Create and manage room mailboxes in Exchange Server

A room mailbox is one of the available resource mailbox types in Exchange. Unlike equipment mailboxes, room mailboxes are assigned to a physical location, such as a conference room, an auditorium, or a training room. Users can easily reserve these rooms by including the room mailbox in meeting requests.

A room list is a special distribution group that contains only room mailboxes. Room lists help organize hundreds of room mailboxes or room mailboxes by building. To create and manage room lists, see the Create room lists section later in this article.

You can use the Exchange admin center (EAC), the Exchange Management Shell, and Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App or OWA) to manage room mailboxes. You can create room lists only in the Exchange Management Shell.

To allow users to manage the calendar in a room mailbox (for example, an executive assistant who needs to rearrange meetings), use the instructions in Manage permissions for recipients. After a user gets permission to access the room mailbox, they can open the mailbox using the instructions in Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook for Windows.

To learn more about the types of recipients in Exchange, see Recipients.

• Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.
• To open the Exchange admin center (EAC), see Exchange admin center in Exchange Server. To open the Exchange Management Shell, see Open the Exchange Management Shell.
• You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform these procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Recipients Permissions article.
• If you're running Exchange Server in a hybrid scenario, be sure to create room mailboxes in the appropriate place. Create room mailboxes for your on-premises organization in Exchange Server, and create room mailboxes for your cloud organization in Exchange Online.
• We don't recommend using Full Access permissions to manage the room mailbox calendar. Instead, share the room calendar with the user who needs to manage meetings. After the user accepts the sharing invitation, they can manage meetings in the room calendar. If the room calendar is shared with Delegate permissions, the user also receives copies of all meeting requests sent to the room mailbox in their own mailbox.
• Sharing a room mailbox calendar doesn't prevent the calendar from having the Accept or decline booking requests automatically setting enabled. If the room calendar is shared with Accept or decline booking requests automatically enabled, meeting requests are accepted by default. But users with Editor or Delegate permissions to the room calendar can change the response.
• For information about keyboard shortcuts that might apply to the procedures in this article, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

To create a room mailbox in the EAC, do the following steps:

1. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Resources tab.

2. On the Resources tab, select New > Room mailbox.

3. On the New room mailbox page that opens, configure the following settings:

   • Room name: Enter a unique, descriptive name. This value is required and it can't exceed 64 characters.

   Tip

   Although other properties are available to describe the details of the room (for example, Location and Capacity), consider summarizing the important details in the Name value using a consistent naming convention. Users can easily see the details in the room name when they select the room mailbox from the address book.

   • Alias: A unique value that's use on the left side of the @ symbol in the email address. This value is required.
   • Organizational unit: Select Browse to specify the location in Active Directory where the room mailbox object is created.
   • Location, Phone, Capacity: Use these fields to enter details about the room. However, as explained earlier, you can include some or all of this information in the room name so users can see it.
   • Select More options to reveal the following settings:
     • Mailbox database: Select Browse to specify the mailbox database where the room mailbox is created.
     • Address book policy: Select the ABP that includes the room mailbox. ABPs contain a global address list (GAL), an offline address book (OAB), a room list (not a room list distribution group), and a set of address lists. To learn more, see Address book policies in Exchange Server.

4. When you're finished on the New room mailbox page, select Save to create the room mailbox.

After you create a room mailbox, you can Change how a room mailbox handles meeting requests (including whether it responds automatically or someone needs to decide what to do). By default, the room mailbox has the following settings:

• Automatically accept or decline meeting requests (depending on whether the requests conflict with any existing meetings on the calendar).
• Allow recurring meetings.
• Allow meetings up to 24 hours long up to 180 days from today (and decline longer meeting requests).

To change other mailbox settings, go to the Change other room mailbox properties section.

To create a room mailbox in the Exchange Management Shell, use the following syntax:

New-Mailbox -Room -Name "<UniqueDescriptiveName>" [-Alias <AliasValue>] [-Database <DatabaseIdentity>]
 [-DisplayName <String>] [-EnableRoomMailboxAccount $true] [-OrganizationalUnit <OrganizationalUnitIdentity>] [-PrimarySmtpAddress <SmtpAddress>] [-ResetPasswordOnNextLogon <Boolean>] [-RoomMailboxPassword <SecureString>] [-UserPrincipalName <UPN>]

• By default, accounts associated with room mailboxes are disabled. The EnableRoomMailboxAccount and RoomMailboxPassword parameters are required to enable the room mailbox account and set its password for features like the Skype for Business Room System or Microsoft Teams Rooms.
• You can't use the UserPrincipalName parameter with the EnableRoomMailboxAccount and RoomMailboxPassword parameters.

