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How to use the Bookings add-in for Outlook

Search for all meeting rooms across multiple locations with ease.

The AskCody Bookings add-in for Outlook helps you find and book meeting rooms and desks directly from your Outlook calendar. It allows you to search across locations, apply filters such as capacity, equipment, and purposes, and book the best available resource without leaving Outlook.

This article walks you through how to use the Bookings add-in when creating a meeting.

Open the Bookings Add-in in Outlook

Start by opening your Outlook calendar and creating a new meeting as you normally would.

  • Add a meeting title

  • Invite attendees

  • Set the date and time

At the top of the meeting window, you will see the AskCody add-ins in the Outlook ribbon. Select Bookings to open the add-in.

Choose a Location

In the Location field, you can select one or more locations to search within.

The Bookings add-in remembers the last location you selected and shows it the next time you open the add-in. While there is no fixed default location, this behavior helps speed up repeat bookings in the same location.

You can remove the selected location and choose another at any time. The add-in will remember your new choice the next time it opens.

Define the Purpose of the Meeting

Use Purposes to describe what the meeting requires. This helps filter rooms that are suitable for your meeting type.

Examples include:

  • Workshop

  • Catering

  • Focus meeting

You can select one or multiple purposes depending on your needs. Purposes are added to the AskCody platform in the Bookings add-in configuration.

Select Required Equipment

If your meeting requires specific equipment, such as a whiteboard or video conferencing setup, select the relevant options under Equipment.

Only rooms that match your equipment requirements will be included in the search results. The equipment list is fully managed by your organization in the Bookings add-in configuration.

Review and Adjust Attendees

The Attendees field is automatically populated based on the people invited to the meeting.

If you know additional people will attend but have not yet been invited, you can manually adjust the attendee count. This ensures that only rooms with sufficient capacity are shown.

Include Buffer-Time, if Relevant

If your meeting includes catering, IT services, or any other request, make sure to check the "Add time for service team to prepare the room" option.

This ensures that buffer time is taken into account when finding available rooms, giving the service provider enough time to prepare the room and deliver complex requests.

For example:

  • A 12:00–13:00 meeting with a 15-minute buffer will reserve the room from 11:45 to 13:15

Only rooms that are available for the full duration, including buffer time, will be shown.

The amount of time added before and after the meeting is fully customizable by your organization in the Services settings for Buffer-time.

Find and Book a Room or Desk

Once all filters are set, click Find to see available rooms or desks that match your criteria.

From the results list:

  • Review the available options

  • Select the resource that best fits your meeting. To view more information about the meeting room in question, you can click on the "More info" link on a meeting room in the add-in (if available), which will give you more context on the resource:

  • Click Add to attach it to the meeting

Finally, send the meeting invitation as usual.

What Happens After Booking

Once the invitation is sent:

  • The room or desk is booked in Microsoft Exchange

  • Availability is updated across AskCody

  • Related services and workflows can be triggered, if configured