Managing Room Mailbox Scheduling with Set-CalendarProcessing: Restricting Bookings to Specific Groups

Room mailboxes in Microsoft 365 are essential for managing the scheduling of shared spaces like conference rooms. By using the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet, you can restrict room bookings to members of a specific distribution list or mail-enabled security group. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this.

Scenario: Restrict Room Bookings to Specific Groups

In this scenario, we'll restrict room bookings to a distribution list or mail-enabled security group.

Configuring the Room Mailbox

To set the room mailbox to accept bookings only from the specified group, follow these steps:

For a Distribution List

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "RoomMailbox" -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept -BookInPolicy "DistributionList" -AllBookInPolicy $false        

For a Mail-Enabled Security Group

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "RoomMailbox" -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept -BookInPolicy "MailEnabledSecurityGroup" -AllBookInPolicy $false        

With these configurations, only members of the specified distribution list or mail-enabled security group can book the room. All other booking requests will be automatically declined.

Additional Configurations

Custom Response Message

Customize the response message for declined bookings:

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "RoomMailbox" -AddAdditionalResponse $true -AdditionalResponse "Your booking request was declined because you are not authorized."        

Allow Specific Users to Request Approval

To allow certain users to submit booking requests for approval, use the following command:

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "RoomMailbox" -RequestOutOfPolicy User1,User2 -ResourceDelegates "delegateuser"        

Conclusion

Using Set-CalendarProcessing to restrict room bookings to specific groups ensures that only authorized users can book the room. Custom messages and request approval add flexibility to room scheduling management.

For more information: Use the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet to modify calendar processing options for resource mailboxes