This example creates a room mailbox named Conference Room 6. Because we aren't using the Alias, DisplayName, PrimarySmtpAddress, or UserPrincipalName parameters, the following values are based on the Name parameter value:

• Alias: ConferenceRoom6. If you specify an Alias value without using the PrimarySmtpAddress or UserPrincipalName parameters, the Alias value is used on the left side of the '@' symbol.
• DisplayName: Conference Room 6
• PrimarySmtpAddress: Alias and domain values from the email address policy. If the policy doesn't specify an alias, the value ConferenceRoom6 is used if you don't use the Alias parameter.
• UserPrincipalName: ConferenceRoom6@<default Active directory domain> if you don't use the Alias parameter.

New-Mailbox -Room -Name "Conference Room 6"

This example creates a room mailbox named Training Room A with an enabled user account. The RoomMailboxPassword parameter value prompts you to enter the password. The value you enter in the User name box in the Windows PowerShell credential request dialog is meaningless; only the Password value matters.

New-Mailbox -Room -Name "Training Room A" -UserPrincipalName traina@contoso.com -Alias traina -EnableRoomMailboxAccount $true -RoomMailboxPassword (Get-Credential).password

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-Mailbox.

To verify that you successfully created a room mailbox, do either of the following steps:

• EAC: Go to Recipients > Resources tab. On the Resources tab, verify the room mailbox is listed. Select the mailbox, and then select Edit to view the mailbox properties.

• Exchange Management Shell: To display information about the mailbox, replace <RoomMailboxIdentity> with the name, alias, user principal name (UPN), or email address of the mailbox, and then run the following command:

  Get-Mailbox -Identity <RoomMailboxIdentity> | Format-List
  

You can use the EAC, Outlook on the web options for the room mailbox, or the Exchange Management Shell to change how a room mailbox handles meeting requests.

All settings are available on the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell, but the following settings are available in Outlook on the web and not in the EAC:

• Turn off reminders
• Allow conflicts
  • Allow up to this number of individual conflicts
  • Allow up to this percentage of individual conflicts
• These users can schedule automatically if the resource is available and can submit a request for owner approval if the resource is unavailable

1. In the Exchange admin center, navigate to Recipients > Resources.

2. On the Resources tab, select the room mailbox, and then select Edit.

3. On the room mailbox properties page that opens, the following tabs are specific to how the room mailbox handles meeting requests:

   • Booking Delegates tab:

     • Booking requests section: Select one of the following values:
       • Use customized settings to accept or decline booking requests: This is the default value.
       • Accept or decline booking requests automatically: Meeting requests are automatically accepted. Meeting requests are automatically declined in the following scenarios:
         • A scheduling conflict with an existing reservation.
         • The meeting request violates the scheduling limits of the room (for example, the meeting is too long).
       • Select delegates who can accept or decline booking requests: One of the people you add to the Delegates box is responsible for accepting or declining meeting requests that are sent to the room mailbox. If you assign multiple delegates, only one needs to act on a meeting request.

   • Booking Options tab: The following settings are available:

     • Allow repeating meetings: Allows or prevents recurring meetings for the room. By default, this setting is selected, so recurring meetings are allowed.

     • Allow scheduling only during working hours: Accepts or declines meeting requests that aren't during the working hours defined for the room mailbox. By default, this setting isn't selected, so meeting requests are allowed outside the working hours. By default, working hours are 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday. You can set the working hours on a mailbox in the following locations:

       • Outlook on the web in Settings > Options > Calendar > Personalization > Calendar appearance > Show work week as and Set your working hours.
       • The WorkDays, WorkingHoursEndTime, WorkingHoursStartTime, and WorkingHoursTimeZone parameters on the Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.

