Reservation Sync: What end users can expect at go-live

Audience: Employees who book rooms. Ready to copy into the customer’s internal communication

From go-live onward, room reservations in Workplace and in Outlook (or Google Calendar) are connected. You can keep reserving rooms the way you are used to. This page explains what changes and what to expect in the first days.

What changes for you

• One room calendar. A room you book in Outlook shows up as reserved in the Workplace app, on room displays and kiosks, and the other way around.
• Book where you like, change where you booked. Change or cancel a reservation in the same place you created it. A meeting created in Outlook should be changed in Outlook; a reservation created in Workplace should be changed in Workplace.
• Give it a few minutes. Most changes appear within seconds; some take up to about 3 minutes. Do not repeat a reservation that has not appeared yet – that can create a double reservation. Avoid making changes immediately after saving: the system needs like half a minute to be in sync across platforms.

You may receive more cancellation e-mails at first

Until now, Workplace and Outlook did not check each other, so the same room could be booked twice for the same time – once in each system. Reservation Sync now detects these double reservations and keeps the reservation that was made first. The later reservation is cancelled or declined, and its organizer receives an e-mail.

This is why, around go-live, you may receive more cancellation or decline e-mails than usual. This does not mean that something is broken: the room was already taken. Please book another room or time.

If you book in Workplace

• You receive an invitation in Outlook/Google from the room. The room is the organizer and you are an attendee. Accept it to keep it in your calendar.
• Declining the invitation does not cancel the room. To cancel, use Workplace.
• You cannot change the reservation in Outlook/Google; change it in Workplace.
• If enabled by your organization, a Teams, Zoom or Google Meet link is added automatically.

If you book in Outlook or Google Calendar

• Add the room as you do today, or use the Room Finder add-in in Outlook.
• Your reservation shows up in Workplace. You can see it there, but you change or cancel it in Outlook/Google.
• If the room is released (for example because nobody showed up, or because it was ended early in the Workplace app) your meeting stays in your calendar, but without the room. The room is then free for others.
• If you forward a meeting, the new person is not added in Workplace. Add them as attendee and send an update instead.
• Catering or equipment cannot be ordered via Outlook/Google.

If your existing reservations are moved

• If you already have future room reservations, Spacewell may move them before go-live (Moving existing reservations (Exchange activation or migration) ).
• During a short, announced period (the "freeze"), do not create or change room reservations for the rooms concerned.
• Some reservations cannot be moved automatically – for example a recurring meeting without an end date. You may be asked to create these again.

Recurring meetings

• Give every recurring meeting an end date. Series without an end date are not synchronized.
• Long series (to be configured, but max 360 occurrences) are not synchronized.
• Monthly on day 31 is not supported; use "last day of the month".
• Depending on how your rooms are set up, a series can be declined when one occurrence conflicts with another reservation.

Good to know

• Depending on the room settings, Workplace may show the organizer’s name instead of the meeting subject.
• A desk (workplace) reservation synced to Outlook does not set your status to Busy; a room reservation does.
• Someone who is not known in Workplace can still book a synchronized room in Outlook. In Workplace, that reservation shows a pre-configured organizer (default: "Spacewell Integration").

If a reservation still does not match between Workplace and Outlook the next day, contact your support desk.