➤ Product: OfficeRnD Flex
➤ Who: Admins with the "Owner" role
➤ Where: On the Admin Portal, under Settings > Space > Resource Types and under Space > Meeting Rooms
➤ Availability: Included on Essentials, Start, Grow, and Scale plans
Without hierarchical meeting rooms, Flex accepts 2 bookings at the same time: one for a large meeting room and one for a smaller room inside it. Then 2 groups arrive for 1 space. Hierarchical meeting rooms link the large room and its smaller rooms in a parent-child relationship. After you link the rooms, a booking for 1 room blocks the linked rooms for the same time.
The parent-child relationship works only between meeting rooms.
In this article:
Prevent double bookings when a movable wall splits a room
Which rooms Flex blocks when a room has more than 1 parent
Why Flex shows an error when you link 2 rooms
Why you cannot edit room availability after you link rooms
Not covered here: other meeting room settings, such as rates and privacy. Add meeting rooms →
Before you start
Complete these checks before you link meeting rooms. Each check prevents a problem that is difficult to fix after you link the rooms.
You have the Owner role. You need this role because the parent-child setting is under Settings.
The parent room exists under Space > Meeting Rooms. You select the parent room on the child room, so the parent room must exist first.
The dates under Available From/To are correct for each room. After you link rooms, you cannot edit these rooms' availability.
The rooms that you want to link have no future bookings at the same time. If such bookings exist, Flex shows an error and does not link the rooms.
How hierarchical meeting rooms work
Before you change a setting, decide which rooms are parent rooms and which rooms are child rooms. A parent room is the large space. A child room is a smaller room inside the parent room. For example, an event room split by a movable wall into Room 1 and Room 2 is the parent room. Room 1 and Room 2 are the child rooms of the event room.
When Flex blocks a room, no one can book that room during the blocked time. Flex blocks linked rooms by these rules:
A child room can have more than 1 parent room. Use this setup when 1 part of a space belongs to 2 larger rooms.
When someone books a parent room, Flex blocks every child room of that parent room.
When someone books a child room, Flex blocks every parent room of that child room.
When someone books a child room, the other child rooms of the same parent room stay available. For example, a booking for Room D does not block Room C.
If 2 parent rooms share a child room, a booking for 1 parent room blocks the other parent room. The 2 parent rooms contain the same child room, so they use part of the same space.
Example setup
The next example shows these rules together. For example, your location has 4 meeting rooms with these links:
Room A and Room B are parent rooms of Room C.
Room A is also the parent room of Room D.
The table shows which rooms Flex blocks when someone books each room.
Room that someone books | Rooms that Flex blocks | Rooms that stay available |
Room A | Room B, Room C, Room D | None |
Room B | Room A, Room C | Room D |
Room C | Room A, Room B | Room D |
Room D | Room A | Room B, Room C |
Allow parent-child relationships for meeting rooms
Flex applies these rules only after you allow parent-child relationships on the Meeting room resource type. Until you allow these relationships, you cannot link meeting rooms.
Go to Settings > Space > Resource Types.
Open the Meeting room resource type. The Edit Resource Type dialog opens.
Select the Allow parent/child relationship checkbox. With this checkbox selected, you can link meeting rooms.
Click Update to save the setting for all meeting rooms.
Link a child room to its parent rooms
The setting now allows links, but no meeting rooms are linked yet. Create each link on the child room in the Parents field.
Important: Examine the dates under Available From/To before you save a link. After you link rooms, you cannot edit these rooms' availability.
Do these steps for each child room:
Go to Space > Meeting Rooms.
Open the child room. To create a new child room, click Add Room.
In the Parents field, select each parent room of the child room. Flex uses this list to decide which rooms to block.
Save the room. For a new room, click Add. For a room that already exists, click Update.
If the child room and a parent room have future bookings at the same time, Flex shows an error. The error shows the number of these bookings. Change these bookings so they don't overlap, then save the room again.
Plan the links before members book the parent room. You cannot remove a link while the parent room has future bookings.
To link many rooms at once, add a Parent column to your resource import file. The parent room must exist in Flex before the import. Import meeting rooms with their parent rooms from a CSV file →
Which bookings does Flex check after you link rooms?
Once the rooms are linked, Flex blocks them for new bookings. Flex checks for simultaneous bookings only within a limited time range. Flex checks linked rooms only from today up to 1 year ahead. Outside this time range, Flex can accept 2 bookings at the same time for linked rooms. This applies to bookings in the past and to bookings more than 1 year ahead.
Before adding a booking in the past or more than 1 year ahead, open the calendar for each linked room. This way, you can see a conflict that Flex does not block.
Best practices
If 1 space can be split in more than 1 way, create a child room for each smallest part of the space. Then link each child room to every larger room that contains it. Flex then blocks only the parts of the space that a booking uses.
FAQs
Can a meeting room have more than 1 parent room?
A meeting room can have more than 1 parent room. Select each parent room in the child room's Parents field. A booking for the child room then blocks every parent room.
Why does Flex show an error when I link 2 meeting rooms?
Flex shows an error when the 2 meeting rooms have future bookings at the same time. The error shows the number of these bookings. Change these bookings so they don't overlap, then save the link again.
Can I edit a meeting room's availability after I link it?
You cannot edit the availability of a meeting room after you link the meeting room to another meeting room. Set the dates under Available From/To before you create the link.
Can I remove the link between a parent room and a child room?
You can remove the link between a parent room and a child room only when the parent room has no future bookings. First, delete or cancel the parent room's future bookings. Then remove the parent room from the child room's Parents field.
Why did Flex accept 2 bookings at the same time for linked rooms?
Flex checks linked rooms for simultaneous bookings only from today up to 1 year ahead. Bookings in the past and bookings more than 1 year ahead can overlap. Open the calendar for each linked room before adding a booking outside the range from today to 1 year ahead.
What happens when someone books a parent room?
A booking for a parent room blocks every child room of that parent room for the same time. If the parent room shares a child room with another parent room, Flex also blocks the other parent room.