     • Always decline if the end date is beyond this limit: Controls the behavior of recurring meetings that extend beyond the date specified by the Maximum booking lead time (days) value:

       • Selected: Recurring meeting requests are automatically declined if the meetings start on or before the Maximum booking lead time (days) date, and the meetings extend beyond the Maximum booking lead time (days) date. This is the default setting.
       • Not selected: Recurring meeting requests are automatically accepted if the meetings start on or before Maximum booking lead time (days) date. However, any meetings that extend beyond the Maximum booking lead time (days) date are automatically removed (no meetings can extend beyond that date).

     • Maximum booking lead time (days): Specifies the maximum number of days in advance that the room can be booked. A valid value is an integer between 0 (today) and 1080 days. The default value is 180 days.

     • Maximum duration (hours): Specifies the maximum duration that the room can be reserved in a meeting request. A valid value is from 0 (unlimited) to 35,791,394 hours. The default value is 24 hours.

       This value applies to the length of each individual meeting in a recurring meeting request.

     • If you want the meeting organizer to receive a reply, enter the text below: This text is used in a reply message sent to users who send meeting requests to reserve the room.

4. When you're finished on the room mailbox properties page, select Save.

Users with Full Access permission to a room mailbox can use Open another mailbox in Outlook on the web to change the scheduling settings of a room mailbox.

1. In your Outlook on the web, select your account in the top right corner, and then select Open another mailbox.
2. In the Open another mailbox dialog that opens, enter some or all of the room mailbox name, select Search directory, select the mailbox in the results, and then select Open.
3. In the room mailbox in Outlook on the web, go to Settings > Options > Calendar > Resource scheduling.
4. On the Resource scheduling settings page, configure the settings as described in the following subsections.

The following settings are available in the Scheduling options section of the Resource scheduling settings page in Outlook on the web for a room mailbox:

• Automatically process meeting requests and cancellations: Meeting requests are automatically accepted. By default, this setting is selected. Otherwise, a resource delegate manually accepts or declines meeting requests.

• Turn off reminders: Disables reminders in the room mailbox calendar. Meeting organizers and attendees can still receive reminders.

  By default, this setting isn't selected.

• Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked: A valid value is an integer between 0 (today) and 1080 days. The default value is 180 days.

  • Always decline if the end date is beyond this limit: Controls the behavior of recurring meetings that extend beyond the date specified by the Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked value:
    • Selected: Recurring meeting requests are automatically declined if the meetings start on or before the Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked date, and the meetings extend beyond the Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked date. This is the default setting.
    • Not selected: Recurring meeting requests are automatically accepted if the meetings start on or before Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked date. However, any meetings that extend beyond the Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked date are automatically removed (no meetings can extend beyond that date).

• Limit meeting duration and Maximum allowed minutes: Specifies the maximum duration that the room can be reserved in a meeting request. A valid value is from 0 (unlimited) to 1440 minutes (24 hours). The default value is 1440 minutes.

  This value applies to the length of each individual meeting in a recurring meeting request.

• Allow scheduling only during working hours: Accepts or declines meeting requests that aren't during the working hours defined for the room mailbox. By default, this setting isn't selected, so meeting requests are allowed outside the working hours. By default, working hours are 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday. You can set the working hours on a mailbox in Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App or OWA) in Settings > Options > Calendar > Personalization > Calendar appearance > Show work week as and Set your working hours.

• Allow repeating meetings: Allows or prevents recurring meetings for the room. By default, this setting is selected, so recurring meetings are allowed.

• Allow conflicts: Allow or prevent conflicting meeting requests (also known as double booking). By default, this setting isn't selected.

  If recurring meetings are allowed on the room mailbox, this setting applies only to recurring meetings. Don't use Add rooms to include the room in the meeting request. Instead, include the room as a Required attendee in the meeting request.

  • Allow up to this number of individual conflicts: When conflicts are allowed, this setting specifies the maximum number of conflicts for recurring meeting requests. A valid value is from 0 to 2147483647. The default value is 0.

    • The value 0 means recurring meeting requests are denied if there are any conflicting reservations.
    • A numerical value means recurring meeting requests are denied if the request conflicts with any existing reservations more than the specified number of times.

  • Allow up to this percentage of individual conflicts: When conflicts are allowed, this setting specifies the maximum percentage of meeting conflicts for new recurring meeting requests. A valid value is from 0 to 100. The default value is 0.

