This page is for room owners responsible for managing room or equipment mailboxes in Outlook.

 

This article is intended for room or equipment mailbox owners only. If you think you need owner access, please contact the current owner of the mailbox. If you are unsure who the owner is, raise a ticket with the Service Desk.

 

Room or equipment mailboxes are centrally managed calendars that represent physical spaces such as meeting rooms or training rooms. Ownership of a this type of resource allows you to control how the room can be booked, who is permitted to book it, and how booking requests are processed.

The focus of this page is on managing room or equipment mailboxes, including accessing the room mailbox and configuring booking and scheduling settings.

 

What you will find on this page

  • How to open a room or equipment mailbox
  • Where to manage room settings
  • What mailbox owners can control
  • How to review the room or equipment mailbox calendar
To learn how to book a room, refer to the guidance on our Working with Outlook page.

What is a room or equipment mailbox?

A room or equipment mailbox is a calendar used to represent a physical room or piece of equipment, such as a meeting room, training space or projector.

Each room resource has its own email address and calendar. When someone books the room in Outlook, the booking is added automatically to the room’s calendar.

 

How room bookings appear

Bookings are created when someone selects the room as the location while creating a calendar event. Outlook then sends a booking request to the room or equipment mailbox.

If the room is available and the booking meets the room’s scheduling rules, the request is accepted automatically and a calendar event is added to the room’s calendar for the duration of the meeting.

Each booking appears in the room calendar as a standard calendar event, allowing room owners to:

  • See when the room is booked or available
  • Identify who has booked the room and for how long
  • Review upcoming and past bookings

Managing how these bookings are handled is done through the room’s scheduling settings, which are only available to room owners.

 

Opening the room mailbox (owners only)

To manage a room or equipment mailbox, you must open the room mailbox itself. This gives you access to the room’s calendar and the settings used to control booking behaviour.

The steps for opening a room mailbox differ depending on whether you are using Outlook in a web browser or the Windows desktop app.

Expand the sections below to view the instructions and additional information

Use this option when accessing Outlook through office.com. Opening a room mailbox in the browser allows you to manage the room’s calendar and settings, but it replaces your own mailbox in the current browser tab.

  1. Go to office.com and open Outlook.
  2. Select your profile icon in the top-right corner.
  3. Select Open another mailbox.
  4. Enter the room name or email address and select Open.

The room mailbox opens in a new browser tab. Because only one mailbox can be open per tab in the browser, you will be viewing the room mailbox rather than your own.

If the mailbox opens to email, select Calendar from the left navigation bar to view the room calendar.

The Outlook Windows desktop app allows multiple mailboxes and calendars to be open at the same time. This means the room or equipment mailbox can be added without replacing your own mailbox.

  1. Open Outlook Settings in the top-right corner.
  2. Select Shared with me.
  3. Select Add. Enter the room name or email address.
  4. When prompted, restart Outlook.

After restarting Outlook, the room or equipment mailbox appears in your calendar list. You can select it to view the room calendar and access the room’s settings while keeping your own mailbox open.

 

Once you have opened the room mailbox, you can access the room’s scheduling settings:

  1. Select Settings from the top of Outlook
  2. Go to Calendar in the settings menu
  3. Select Resource scheduling to view and manage the room’s booking rules

These settings control how the room responds to booking requests and are only available to users who are owners of the room or equipment mailbox.

Important: If you are using the Windows desktop app, make sure the account selector at the top is set to the room or equipment mailbox, not your personal account. Settings only apply to the mailbox selected in this dropdown.

Room Settings

Expand the sections below to view the instructions and additional information

Automatically process event invitations and cancellations

  • When this setting is enabled, the room or equipment mailbox automatically processes booking requests without manual intervention.
  • Outlook will check the room’s availability and scheduling rules and then automatically accept or decline bookings as appropriate. Accepted bookings are added to the room’s calendar, while declined bookings are rejected and the organiser is notified.
  • This setting should normally remain enabled, as disabling it can result in booking requests not being processed correctly and may lead to confusion or missed bookings.

Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked

  • This setting controls how far in advance the room or equipment mailbox can be booked.
  • When a value is set, Outlook will only allow bookings that fall within the specified number of days. Any booking request that exceeds this limit will be declined automatically.
  • Setting the value to 0 removes the limit, allowing the room to be booked any amount of time in advance.
  • This setting can be useful for preventing rooms from being reserved too far ahead, helping to keep availability flexible.

Limit event duration

  • This setting controls the maximum length of a single booking for the room or equipment mailbox.
  • The value is set in minutes and determines how long a meeting can last. Any booking request that exceeds this duration will be declined automatically.

For example:

  • 1440 minutes equals 24 hours

This setting is useful if you need to prevent very long or all-day bookings, ensuring the room remains available for shorter or more frequent use.

Allow scheduling only during meeting hours

  • When this setting is enabled, bookings for the room or equipment mailbox are restricted to the room’s defined working hours.
  • Outlook will automatically decline any booking requests that fall outside of these hours.
  • This setting is useful for rooms that should not be booked overnight, at weekends, or outside of core working hours.

Note: Working hours are set in Outlook settings. The steps on the Working with Outlook page under Set up your working hours and location apply to room and equipment mailboxes as well. Just make sure the room or equipment mailbox is selected in the desktop app, or that you are signed into it in the browser.

Allow repeating meetings

  • This setting controls whether the room or equipment mailbox can be booked as part of a recurring meeting series.
  • When enabled, organisers can create repeating bookings that reserve the room across multiple dates.
  • If the room should only be booked for one-off meetings, this setting should be disabled to prevent recurring reservations.

Allow conflicts

  • This setting controls whether the room or equipment mailbox can accept overlapping bookings.
  • When enabled, Outlook allows multiple bookings to be scheduled for the same time period, which can result in double-booking.
  • This setting is usually left disabled to ensure only one booking can take place at a time and to prevent scheduling conflicts.

Scheduling permissions

  • Scheduling permissions control who can book the room or equipment mailbox and how booking requests are handled.
  • These settings allow you to define whether bookings are accepted automatically or require approval.

You can configure the room so that:

  • Everyone (staff and students) can book the room automatically when it is available
  • Only specific people or groups can book the room automatically
  • Some or all users must submit a booking request for approval
  • Selected users can book automatically when the room is available but must request approval if it is not

This flexibility allows room access to be tailored to different scenarios, such as open access for general-purpose rooms or restricted access for specialist or high-demand spaces.

Response message (optional)

  • This setting allows you to add a custom message that is included in responses sent when the room is booked or declined.
  • The message is sent to the person making the booking and can be used to provide additional information about the room.

For example, the response message can be used to:

  • Provide guidance on how the room should be used
  • Link to local policies or booking rules
  • Add important notes or instructions for people booking the room

 

Viewing a room calendar without managing it (browser only)

If you are using Outlook in a web browser and only need to review a room’s availability, you can add the room calendar to your own calendar list with read-only access.

  1. Go to Calendar in Outlook
  2. Select Add calendar
  3. Select Add from directory
  4. Enter the room name or email address

The room calendar is added to your calendar list and can be viewed alongside your own calendars.

This method provides read-only access and does not allow you to manage the room or change any settings.

To make changes to the room or equipment mailbox, you must open the full room mailbox using the steps described earlier on this page.

This limitation applies only when using Outlook in a browser. In the Outlook Windows desktop app, full access is available once the room or equipment mailbox has been added.