Manage vehicle reservations by creating equipment and bookings on M365

Question

Hello everyone, I'd like to set up room and vehicle bookings through my M365 tools, specifically via Booking.com. I've seen that it's possible to declare a vehicle as a resource, but I can't figure out how to integrate it into a Booking.com reservation. Ideally, I need a single calendar displaying all bookable vehicles with a view of available/already booked time slots. I also need a checkbox to verify the driver's license is valid.

Once the booking is made, it should be added to the person's Outlook calendar.

Any ideas on how to do this? Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Hi,

I get that it might seem odd trying to manage vehicles like rooms in a reservation system, but here's a way to do it.

In Microsoft 365, make equipment mailboxes for your vehicles. Think of each vehicle as having its own resource mailbox. People can invite these mailboxes through Outlook, just like they would with a meeting room or a projector. The bookings pop up on a shared calendar, so everyone can see when a vehicle is free. Plus, you can set things up so bookings are either automatically approved or sent for approval, it depends on your mailbox settings. This way, you get one calendar showing all your vehicle bookings across the whole group.

You could also make a Microsoft Bookings page, treating each vehicle as a staff member. Bookings doesn't label vehicles directly, but you can list them as options in the staff dropdown menu. To make sure people pick from the dropdown, even when it says Select Staff (Optional), set Let customer choose staff in the service settings. Another route is to create a separate service for each vehicle (like Book the Toyota Corolla) and assign just one staff member (the vehicle) to that service. This gets rid of the need for a separate vehicle dropdown.

To make sure drivers have a valid license, use Bookings' custom fields. You can add a question like Do you have a valid driver’s license? (Yes/No)” in the service settings and make it required. [learn.microsoft.com] [learn.microsoft.com] The answers show up on the Bookings calendar and in the event details when the booking happens.

 

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

 

Noel

Answer 2

To manage vehicle reservations and create bookings in Microsoft 365, you can utilize the equipment mailbox feature to declare vehicles as resources. Here’s a general approach to achieve your goals:

1. Create Equipment Mailboxes: Set up an equipment mailbox for each vehicle you want to manage. This allows users to reserve the vehicles through Outlook. You can create these mailboxes using the Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell.
   • For example, you can use the following PowerShell command:

          New-Mailbox -Name "Vehicle1" -Equipment -DisplayName "Vehicle 1"
     

2. Integrate with Microsoft Bookings: While Microsoft Bookings is primarily designed for scheduling appointments, you can create a booking page that includes your vehicles as services. This way, users can see the availability of vehicles and book them accordingly.
3. Calendar Integration: Once a booking is made, it can be configured to automatically add the appointment to the user's Outlook calendar. Bookings integrates with Outlook, ensuring that all scheduled appointments are reflected in the users' calendars.
4. Driver's License Verification: For the checkbox to verify the driver's license, you may need to implement a custom solution, as Microsoft Bookings does not natively support this feature. You could consider using a form or an additional app to collect this information before finalizing the booking.
5. View Availability: To have a single calendar displaying all bookable vehicles with available and booked time slots, you can utilize the calendar features in Outlook or a shared calendar that aggregates the equipment mailboxes.

By following these steps, you should be able to set up a system for managing vehicle reservations effectively within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

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References:

• Create Microsoft 365 room and equipment mailboxes
• Manage resource mailboxes in Exchange Online