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 [email protected]. See Embeddable widgets — booking forms.
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) |
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.