Create room and equipment mailboxes in Microsoft 365

If you have a conference room or equipment that your users need to access, you need a way to make those resources reservable to everyone. Creating a room or equipment mailbox in Microsoft 365 is the best way to allow users to easily reserve these resources. With room and equipment mailboxes, your organization can efficiently reserve shared resources for meetings and events. You might create one for your first floor conference room, media equipment, or a moving truck.

Once you create a room or equipment mailbox, everyone in your organization can reserve shared resources for meetings or events using Outlook. This article explains how to:

• Use room and equipment mailboxes.
• Set up room and equipment mailboxes in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Access and use room and equipment mailboxes

To use room or equipment mailboxes, follow these steps to reserve the resource for a meeting or event:

1. Open Outlook or Outlook on the web on your computer.

2. On the Home tab, choose New items, and then select Meeting from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can also select New Meeting from the Calendar ribbon.

   

3. In the Required field, enter the name of the conference room or equipment you want to reserve in addition to any attendees you want to invite. Alternatively, select Required and then double-click the conference room or equipment from the list. Once the conference room or equipment is displayed next to Required, select OK.

   

4. In the Title line, type the purpose of the reservation or meeting.

5. Change the Location value or accept the default.

6. Change the Start time and End time or select All day. To make the meeting or reservation repeat, select Recurrence at the top.

   

7. Type a message describing the purpose and attach any files if needed.

8. To allow others to join online or call in to the meeting, select Microsoft Teams Meeting at the top.

9. To make sure the room, equipment, and people you invited are available, select Scheduling Assistant from the menu bar. Then select an available time in the calendar.

   

   Tip

   In the scheduling calendar, blue means the room or equipment is reserved, or busy. Select the white, or free, area on the calendar.

10. When finished, select Send.

Set up room and equipment mailboxes

To set up a room or equipment mailbox, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center with an account that has the proper permissions.

2. From the left navigation bar, select … Show all, and then select Resources to expand it.

3. Under Resources, select Rooms & equipment.

4. In the Rooms & equipment page, select + Add resource.

5. In the Add resource pane, fill out the room or equipment fields:

   • Room or Equipment: The type of mailbox you want to create.

   • Name: A friendly name or short description.

   • Email: The email alias of the room or equipment. You need an email address to send a meeting request to the room or equipment.

   • Capacity: The number of people who can fit in the room or use the equipment at the same time.

   • Location: The room number or location of the room in a building or region.

   • Phone number: The phone number of the room itself. This phone number is different from the meeting phone number generated when using Microsoft Teams.

   

6. Select Save.

Tip

To keep your room and equipment mailboxes secure, block sign-in to these mailboxes. For more information, see Block sign-in for the shared mailbox account.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about room and equipment mailboxes

For answers to common questions about managing room and equipment mailboxes, see Room and Equipment Mailboxes FAQ.