    • The value 0 means recurring meeting requests are denied if there are any conflicting reservations.
    • A numerical value means recurring meeting requests are denied if the request conflicts with any existing reservations more than the specified percentage. For example, this setting is 10% and a recurring meeting request has 20 individual meetings:
    • Allowed if there's a conflict two or less of the individual meetings.
    • Denied if there's a conflict with three or more of the individual meetings.

The following settings are available in the Scheduling permissions section of the Resource scheduling settings page in Outlook on the web for a room mailbox:

• These people can schedule automatically if the resource is available: Select one of the following values:

  • Everyone: Anyone can automatically reserve the room. If the room isn't available, the meeting request is automatically declined. This is the default value.
  • Specific people and groups: Only the specified users and groups can automatically reserve the room. If the room isn't available, the meeting request is automatically declined. Meetings requests from other users or groups are automatically declined. Selecting this value without specifying the users or groups is equivalent to selecting Everyone.

• These users can submit a request for owner approval if the resource is available: Select one of the following values:

  • Everyone: Anyone can request to reserve the room, but the request must be approved by a resource delegate (the Select delegates who can accept or decline booking requests setting in the EAC). If the room isn't available, the meeting request is automatically declined.

  • Specific people and groups: Only the specified users and groups can request to reserve the room, but a resource delegate must approve the meeting request. If the room isn't available, the meeting request is automatically declined. Meetings requests from other users and groups are automatically declined.

    Selecting this value without specifying the users or groups is equivalent to selecting Everyone. By default, this value is selected, but no users or groups are selected.

• These users can schedule automatically if the resource is available and can submit a request for owner approval if the resource is unavailable: Select one of the following values:

  • Everyone: Anyone can automatically reserve the room. If the room isn't available, the meeting request must be approved by a resource delegate (the Select delegates who can accept or decline booking requests setting in the EAC).

  • Specific people and groups: Only the specified users and groups can request to reserve the room. If the room isn't available, a resource delegate must accept the meeting request. Meetings requests from other users and groups are automatically declined.

    Selecting this value without specifying the users or groups is equivalent to selecting Everyone. By default, this value is selected, but no users or groups are selected.

Select Add additional text to be included in responses to event invitations and enter the text in the box.

After you create a room mailbox, you can make changes and set other properties by using the EAC or the Exchange Management Shell.

1. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Resources.

2. On the Resources tab, select the room mailbox, and then select Edit.

3. On the room mailbox properties page that opens, several tabs are available:

   The following tabs contain specific settings for room mailboxes:

   • General
   • Contact information
   • Booking delegates and Booking options (previously described)

   The remaining tabs contain identical settings to user mailboxes. These tabs and settings are described in the user mailbox article:

   • Email address
   • MailTip
   • Mailbox delegation

The following settings are available on the General tab of the mailbox properties for a room mailbox:

• Room name: The maximum value is 64 characters.

  Tip

  Although other properties are available to describe the details of the room (for example, Location and Capacity), consider summarizing the important details in the Name value using a consistent naming convention. Users can easily see the details in the room name when they select the room mailbox from the address book.

• Email address: You can change this value on the Email Address tab.

• Capacity: Enter the maximum number of people who can safely occupy the room.

Select More options to view or change these other properties that appear:

• Organizational unit: The organizational unit (OU) that contains the account for the room mailbox. You can use Active Directory Users and Computers to move the account to a different OU.

• Mailbox database: The mailbox database that hosts the room mailbox. You can use recipients > Migration in the EAC to move the mailbox to a different database.

• Alias: When you change this value, the primary email address of the room mailbox is automatically updated if the mailbox is subject to email address policies.

• Hide from address lists: Select this setting to prevent the room mailbox from appearing in the global address lists and other address lists in your Exchange organization. If you select this setting, users can still send meeting requests using the email address.

• Department: Specify the department that the room is associated with. You can use this value to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups and address lists.

• Company: Specify the company the room is associated with. You can use this value to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups and address lists.

• Address book policy: Select the ABP that includes the room mailbox. ABPs contain a global address list (GAL), an offline address book (OAB), a room list (not a room list distribution group), and a set of address lists. To learn more, see Address book policies in Exchange Server.

• Custom attributes: Select Edit to specify values for Custom Attribute 1 to Custom Attribute 15 on the mailbox. You can use this value to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups and address lists.

