# Room availability and booking

Separate room occupancy, booking requests and provider confirmation.

Source: https://docs.getridian.com/guides/rooms/
Language: en
Reviewed: 2026-09-20

## Three different operations

Reading room occupancy, sending a reservation request and receiving a confirmed booking are different steps. Ridian must not mark a room as booked merely because a calendar write succeeded. The resource provider applies its own booking policy.

## Room sources in the pilot

A direct Microsoft room source avoids relying on a shared iCal subscription URL. The current room-source path uses approximately five-minute polling plus processing; it is not a promise of webhook updates within seconds. A failed source read must not be shown as an empty room.

Google Workspace room discovery requires administrator resource setup as well as a connected account from that Workspace. A personal Google account cannot provide that organizational context.

## Booking with an assistant

Use the supported room search, availability and booking tools in the [MCP reference](https://docs.getridian.com/developers/mcp/). Check that the requested time, time zone, room and organizer are correct. Distinguish pending, accepted and rejected responses; only the provider's confirmation establishes the resource outcome.

For retries, preserve the original request key rather than asking for another independent booking. Two callers can race after seeing the same free window; availability is not an atomic reservation.

## Alias and reply-address issues

An organization using a generic primary mailbox and a personal secondary address may route invitations differently. Record the actual organizer and reply address, whether the room received the invitation, and where the response went. Ridian's room source does not by itself fix Google/Microsoft alias routing. Share redacted evidence with the tenant administrator or support.