Reschedule an Outlook room reservation
What responsible personnel need to know about rescheduling Exchange Online / Outlook room reservations…
Reschedule an Outlook room reservation – where’s the catch?
Outlook and Exchange Online are the preferred tools in many companies for booking meeting rooms, offering seamless calendar integration and the ability to select rooms directly during meeting scheduling. But what happens when a booked room for an already scheduled meeting needs to be changed?
For responsible personnel—such as receptionists, administrative staff, or assistants—this process can be more complicated than it first appears. Unlike managing the direct participants of a meeting, rescheduling a room cannot easily be done without the organizer’s involvement. This limitation doesn’t stem from the permissions of administrative staff but from the way Exchange Online handles the concept of room reservations.
The meeting organizer is the owner of the appointment, and only they have the full rights to edit or reschedule the room reservation. If changes need to be made—such as swapping the meeting room—it requires either access to the organizer’s calendar (with delegate permissions) or coordination directly with the organizer to make the adjustment.
While this ensures data consistency and prevents conflicting changes, it can create bottlenecks in fast-paced environments where frequent room adjustments are necessary. For companies with high meeting room turnover, solutions like arbooMEET offer a streamlined alternative to simplify room management, allowing administrative staff to reschedule rooms efficiently without relying on the organizer.
Can only the organizer make the reschedule?
In Exchange Online, room bookings are tightly linked to the meeting organizer’s scheduling. The room is integrated as a resource in the meeting invitation, and only the organizer has full control over this booking. This means that even if an administrative person has access to the room resource calendar, they cannot move the room independently. Any changes to the room must be made directly within the organizer’s invitation.
As a result, the process always requires close coordination between the organizer and the responsible administrative person. If the organizer wants to change the room, they must remove the existing room from the invitation and add a new one. This is done through the familiar Outlook feature: the organizer opens the calendar, edits the meeting invitation, and selects a new room.
While this ensures consistency in room management, it can create inefficiencies when quick changes are required. For organizations with complex scheduling needs, tools like arbooMEET can simplify this process by providing more flexibility and reducing the reliance on the organizer.
The current process in Outlook: An often cumbersome path.
When last-minute changes are necessary, or if the booked room suddenly becomes unavailable, this process can quickly become cumbersome for everyone involved. The responsible administrative person must inform the organizer about the required change and wait for the organizer to update the room booking. This additional communication step can be particularly time-consuming in larger organizations.
Especially when multiple rooms are available simultaneously, organizers often struggle to make a quick decision because Outlook provides limited visibility into room availability. This lack of a centralized and clear overview can delay the process further and lead to frustration for both organizers and administrative teams.
Don't despair, we can help.
This is where arbooMEET comes into play. Our solution greatly simplifies the rescheduling process by streamlining and accelerating the interaction between the organizer and the administrative staff. With arbooMEET, you always have a clear overview of all available rooms – presented on an easy-to-navigate interface tailored to the needs of those responsible.
Extensions for comprehensive meeting organization.
In addition to room rescheduling, arbooMEET offers additional features that further simplify your room management. Through our interface, you can add services such as catering, technical support, or special room setup requirements directly within the room booking process. These extensions enable a comprehensive and seamless organization of your meetings.
With arbooMEET, Outlook is even better.
Room bookings in Outlook are often a tedious process for those responsible, and cannot be managed effectively without close coordination with the organizer. arboo offers a solution that simplifies the process and allows participants to implement changes more quickly and efficiently, without altering the familiar workflows in Outlook.
Get to know our solution better – Schedule a personal live demo.
Would you like to learn more about how our solution can improve room management in your company? We invite you to join one of our personal live demos. Experience firsthand how easy it is to manage room bookings without your employees having to adapt to new processes.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment and see how our solution can simplify your workflows.
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