How To Reserve Rooms In Microsoft Teams (2024)

Ready to discover the secrets of reserving rooms in Microsoft Teams? You’ve come to the right spot!

So, here’s the lowdown on making those room reservations. While we can easily set up Teams meetings within the app, booking rooms takes a little extra magic.

First off, you’ll need room lists to reserve those rooms. Here’s a quick guide:

Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
Run this command: New-DistributionGroup -Name “TechieberryTest” -Roomlist

Patience is key because it takes a few hours to replicate in Microsoft 365. Once it’s done, voila! You’ll see your room list in Microsoft Teams.

Note: If you don’t see it within the next hour, just give it a little more time to show up.

Now, after creating the Room list, add those room mailboxes as members to the distribution lists. Just a heads up, equipment mailboxes can’t join the party.

Commands for creating one room list and adding all rooms:

New-DistributionGroup -Name “TechieberryTest” -Roomlist

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq ‘RoomMailbox’)} | foreach { Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity “Techieberry Room” -Member $_.name }

Commands for adding all rooms into each room list:

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq ‘RoomMailbox’)} | foreach { Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity “TechieberryTest” -Member $_.name }

Adding a member to a room list:

Add-DistributionGroupMember “TechieberryTest” -Member Room1

Checking the group membership:

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity “TechieberryTest”

Exporting group membership:

Get-DistributionGroupMember “TechieberryTest” -Resultsize unlimited | select DisplayName,PrimarySMTPAddress | Export-CSV “c:\temp.csv” -Notypeinformation

Now comes the fun part – your client behavior

Microsoft Teams:

Launch “Microsoft Teams“.

Go to “Calendar“.
Click “New meeting“.
Enter the meeting title.

Click on the location dropdown, and voila! You’ll see the room lists.

Select the room list and a maximum of 6 rooms are listed. The room list will only list available rooms. If required, scroll down to see the other rooms.
Schedule meetings as required. You’ll receive notice from the room that has accepted the meeting invitation.

OWA (Outlook Web App):

Access the “Outlook Web App (OWA)“.
Select “Calendar“.
Choose “New Event“.

Access “Search for a room or location“.
Click “Browse with room finder“.

Just drop the name and pick your desired room from the created room lists and make that reservation.

Outlook:

Launch “Outlook“.
Start a new meeting.
Invite a few pals.

Go to “Scheduling Assistant“.
Click on “Room Finder“.

Pick a room list.

Select an available room.

Outlook will search all the rooms in the room list for the time user has selected and present suggested times for any rooms available. If a room is not available, it will not show up in the list.
Hit send to schedule a meeting.

Benefits

And there you have it! Room lists empower you by offering multiple options based on your selected time, enhancing your scheduling flexibility. Just a heads up, room lists are static groups and only show available rooms at the specific meeting time.

Observations

Room lists don’t make a cameo in the EAC; you’ll need to wield PowerShell to spot and add resources.
Whenever a fresh room is born, there’s some manual labor involved in adding it to the right room list.

These room lists? They’re more on the static side than dynamic – no spontaneous changes here.
And remember, room lists play by the rules, showing only available rooms at the specific date and time of the meeting.

Bonus

If you need to export newly created room mailboxes in the last 60 days, here’s a nifty command for you:

Get-Mailbox -RecipientTypeDetails roommailbox -ResultSize unlimited | where {$_.WhenCreated -gt (get-date).AddDays(-60)} | Select displayName, Primarysmtpaddress,Recipienttypedetails, WhenCreated | Export-Csv “C:\temp\status.csv” -Notypeinformation

Congratulations! You’ve officially mastered the art of reserving rooms in Microsoft Teams. Need more tips and tricks for a seamless Teams experience? Check out the goodies mentioned here.

Now, spill the beans! What’s the most interesting finding from today’s adventure, or do you have any burning questions? Leave a comment below, and let’s keep the conversation rolling!