Body
Issues
- A room I am responsible for is getting double-booked in Outlook.
- How can I stop a room resource calendar from accepting conflicting meetings?
- Why did a room accept two meetings at the same time?
- I manage a room resource — why does it keep getting double-booked?
Environment
This article applies to Bowdoin faculty and staff who are responsible for managing a room resource calendar in Outlook.
- Applies to: Room owners and delegates managing Outlook room resource calendars
- Not covered: Booking conflicts in Campus Groups event spaces — contact the Service Desk for those
Resolution
There are two common reasons a room resource calendar may become double-booked:
Direct additions to the room calendar
A room can be double-booked if someone with owner-level permissions has given others the ability to create appointments directly on the room's calendar — for example, by granting "Open a Shared Calendar" access. When an appointment is added this way, no meeting invitation is generated and the room's auto-accept logic cannot process the conflict. The result is two bookings for the same time slot.
Prevention: Avoid granting direct edit access to the room calendar. Instead, have everyone book the room by inviting it as an attendee in a standard meeting invitation.
Modifying a recurring meeting to add the room
A room can also be double-booked when a recurring meeting is modified after the room has already been booked for one of its occurrences. Because the room cannot decline an entire recurring series on the basis of a single conflict, it will accept the series and create a double-booking for the conflicting occurrence.
Prevention: Check the room's availability for the entire recurring series before adding it. If there is a conflict in the series, book the room for individual occurrences rather than the full series.
Note: If you need to change room booking settings — such as disabling auto-accept or assigning a room delegate — contact the Service Desk. See What are room resource calendars? in the Related Articles section for details on what can be customized.
Additional Help
If you need further assistance, you have several options:
- Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
- Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
- In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
- Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.