How it works
Each bookable room exists as a resource in the calendar platform, for example a room mailbox in Microsoft Exchange or a resource calendar in Google Workspace. The booking system connects to those resource calendars through the platform's API.
When someone adds a room to a meeting in Outlook or Google Calendar, the booking system sees the event and shows the room as booked. When someone books in the booking app, at a room display or in a chat tool, the booking system writes the event to the room's calendar and the organizer's calendar. Time changes, cancellations and releases flow the same way, so both sides stay in step.
One-way sync copies in one direction only, which is how double bookings and phantom meetings appear. Two-way sync also lets the booking system act where the calendar cannot, such as releasing a room when nobody checks in and removing that event from the calendar.
How to measure it
- Book, move and cancel a test meeting in each tool and confirm the change appears in the other.
- Track double bookings reported by users; with working two-way sync they should be rare.
- Compare booked hours in the calendar with checked-in hours to find ghost bookings.
Examples
- An organizer adds a six-person room to an Outlook invite, and the display at the room door shows the booking straight away.
- Nobody checks in to a booked room, so it is released and shows as free again in Outlook and Google Calendar.
Common mistakes
- Letting rooms be booked in the calendar and in a separate tool with no sync between them.
- Leaving room resource settings, such as auto-accept and booking windows, inconsistent across buildings.
- Assuming a calendar booking means the meeting happened.
How Kadence helps
Kadence books rooms with two-way calendar sync with Outlook and Google Calendar. The Outlook add-in lets people find and book rooms from inside Outlook, and bookings made there, in the Kadence apps, in Teams or Slack, or at a Kadence Room Display stay in step. Unused bookings are released automatically when nobody checks in.
Outlook calendar · Google Calendar room booking · Room booking software
Frequently asked questions
Can you book meeting rooms in Outlook with room booking software?
Yes, if the software has an Outlook integration. With two-way sync, a room added to an Outlook invite shows as booked in the booking system, and a room booked elsewhere appears on the room's Outlook calendar. Some tools also add an Outlook add-in to search rooms by size, location and equipment.
What is the difference between one-way and two-way calendar sync?
One-way sync copies bookings from one system to the other but not back, so a change made on the receiving side is lost or causes conflicts. Two-way sync sends every booking, change and cancellation in both directions, so the calendar and the booking system always show the same availability.
Does room booking software work with Google Calendar?
Most enterprise room booking systems connect to Google Workspace resource calendars. Check that the sync is two-way, that it handles recurring meetings and edits, and that rooms released for no-shows are also freed in Google Calendar.
Why do meeting rooms show as booked but sit empty?
Usually because meetings were cancelled or moved without releasing the room, or recurring series kept running after the meeting stopped. Check-in with auto-release fixes this: if nobody confirms they are there, the booking ends and the room becomes free in every synced calendar.
Related terms
- Room booking system Software that lets people find, reserve and check in to meeting rooms, and frees rooms nobody uses.
- Microsoft Teams and Slack booking Booking desks and rooms, seeing who is in and checking in from inside Microsoft Teams or Slack.
- Ghost booking A desk or room that is booked but never used, so it shows as taken while it sits empty.
Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed