This guide walks you through setting up meeting rooms beyond the basics: calendar sync first, then access, catering and services, room kiosks and booking for colleagues, and finally the options fewer companies need. Each step explains what it is for, which plan it needs and links to the article with the detailed instructions. The meeting rooms themselves are created in Desks: Basic setup, so this guide starts once your rooms exist.
- Before you start
- Sync meeting rooms with your calendar
- Restrict access to meeting rooms
- Offer catering and services
- Set up room kiosks
- Book a meeting room for a colleague
- More options
- FAQs
1. Before you start
- Meeting rooms: your offices, floors and meeting rooms are set up as described in Desks: Basic setup. Decide per room whether it syncs with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 or lives only in deskbird before you create it, because a room created in deskbird can't be converted into a synced room later.
- Role: you need the Global Admin role to complete every step, including calendar sync. Office Admins can change the setup of the offices they manage. See System roles and permissions.
- Plan: most steps work on every plan. The table shows which steps need more. For all plans and add-ons, see Feature Availability.
| Step | Plan |
|---|---|
| Rooms calendar sync, Restricted access, booking a room for a colleague | Every plan |
| Catering & services, Room kiosk | One room on every plan, more with Rooms Plus |
| Approvals, Priority access on meeting rooms | Rooms Plus |
| Multi-tenancy | Rooms Plus, or Desks Professional and above |
| Rooms overview signage | Desks Professional and above |
2. Sync meeting rooms with your calendar
If your team books rooms in Outlook or Google Calendar, Rooms calendar sync keeps bookings consistent in both places: a room booked in the calendar is blocked in deskbird, and a booking made in deskbird appears in the room calendar. Available on every plan.
- Go to Admin > Company: Integrations and click Set up sync in the Rooms calendar sync row.
- Connect your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant and grant the requested permissions.
- Import the room calendars you want to book in deskbird.
Full instructions: Sync meeting rooms with Microsoft 365 or Sync meeting rooms with Google Workspace. For an overview of both calendar integrations, see Calendar sync for schedule status and meeting rooms.
💡 Tip: Newly created or updated rooms in Microsoft 365 can take up to 48 hours to appear in the import list. If a synced room behaves unexpectedly, see Troubleshooting for synced Meeting Rooms.
3. Restrict access to meeting rooms
By default, everyone with access to the office can book every meeting room. Restrict a room when only certain people should book it, for example a boardroom for the management team. Meeting rooms use the same access types as other areas. Available on every plan.
- Go to Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces, select the floor and click the pencil icon next to the meeting room.
- Open the Access section and choose Restricted access.
- Add the users or groups who can book the room. If others shouldn't see the room at all, hide it from users without access. Save your changes.
Full instructions: Floors and spaces: Manage access.
⚠️ Important: Weekday-based access rules don't apply to meeting rooms. Global Admins, Office Admins and Managers can book a restricted room even if they are not on its access list.
4. Offer catering and services
One room on every plan, more with Rooms PlusWith Catering & services, people request drinks, food, equipment or other services when they book a room, and the right team or provider gets the request by email. You can offer it in one room on every plan, and in more rooms with Rooms Plus.
- Go to Admin > Meeting rooms: Catering & Services, select the office and add categories and items. For each category, enter the provider email that receives the requests.
- Choose the Authorized users who can see and manage requests for the office on the Requests page.
- Go to Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces, open the meeting room, turn on Enable catering & services and assign the service categories.
Full instructions, including buffer times and approvals for service requests: Catering & Services. For the user steps, see Request catering or services for a meeting room.
5. Set up room kiosks
One room on every plan, more with Rooms PlusA room kiosk is a tablet or display next to the meeting room door. It shows whether the room is free, lets people check in to their meeting and book the room on the spot, so rooms nobody uses are released. You can set up a kiosk for one room on every plan, and for more rooms with Rooms Plus.
- Go to Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces, open the meeting room and turn on Enable kiosk mode.
