Occupancy monitoring provides visibility into how people use physical space, so employers can make informed decisions about lease renewals, space allocation, hybrid work policies, RTO mandates, and other workplace considerations. Without occupancy information like badge scans, desk bookings, network access, or sensor data, decisions about the workplace rely on assumptions about how space is being utilized.
But what if you only have visibility into some of your portfolio? According to a study we conducted, that’s the case for most major enterprises. In a survey of real estate leaders at North American and European enterprises, we asked respondents to share the extent to which they track occupancy across their building portfolio, expressed as a percentage.
Six out of ten respondents said their firms were tracking occupancy in 75% of their buildings or less. Put another way, most enterprises don’t know how at least one out of every four buildings are being used. As you segment the results further, the gap in coverage increases. About a quarter (24%) of respondents track occupancy in less than 50% of their buildings, and 12% of respondents said their firms tracked less than 25% of their buildings. These major enterprises only know how a fraction of their real estate is actually being used.
Multiplied across their portfolio, this represents hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of locations in which these companies don’t know how many people use the building, how they use it, or for how long.
So, is this a problem? Maybe. But not necessarily.
In our study, we asked a follow-up question to explore the reasons a major firm would be comfortable with such significant gaps in coverage. In this article, we’ll share these findings in detail, along with the problems that can come from poor occupancy monitoring coverage.
Why most firms don’t have full occupancy monitoring coverage
Not every enterprise needs visibility into every building. But the question is where to draw the line. Some justifications for the lack of investment make clear sense. Others may not hold up if a company understood the value occupancy tracking could yield in these other locations.
Here are the main reasons enterprises cited when asked why their organization didn’t have complete occupancy tracking coverage.
Not every building needs it
Occupancy tracking is highly valuable for large corporate offices with many employees. But it’s not really necessary for field offices, industrial facilities, and other buildings with different needs for physical space. A large enterprise may have many types of buildings in their portfolio, and several real estate leaders noted that their companies didn’t have full occupancy tracking coverage for this reason.
For some firms, each building’s purpose and frequency of use guided the decision to track or not track occupancy. One respondent noted, “We have small sites where only 25 people work, so we don’t have a tracking system there.”
Cost of occupancy tracking technology
While occupancy tracking technologies like badge scanning systems, desk booking software, and network-based monitoring are relatively low cost, advanced sensor systems which provide the deepest layers of occupancy insights are expensive to install and maintain. And that makes the business case for occupancy tracking more difficult.
More than one third (37.5%) of respondents referenced costs when asked why their company didn’t have occupancy tracking in 100% of their portfolio. In a previous survey question about barriers to occupancy tracking adoption, 48% of respondents said the most significant barrier was the initial technology investment, and an additional 42% said that maintenance and upgrade costs was at least a “very significant” barrier.
Prioritizing biggest opportunities
Some locations have more (and better) opportunities to optimize operations around occupancy than others. And understandably, some enterprises are prioritizing their occupancy tracking efforts on these locations.
“We’re looking into the future scalability of the extra tools and resources needed to expand tracking to all buildings,” a facility director for a pharmaceutical company noted. “Right now we’re focusing on areas that will have the biggest impact.” A real estate leader from a financial firm said, “Instead of tracking every building, we focus on selected locations to try out new ways of using space. This helps us test ideas without overloading our entire portfolio with data.”
Low occupancy tracking maturity
While employers have used occupancy tracking to optimize the workplace for years, most organizations are still learning how to operationalize their occupancy data. They don’t know what to do with it after they’ve collected and/or analyzed it.
Several respondents suggested that they didn’t see a need for more occupancy data. One HR leader at a media and telecommunications company even suggested that, “excessive tracking can create an overly rigid environment where employees feel pressured to meet data-driven expectations.” Occupancy tracking certainly could be used in this way, but this perspective doesn’t fit with the use cases respondents were most interested in, nor is it one of the more valuable applications of occupancy monitoring capabilities. In fact, one of the most desirable use cases for occupancy tracking is actually improving the occupant experience.
A later question in the study asked respondents to estimate their organization’s maturity when it comes to their understanding of occupancy tracking and the ways they use it. Not a single respondent felt their organization was “very mature.”As organizations advance in their implementation and understanding of occupancy tracking, they recognize more opportunities to act on the data they collect, and see the value of expanding their coverage to include more buildings and more granular insights into how their space is being used.
The value of comprehensive occupancy monitoring coverage
When an organization chooses not to invest in occupancy tracking for some locations, they may have completely valid reasons for avoiding that expense. But occupancy tracking can provide a range of benefits to office-based workplaces, and if you don’t collect occupancy data for every office, you miss out on ways to optimize your portfolio and your operations.
Here are some opportunities that arise when you have complete visibility into how your real estate portfolio is being used.
Lower real estate costs
Occupancy tracking can play a key role in real estate planning. As real estate stakeholders evaluate which leases to renew, relocate, consolidate, or terminate, occupancy data lets them see which locations are underutilized. If a location isn’t justifying the expense because not enough people are using it, employers may be able to close these locations, sublet unnecessary space, or consolidate with one or more other offices.
While not renewing leases at underutilized locations may seem like the best way to secure real estate savings, underutilization opens the door to other valuable strategic decisions, like closing a nearby office with higher costs, and consolidating it into the underutilized location. Capitalizing on these opportunities can yield greater real estate savings, but if you don’t track occupancy at every location, you won’t see your full range of possibilities.
Increased employee productivity
Anywhere you have employees, occupancy data can help you optimize your space to improve their productivity. By tracking utilization, you can make adjustments to ensure employees have access to the resources they need to be effective. And by not monitoring occupancy, you may be unaware of inefficiencies your employees work around every day.
For example, through occupancy data, you may find that certain workstations or meeting rooms are always booked, while others sit unused—indicating a strong preference for particular qualities or characteristics you could replicate. Or perhaps particular types of spaces are always at or near capacity, and other types of space are underutilized. This could suggest that you need more of the in-demand space, and that you could reconfigure these low-demand spaces to meet that need.
Improved occupant experience
Similarly, occupancy monitoring enables you to create a better occupant experience. Any time that lack of available space makes work more difficult, that negatively impacts people’s experience in the workplace. By empowering your employees with the space and resources they need to be effective, you make the office more enjoyable.
There are even ways to automatically leverage occupancy data to improve the occupant experience. Our desk booking software, Tango Reserve, can use an employee’s reservation history to recommend available spaces that meet their established preferences—including finding space near the colleagues they typically work with.
More sustainable operations
Over time, occupancy data helps you identify usage patterns. You may find, for example, that the office has significantly fewer occupants on Fridays. In these scenarios, it could be possible to consistently close entire floors on these days, which would significantly lower costs for heating, cooling, and electricity.
Organizations that track occupancy data across their portfolios can discover more of these opportunities to operate sustainably and ensure that their resource consumption scales up and down according to occupancy patterns. And with an occupancy analytics solution that’s built into a comprehensive space management platform, like Tango Space, you can examine occupancy data right within your space planning workflows, testing scenarios to see exactly which floors should be closed and when.
While there will always be some buildings where you don’t need to collect occupancy data, there’s also probably more value to realize by bringing occupancy monitoring to a greater percentage of your portfolio.
Learn more about the state of occupancy monitoring
In The 2025 Enterprise Occupancy Tracking Report: Stats, Challenges, Insights, we surveyed North American and European enterprises from five different industries about their experience with occupancy tracking. Respondents shared insights into their top priorities, their greatest barriers to adoption, and how well different use cases align with their business needs.
You can access the entire report for free—we won’t even ask for your email.
