--- title: Booking Actions on Room Displays summary: Walk-up booking from the display — instant reserve, extend meetings, end early, room finder, force check-in, and private mode. lastReviewed: 2026-06-08 products: - room-displays status: published --- # Booking Actions on Room Displays Walk-up booking turns the display outside a room into a self-service panel. Enabled actions appear as on-screen buttons; disabled actions are hidden. Configure each action per display under **Features** in the admin portal. Calendar-connected displays (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Exchange) support the full action set below. **Dibs** rooms support room finder and issue reporting only — they do not write to an external calendar. ## Available actions | Action | Purpose | Admin toggle | |--------|---------|--------------| | Instant reserve | Book the room for a short walk-up meeting | Enable Instant Reservations | | Extend meeting | Push the current meeting end time later | Let Users Extend Meetings | | End early | Release the room before the scheduled end | Allow Users to End Early | | Room finder | Search other rooms' availability | Enable Room Finder | | Force check-in | Cancel no-show meetings that are not confirmed | Force Check-ins | | Private mode | Hide meeting subjects and organizer names on screen | Private Mode | | Report room issue | Send a message to a designated email | Let Users Report Room Issues | | Custom reservation | Book a meeting at a future time via embedded flow | Custom Reservation Button | | Message banner | Show an admin-defined notice atop the display | Message Banner (Description tab) | ## Instant reserve When **Enable Instant Reservations** is on, an available room shows a booking control on the display. - **Default length:** set **Default Reservation Length (minutes)** — commonly 15 minutes - **Preset lengths:** enable **Allow User Selected Reservation Lengths** to offer 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes - **PIN protection:** optional **Require Pin to Reserve** for shared or public areas - **Future booking:** **Custom Reservation Button** opens a flow to schedule beyond the immediate walk-up window Instant reserve writes a real event to the connected room calendar (except Dibs rooms). ## Custom reservation **Custom Reservation Button** (under **Features** in Admin) opens a **step-by-step booking wizard** on the display — email and subject, date, duration, an available time slot, then confirm. Use it when walk-up **instant reserve** is not enough and employees need to **schedule a future meeting** from the tablet. The same wizard can be delivered as an **embeddable widget** for intranets and internal sites. Set up the room display first, then request the embed URL from [support@meetingroom365.com](mailto:support@meetingroom365.com). See [Embeddable widgets — booking forms](../widgets/index.md#booking-form-widgets). ## Extend and end early **Extend** adds time to the meeting currently in progress. The standard increment is **15 minutes** per tap when enabled. Some **SDK themes** offer multiple extend lengths on the display — for example **15, 30, or 45 minutes** — so walk-up users can pick how much time they need without repeated taps. **End early** ends the active meeting immediately and frees the room on the calendar. Both actions require an active calendar connection and appropriate permissions on the room mailbox. Changes sync back to Outlook or Google Calendar. ## Room finder **Room finder** opens a searchable list of other meeting rooms and their availability — useful when the current room is occupied and the user needs an alternative nearby. Availability refreshes while the room finder is open. Room metadata (name, location, capacity) helps users pick the right space. ## Force check-in **Force check-in** addresses ghost bookings: if nobody confirms attendance within a grace period, the meeting is cancelled automatically. - Enable **Force Check-ins** on the display - Set **Grace Period for Check-in (minutes)** — the admin default shown is 6 minutes - Occupants confirm from the display; unconfirmed meetings are released Pair with utilization analytics (see marketing features) to diagnose chronic no-show patterns. ## Private mode **Private mode** masks sensitive details on the display — meeting subjects and usernames are hidden while availability state (available / occupied) remains visible. Useful for executive floors, legal suites, or any area where passers-by should not read meeting titles. ## Meeting limits and display window Under **Meeting Limits** in Features: - **Hours of Future Meetings to Display** — how far ahead the schedule shows (default 8 hours) - **Past Meeting Limit** — whether recently ended meetings remain visible These settings affect what walk-up users see, not what the calendar stores. ## Dibs walk-up reservations Dibs rooms do not connect to a calendar. Instead, users grab the room for a configured **Reservation Length (seconds)**. Room finder and issue reporting remain available. Instant reserve, extend, end early, force check-in, and private mode do not apply. ## Supported / not supported | Supported | Not supported | |-----------|---------------| | Instant reserve with default or preset lengths (15–60 min) | Booking personal user calendars from the room display | | Optional PIN on instant reserve | | | Extend current meeting (15-minute default; some SDK themes offer 15 / 30 / 45) | | | End meeting early with calendar sync | | | Room finder across your organization's room displays | | | Force check-in with configurable grace period | | | Private mode (hide subjects and names) | | | Report room issue to a notification email | | | Custom future reservation button | | | IFTTT-triggered motion check-in (see [Hardware & devices](./hardware-and-devices.md)) | | ## Best fit for - **High-traffic floors** where employees need to grab a room for 15–30 minutes between scheduled meetings - **Utilization programs** combining force check-in with analytics to reclaim no-show bookings - **Confidential environments** that need live availability without exposing meeting titles - **Large campuses** where room finder helps people locate the nearest open space quickly ## Frequently asked questions **How long does extend add?** **15 minutes** per extend action by default. Some SDK themes let the user choose among preset lengths (such as 15, 30, or 45 minutes) on the display itself. **Do booking actions change Outlook or Google Calendar?** Yes. Extend, end early, instant reserve, and force check-in all read and write the connected room calendar, so desk calendars and mobile apps stay in sync. **Can I disable all walk-up booking?** Yes. Turn off instant reserve and the other action toggles. The display still shows live status and upcoming meetings. **Does room finder show every room?** Room finder lists meeting room displays in your organization that participate in the feature — availability is polled across those rooms.