- Run the deskbird Kiosk app on the device, or open the kiosk in a browser. The screen shows a setup code and a QR code.
- Go to Admin > Kiosk & displays > Devices, click Pair device and enter the code.
- Choose Room kiosk as the display type, then select the office, floor and room the device should show.
Adjust the kiosk settings
In Admin > Kiosk & displays > General settings, choose per office whether room kiosks use the 24-hour or AM/PM format, whether people can take action directly at the kiosk and whether they can end meetings early. The settings apply to every room kiosk in the office. How much of each booking the kiosk shows depends on the meeting room booking visibility in Admin > Meeting rooms: General settings.
Full instructions, including supported devices: Kiosk Mode for Meeting Rooms. For what users see, see Book or check in to a meeting room at the door panel.
6. Book a meeting room for a colleague
Assistants, team leads and office managers often book rooms for someone else, for example for an interview or a client meeting. On every plan with meeting rooms, users with a manager or admin role can book a room on behalf of a colleague: in the booking panel, they choose the colleague under Who is this booking for?. No setup is needed, but check that the right people have the right role:
- Group Managers can book for members of the groups they manage.
- Managers can book for any user in the company.
- Office Admins and Global Admins can book for others too.
Assign roles in Admin > User management: Users. See System roles and permissions and Create and Manage Bookings. Share Book a meeting room for a colleague with the people who book for others.
7. More options
Fewer companies need these options. Set them up when a specific room or team needs them.
- Approvals: every booking request for the room has to be approved before it's confirmed, for example for a boardroom. Rooms Plus. See Booking approvals for non-synced meeting rooms, Booking approvals for meeting rooms synced with Microsoft and Booking approvals for meeting rooms synced with Google Workspace.
- Priority access: selected users or groups can book a room earlier than everyone else, and others can book what's left from a lead time you set. Rooms Plus (without it, Priority Access is shown in the room's access options but can't be selected). Priority access on desks and parking spots is a separate option that comes with Desks Professional and above, described in Desks: Professional add-ons. See Floors and spaces: Manage access.
- Rooms overview signage: a screen in the lobby or a corridor shows the availability and upcoming bookings of the rooms you select. Desks Professional and above. Pair the screen in Admin > Kiosk & displays > Devices, choose Signage - Rooms overview as the display type, then select the office and the rooms it shows. See Digital signage: Rooms overview signage.
- Multi-tenancy: connect several Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenants, so people in one tenant can book rooms in another. Rooms Plus, or Desks Professional and above. See Sync meeting rooms with Microsoft 365: Cross-tenant meeting room booking or Sync meeting rooms with Google Workspace: Cross-tenant meeting room booking.
8. FAQs
No. Room booking, calendar sync, restricted access and booking for colleagues work on every plan. Every plan also includes catering and services for one room and a room kiosk for one room, so you can try both. Rooms Plus adds catering and kiosks for more rooms, approvals, priority access on meeting rooms and multi-tenancy. See Feature Availability.
Only calendar sync has to come first, if you want synced rooms: the rooms are imported from your calendar, so connect it before you set up access, catering or kiosks for those rooms. The other steps don't depend on each other.
- Check whether the room has Restricted access in Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces, and whether the colleague or one of their groups is on the access list.
- Check that the colleague has access to the office the room belongs to.
- If the room requires approval, the booking stays a request until it's approved.
- For synced rooms, check the room calendar in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for a conflicting event. See Troubleshooting for synced Meeting Rooms.
The provider email you enter for each category gets an email for every request in that category. Authorized users can also see and manage all requests for the office on the Requests page. See Catering & Services.
No. At the kiosk, people can check in, book a free room on the spot and, if you allow it, end a meeting early. To change or cancel a booking, they use the deskbird web or mobile app.
A room kiosk belongs to one room: it hangs at the door, and people can check in and book there. Rooms overview signage is a read-only screen that shows the rooms you select in one office, for example in the lobby. Both are paired in Admin > Kiosk & displays > Devices.