How to get combi-room availability in my Microsoft 365 calendar
Problem / Question
How can I get a combined or combination room's availability displayed in my Microsoft 365 calendar?
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:
Room A, Room B, and Room A+B exist as three individual rooms in Matrix Booking. These also exist in Microsoft 365. The rooms in Matrix Booking and Microsoft 365 must match.
User 1 books Room A+B in Microsoft 365. In Matrix Booking, Room A+B is booked and Room A and Room B show as unavailable for the same time slot.
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.
User 2 completes the booking. They receive a rejection email to say that Room B isn't available at that time.
Solution
Use the Microsoft 365 add-in for Matrix Booking.
To see the correct availability, use the Microsoft 365 add-in instead of the Outlook Room Finder, the availability results pull directly from Matrix Booking. It will show the correct resource availability. In the above example, it would show that Room B isn't available for that time slot in the list of rooms on the Microsoft 365 add-in.
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.
Microsoft 365 support needs to switched on for combined resource. To get this switched on for your organisation, contact your Account Manager.
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.