The following settings are available on the General tab of the mailbox properties for a room mailbox:

• Location
• Phone
• Street
• City
• State/Province
• ZIP/Postal code
• Country/Region
• Notes

To view and change room mailbox properties, use the following cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell:

• Get-User and Set-User: View and set general properties such as location, department, and company names.
• Get-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox: View and set mailbox properties, such as email addresses and the mailbox database.
• Get-CalendarProcessing and Set-CalendarProcessing: View and set booking options and delegates.

Here are some examples of using the Exchange Management Shell to change room mailbox properties.

This example changes the display name, the primary SMTP address (also called the default reply address), and the room capacity. The previous primary SMTP address is kept as a proxy address on the mailbox.

Set-Mailbox "Conf Room 123" -DisplayName "Conf Room 31/123 (12)" -EmailAddresses SMTP:Rm33.123@contoso.com,smtp:rm123@contoso.com -ResourceCapacity 12

This example configures room mailboxes to allow booking requests to be scheduled only during working hours and sets a maximum duration of 9 hours.

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox'" | Set-CalendarProcessing -ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours $true -MaximumDurationInMinutes 540

This example uses the Get-User cmdlet to find all private conference room mailboxes, and then uses the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet to send booking requests to a delegate named Robin Wood to accept or decline.

Get-User -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox') -and (DisplayName -like 'Private*')" | Set-CalendarProcessing -AllBookInPolicy $false -AllRequestInPolicy $true -ResourceDelegates "Robin Wood"

To verify that you successfully changed the properties for a room mailbox, either of the following steps:

• EAC: Go to Recipients > Resources tab. On the Resources tab, Select the mailbox, and then select Edit to view the mailbox properties.

• Exchange Management Shell:

  • To display information about the mailbox, replace <RoomMailboxIdentity> with the name, alias, user principal name (UPN), or email address of the mailbox, and then run the following commands:

  Get-Mailbox -Identity <roomMailboxIdentity> | Format-List
  
  Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity <RoomMailboxIdentity> | Format-List
  

  • Run the following command to identify the room mailboxes that can only be scheduled during working hours:

    Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox'" | Get-CalendarProcessing | Format-List Identity,ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours
    

Room lists are special distribution groups that contain only room mailboxes. Room mailboxes are useful for organizing conference rooms by building.

To create a room list, use the following syntax:

New-DistributionGroup -RoomList -Name <Name> [-Alias <Alias>] [-DisplayName "<DisplayName>"] [-PrimarySmtpAddress <EmailAddress>]

This example creates a room list named Building 32 Conference Rooms. Because we aren't using the Alias, DisplayName, or PrimarySmtpAddress parameters, the following values are based on the Name parameter value:

• Alias: Building32ConferenceRooms
• DisplayName: Building 32 Conference Rooms
• PrimarySmtpAddress: : Alias and domain values from the email policy. If the policy doesn't specify an alias, the value Building32ConferenceRooms is used.

New-DistributionGroup -RoomList -Name "Building 32 Conference Rooms"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-DistributionGroup.

To add room mailboxes to a room list, use the following syntax:

Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <RoomListIdentity> -Member <RoomMailboxIdentity>

This example adds conference room 3223 to the building 32 room list.

Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Building 32 Conference Rooms" -Member confroom3223@contoso.com

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Add-DistributionGroupMember.

If you previously created regular distribution groups that contain room mailboxes, you can convert them to room lists by using the following syntax:

Set-DistributionGroup -Identity <GroupIdentity> -RoomList

This example converts the specified distribution group to a room list.

Set-DistributionGroup -Identity "Building 34 Conference Rooms" -RoomList

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-DistributionGroup.

To verify you successfully created, updated, or converted a room list, do any of the following steps:

• In the Exchange Management Shell, run the following commands to return all room lists and their members:

  $RL = Get-DistributionGroup -ResultSize Unlimited -RecipientTypeDetails RoomList
  
  $RL | foreach {Get-DistributionGroup -Identity $_.Identity | Format-Table Name,DisplayName,PrimarySmtpAddress; Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity $_.Identity}
  

• In the Exchange Management Shell, replace <RoomListIdentity> with the Name, Alias, or Email address of the room list, and then run the following commands to verify the details of the room list and the room list members:

  Get-DistributionGroup -Identity <RoomListIdentity> | Format-List
  
  Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <RoomListIdentity>