What are the advantages of occupancy sensors?
Occupancy sensors provide real-time, accurate insights into how spaces are used—helping companies reduce costs, improve office design, and make better business decisions.
They eliminate guesswork from space planning and empower workplace, facilities, and real estate teams to optimize every square foot.
Cut lease costs and optimize real estate
One of the biggest advantages of occupancy sensors is eliminating unused space.
With precise people-counting data, organizations can:
- Consolidate underused floors
- Delay or cancel expensive expansions
- Sublease surplus space
Example: A telecom company using Density sensors saved $2.6 million/year by reducing their New York office from 7 to 4 floors.
Design spaces people actually want to use
Workplace teams can use occupancy insights to shape layouts around real employee preferences—not outdated assumptions.
Sensors reveal which spaces are most (and least) used, enabling smarter choices like:
- Adding more lounges and pods
- Reducing oversized meeting rooms
- Repurposing seldom-used zones into high-value areas
Example: A consulting firm found quiet desks were used twice as much as open-plan ones, and redesigned accordingly.
Make data-driven business decisions
Occupancy sensors replace anecdotal feedback with hard, real-time data:
- Spot ghost meetings (booked but unused)
- Justify or challenge requests for more space
- Guide investments in furniture, amenities, or technology
Bonus: Tools like Density’s Atlas show whether you're achieving Critical Mass—the right level of buzz and energy that makes in-office work feel worth it.
Reduce operating costs without sacrificing experience
Sensors help teams fine-tune cleaning and maintenance based on actual usage:
- Prioritize high-traffic areas
- Avoid wasting resources on empty rooms
- Improve employee satisfaction with cleaner, better-used spaces
Example: A global tech firm saw a 30% drop in cleaning costs after syncing schedules to usage data.
Improve customer experience with real-time visibility
Retailers, hotels, and airports use occupancy sensors to:
- Show real-time lounge and gym availability
- Manage crowding and flow
- Deliver better service experiences without guesswork
Bonus: Guests can check crowd levels from their phones before leaving their room.
Reduce waste and environmental impact
Occupancy insights help companies shrink their footprint by:
- Aligning space with true demand
- Lowering energy usage in unused zones
- Cutting down on food, utility, and amenity waste
Since buildings account for 40% of global CO₂ emissions, using space more efficiently is a major sustainability win.
Summary
The advantages of occupancy sensors include lower costs, better spaces, improved employee experience, and smarter operations.
By using real-time data, organizations can optimize their workplaces—not just for today, but for a more agile, sustainable future.
Explore more guides
How do I improve the employee experience with workplace analytics?
You can improve the employee experience by using workplace analytics and occupancy sensors to design better spaces, support hybrid work, and make data-driven decisions that align with how people actually use your office.
Workplace analytics helps you understand how your environment supports (or hinders) focus, collaboration, well-being, and productivity—all of which directly impact engagement and retention.
What are the advantages of occupancy sensors?
Occupancy sensors provide real-time, accurate insights into how spaces are used—helping companies reduce costs, improve office design, and make better business decisions.
They eliminate guesswork from space planning and empower workplace, facilities, and real estate teams to optimize every square foot.
What are effective workplace strategies for the return to office?
The most effective return-to-office (RTO) strategies combine clear policy, human-centered flexibility, data-driven decisions, and office designs that employees actually want to use.
RTO success isn’t just about mandating a presence—it’s about building a workplace that drives collaboration, morale, and performance.
How do I know if my office space is being wasted?
You can tell if your office space is being wasted by measuring how often each space is used—and occupancy sensors provide the real-time data you need to find out.
If desks, meeting rooms, or entire floors are consistently empty or underutilized, that’s space (and money) going to waste. Tools like Density’s Waffle and Atlas help companies assess usage accurately so they can cut costs and improve the workplace experience.