Booking 1 meeting room to book 2

Iron Contributor

I know that subject sounds odd.  We have one meeting room that is capable of being split into two meeting rooms.  Meeting room A is the one large room then Meeting Room B & C are the two smaller rooms when split.  I am trying to figure out if its possible to set up the "resource" so that when you book Meeting Room A that it blocks off Meeting Room B and Meeting Room C.   And to make this a little more complicated, if someone just needs to use Meeting Room B then its not possible to book Meeting Room A because one half of that room is being used.   As anyone tried this?   

 

My first thought is that staff just has to learn if they want to block off the larger room they have to block off both rooms at the same time.   But our staff seems to struggle with just booking meeting rooms properly as it stands now.   Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. 

9 Replies
What about if you set an Exchange Transport Rule that any calendar invites sent to Meeting Room A also get forwarded to B & C too?

That would work but we would run into an issue when Meeting room B was already booked.   Meeting room B would have to "decline" the request which would then "decline" the overall request from Meeting room A?   Is that possible?  

Not by default. There might be some third-party tools that allow for resource dependencies, but

 

I would suggest you simply designate a delegate for the rooms and only allow bookings after approval from him/her. Or, loose Room A, leave only B and C. However wants Room A, should book both B and C at the same time.

@Tom Robey   Did you ever solve this.  I have the exact same question


@Tom Robey wrote:

I know that subject sounds odd.  We have one meeting room that is capable of being split into two meeting rooms.  Meeting room A is the one large room then Meeting Room B & C are the two smaller rooms when split.  I am trying to figure out if its possible to set up the "resource" so that when you book Meeting Room A that it blocks off Meeting Room B and Meeting Room C.   And to make this a little more complicated, if someone just needs to use Meeting Room B then its not possible to book Meeting Room A because one half of that room is being used.   As anyone tried this?   

 

My first thought is that staff just has to learn if they want to block off the larger room they have to block off both rooms at the same time.   But our staff seems to struggle with just booking meeting rooms properly as it stands now.   Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. 


 

@stewartgscottI have not found a solution for this issue.  If you come across any answers please let me know.  

I came up with a version that I quite like.

The combined/large/"A" room:
-Forward (not redirect) all bookings to the smaller rooms. A Mailbox Rule works for this.
-Block Outward Acceptance messages from room. Transport Rule required. Add large rooms to a Distribution List and target that group for blocking.
-Allow double bookings. Requires Powershell.

The split/small/"B" and "C" rooms:
-Forward (not redirect) all bookings to the large room. A Mailbox Rule works for this.
-Allow Outward Acceptance messages from room. Auto attendant required.
-Do not allow double bookings. Auto attendant required.

Booking any room automatically notifies the user of which room parts will be available or not. i.e.
-Book a small room and the booking will appear in the large, blocking it, while notifying the user only of the small room.
-Book the large/combined room and it will appear in all the small rooms, blocking them, while notifying the user only of the small rooms.
-As the large room allows double bookings, there is never a decline message from it directly.
-As the large room blocks acceptance emails there is never an acceptance message from it directly.
-If the large room booking overlaps a booking in a small room that room will decline but the other room will still accept.
-Changing a booking time re-triggers the forward and new meeting accept/declines are sent.

I think that covers it but happy to answer questions.

Cheers,
Mick
Mick / Tom ... we have the same issue - just wondering if this answer is still relevant, or if there is a new way to do it.
Hello
Yes there is a way to do what you wish
Is a third part application that use Microsoft Graph API
The app support the linking on 2 and more rooms resources
As example
R1
R2
R3
As separate
And calculate the availability for
R1+2
R1+3
R1 +2+3
Etc etc

It’s a very easy to deploy
The costs are not high
Have a look at clebex

Kindly
Sergio
you should try www.clebex.com
they have such a capability within Exchnange 0365
Greetings