Resource Booking Approvals

The Room Booking feature in Resource Booking enables members of an organization to find suitable rooms and make bookings. For rooms that are in high demand or reserved for high-priority or specific types of meetings, such as executive meetings or client presentations, there is a significant risk that these specialized rooms might be booked for casual or unrelated events, leading to unnecessary confusion or conflict. Utilizing the admin approval option ensures that all room bookings are reviewed and approved by administrators before confirmation.

When a user submits a room booking request, it is not booked immediately. The request enters an approval process where the admin or manager of the respective room’s branch or building reviews it. During this time, the room is temporarily blocked for the requested time slot, preventing others from booking it. Based on availability and other factors, the admin can approve or reject the request. Once the admin takes action, the booking is either confirmed, or the room becomes available for others to book.

Enable admin approval for Room booking

You can create a new room and enable admin approval for bookings or enable admin approval for an existing room. To learn how to edit a room, refer to this help document.

Follow the steps below to enable admin approval:

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar and navigate to Resources.
2. Go to Settings > Manage Rooms.
3. Choose the branch to which you want to add rooms using the location drop-down.
4. Click on Add Room in the top right corner of the screen.
5. Enter the Room Name, Location, Category, Seating Capacity, and other details of the room.
6. Select the Require Approval for Room Booking checkbox to send room approval requests to the administrators.
7. Click Add Feature to start adding features like AC, Wi-Fi, Monitor, Projector, Whiteboard, and LAN to the room.
8. Once you have filled in the room details, click Add Room to add the room. To learn more about adding a room, refer to this help document.

The room will be added to the selected location, and all booking requests made for this room will be sent to the admins for approval.

Approve Booking Requests

All booking requests sent by users will be sent to the admins for approval. From there, they can approve or reject them as needed. To approve booking requests, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar and navigate to Resources.
2. Click on Booking Requests in the top right corner of the screen.
3. All booking requests awaiting admin approval will be displayed here.
4. Hover over the booking request and click the Approve or Reject icon next to the booking request.
5. You can filter and view booking requests by selecting a specific time period.

Booking requests will only remain in the Booking Requests section for your approval until the booked time slot. If no action is taken by the admin by that time, the request will automatically be cleared from the Booking Requests listing, the block on the room will be removed, and it will become available for other users to book.

Bookings under approval

Users can see their booking requests waiting for admin approval in the Bookings Under Approval section. To view Bookings under approval, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar and navigate to Resources.
2. Click on Bookings under approval under My Bookings from the left pane of your Resource Booking screen.
3. You can narrow down your search for bookings under approval by specifying a particular time period.