How to Add a Room Calendar to Outlook® and Make Booking Smarter

One of the reasons Resource Central is a leading workspace booking solution is its easy integration with Outlook®. Customers love the connectivity and how it makes booking a meeting room or desk easier.

Step-by-Step Process: How to Add a Room Calendar in Outlook®

With Outlook®, you can add specific rooms to the calendar. This makes it easy to view when a room is available and simplifies keeping your calendar up to date with meetings. You can add one room or multiple.

To add a room calendar in Outlook:

1. Launch Outlook and navigate to the Calendar view
2. Click on Add Calendar, then Add from directory (or Open Calendar, then From Room List if you have the older desktop version)
3. A list of available room calendars will appear. From this list select the room calendar(s) you want to add. Double-click the individual rooms or use the Rooms button to add multiple room calendars.
4. Once you’ve chosen the room(s) you want to add to your calendar view, click OK to confirm. The selected room calendars will then appear on your own calendar view, making it easier for you to find your favorite space for individual work, team huddles, or important meetings.

This built-in feature does make it easy for employees to find and book workspaces, but there’s an even smarter way to book workspaces.

The [Even] Smarter Way: Using Resource Central for Room Booking

Resource Central is an intelligent meeting room and workspace booking solution that enhances the native Outlook® calendaring experience. Employees can use Resource Central to quickly locate and secure meeting rooms and workspaces directly within Outlook® and connected devices.

This includes huddle rooms, hot desks, meeting and conference rooms, parking spaces, EV-charging stations, and even AV equipment and catering. Resource Central makes it possible to book workspaces and order additional services at the same time – in one place.

While both Outlook® and Resource Central can simplify bookings, Resource Central does offer some unique benefits that can further reduce the amount of time spent on booking and managing meetings and workspaces.

Advantages of Booking in Resource Central vs Outlook®

Resource Central directly integrates with Outlook, but also with Teams, Microsoft 365, and Exchange. Room booking capabilities are core to this booking solution, but it also offers more without adding to the tech stack. 

Some of the unique advantages of booking in Resource Central include:

1. Book all kinds of workspaces on employees’ mobile and desktop devices, as well as Outlook®
2. Book additional services such as IT services, parking spaces, catering, equipment, and cleaning (Outlook is limited to basic workspaces)
3. Catering is fully integrated with the ability to customize dietary needs
4. Get detailed analytics and reporting, including room and resource usage and trends
5. Display real-time room statuses and availability, meetings, agendas, updates, ads, announcements, add custom branding, and more via digital signage displays around the workplace
6. Simplify visitor registration with digital sign-in, automatic email notifications, name badges, and other features

At the end of the day, you can use Resource Central or Outlook, but using Resource Central can help reduce the amount of time spent on booking workspaces and resources, make it easier to book rooms while on the move, and consolidate management of other workplace processes and resources for added savings.

Get Started with Outlook® Room Booking Today

Want to learn more about booking workspaces with Outlook and with Resource Central?

Set up time to talk with our team, and we can help you figure out the best way to reduce the amount of time spent managing workspaces and meetings and improve your infrastructure organization.