OL2000 Resource Double Booking

[KateH]

I am trying to find a way of forcing Outlook to refuse to
book a meeting in a room when the timing conflicts with
another meeting. These rooms are currently separate
public folders.
I have searched Google and following this have set up a
test meeting room with an AD account and mailbox. I have
set up the resource scheduling to automatically decline
conflicting meeting requests, but this only seems to work
if you invite the room as a resource. Anyone who
uses 'open other user's folder' and creates a meeting by
double clicking on the calendar can still double book. Am
I missing something very obvious?

Thanks for your consideration.

 

[Mark Weber [MSFT]]

Kate,

No, you are correct! When you use Direct Booking, you create a meeting
request and add the resource enabled account as a resource (via the To:
button) to send that meeting request straight to the Resource's calendar and
in return you receive a confirmation or conflict dialog box immediately upon
sending the meeting request.

If you "open other user's folder" and place the appointment directly on the
calendar, you're bypassing the "direct booking" feature and manually
creating the appointment. No automation is in effect to keep you from
manually overriding using this method.

This needs to be controlled by "user education" or a company policy to avoid
these manual entries. The other option is setting up a delegate for
monitoring the resource to control these "conflicts" as they arise.

Best Regards,

Mark Weber [MSFT]