analytics

Badge data is best used for simple attendance trends (e.g., how many people visited each day). It does not offer enough detail to support dynamic space decisions, right-sizing, or understanding peak demand areas.

🟠Reservation Software: Useful Intent, But Not Reflective of Reality

In recent years, many organizations have adopted room reservation systems to give employees the ability to book spaces in advance. These platforms offer convenience, especially for managing meeting rooms and shared desks, but they only tell you what was planned, not what actually happened.

How it works: Employees use a booking tool or calendar integration to reserve a room, desk, or workspace. The reservation is logged in a scheduling system, which is then used to assess demand or measure space utilization.

Where it falls short:

• Reservation ≠ presence: Just because a room was booked doesn’t mean it was used.
• Ghost meetings are common: Our benchmark data as well as other industry data shows that over 50% of reserved rooms are not actually occupied.
• Cannot track duration: If a room was booked for two hours but used for 15 minutes, the system records two hours.
• No insight into drop-in usage: Rooms or desks that are used without a reservation go uncounted.
• No verification: Most platforms lack sensors or check-ins to confirm presence.

As a result, teams relying solely on booking data often overestimate utilization and fail to spot underused resources. Worse, they may think a space is in demand when it’s consistently empty.

✅ What’s Right for You?

• Choose occupancy sensors if you need high accuracy, real-time updates, and actionable insights to optimize your workplace.
• Use Wi-Fi if you want fast, low-cost trend analysis and can accept lower granularity and confidentiality risks.
• Use badge data only for basic attendance tracking or as a supporting metric in a multi-source strategy.
• Use reservation systems to facilitate hybrid work and bookings, but always pair with sensor data to validate actual usage and avoid misleading occupancy metrics.

🔍 Want to compare options live? Book a demo and see MySeat’s platform in action.