Matrix Booking Knowledge Base
Matrix Booking Knowledge Base

How to get combi-room availability in my Microsoft 365 calendar

Problem

How can I get a combined or combination room's availability displayed in my Microsoft 365 calendar?

Definition

A combined resource groups 2 or more individual resources into a single bookable resource. You can also book the component resources independently.

You can control whether booking the combined resource blocks the availability of component resources. For example, an organisation has Room A and Room B separated by a movable partition. You can either:

  • Link both rooms together so that if you book one, the other is unavailable.

  • Set up Room AB as a combined resource. When Room AB is booked, both Room A and Room B can be made unavailable for that time.

Cause

When creating bookings for combined resources in Matrix Booking from Microsoft 365, the availability doesn’t display correctly in the resource calendar or when searching for a room in the Outlook Room Finder. For example:

  1. Room A, Room B, and Room AB exist as three individual rooms in Matrix Booking. These also exist in Microsoft 365. The rooms in Matrix Booking and Microsoft 365 must match.

  2. User 1 books Room AB in Microsoft 365. In Matrix Booking, Room AB is booked and Room A and Room B show as unavailable for the same time slot.

  3. User 2 wants to create a meeting for the same time slot in Microsoft 365. User 2 searches for Room B and shows that it is available, which is incorrect.

  4. User 2 completes the booking. They receive a rejection email to say that Room B isn’t available at that time.

Solution

Make sure the combi-room feature for our Microsoft 365 integration is switched on.

In the first instance, you need to make sure that the combi-room feature for our Microsoft 365 integration has been switched on. If you’ve requested our Microsoft 365 integration or combi-room feature to be added to your subscription, contact your customer success manager.

Notes:

  • You need to create the individual rooms that make up the combination rooms as well as the combination rooms in both Matrix Booking and Microsoft 365.

  • We recommend that the combination rooms are called the same in both Matrix Booking and Microsoft 365, with each room's Microsoft 365 email address is added to each room in Matrix Booking.

  • To use combined resources in Microsoft 365, ensure you have set up the component resources (Rooms A and B) and the combined resource (Room AB). This is a global setting. Enabling it may affect the availability of existing combined resources. To switch this on for your organisation, raise a support ticket to tell us what your existing combined resources are.

  • You can’t make repeat bookings for combined resources or the individual resources that make up the combined resources. You can only make single bookings for these resources.