The Booking Requests feature allows administrators to require approval before certain resources can be booked. This ensures controlled access to meeting rooms, desks, and other shared spaces while keeping scheduling seamless and efficient.
If a resource requires approval, a booking request is generated instead of an immediate confirmation.
Approvers can approve or decline booking requests via the Requests Page.
While a request is pending approval, the resource remains reserved and unavailable for others.
Once approved, the booking is confirmed and finalised in the system.
Admins can configure resources to require approval individually for each resource.
Edit the resource that requires approval.
Assign Approvers (individual users or teams).
Save the changes—going forward, all booking requests for this resource will require approval.
Approvers assigned to a resource can book it directly without needing approval.
If a resource requires approval, the booking will go through a request process.
Go to the booking page and select your desired resource, date, and time.
Click "Book" to book the resource.
Your booking request will be sent to an approver for review.
The booking will appear as “Pending Approval” in:
My Bookings
Home Page
Calendar (marked as "Pending Approval - [Subject]")
Once approved, the booking is confirmed and finalised.
While your request is pending, no one else can book the resource for the same time.
Approvers can review and manage requests via the Requests Page.
Go to Requests page (accessible from the menu).
View all pending booking requests, sorted by date.
Check the request to view details (time, requester, reason if provided).
Choose to Approve or Decline the request.
If declining, enter a reason, which will be included in the email notification to the requester.
The requester will receive an email notification about the decision.
If a pending booking is edited, the request updates without creating a new one.
If a booking is cancelled, the approver will receive a notification as normal.
Requesters and approvers receive email updates for: ✅ Request Created – Sent to the approver and requester. ✅ Request Approved – Sent to the requester. ✅ Request Declined (with reason) – Sent to the requester.
Users can track the status of their requests in:
My bookings
Planner home page
Approved requests will appear as confirmed bookings.
Pending requests will remain visible with a “Awaiting Approval” label.
Approval applies to all occurrences in a recurring meeting.
Multi-day desk bookings require a single approval for all days in the request.
When a user books a Microsoft resource, the following process occurs:
The resource is booked and accepted in Outlook with the pending approval prefix.
The booking is marked as "Pending Approval" in UMA .
The user receives an acceptance email from the Outlook room calendar.
Receiving the Outlook acceptance email does not mean the booking has been approved by the designated approver in UMA. Approval must still be processed separately.
To avoid confusion, the content of the Outlook acceptance email can be customised for resources that require approval. Suggested text:
"Your requested slot has been accepted by Outlook, but it still requires approval from your company’s approver. They will review your request and inform you via email whether it has been approved or declined."
Use the "AddAdditionalResponse" parameter in Outlook to modify the acceptance email content.
For more details, refer to Microsoft's Calendar Processing documentation here.
