Recurring appointments
About smart recurrences
When searching for a meeting space for a recurring appointment, the Condeco Outlook add-in lists meeting spaces available on the first date of the series (or the next date in the future if the first date is in the past). When a meeting space is chosen, it is booked for all subsequent dates in the series. If the chosen meeting space is unavailable on any of the dates, Condeco looks for an alternative on the same floor and with the same attributes as the original search. If an alternative space is available, it is automatically selected and booked for the dates the chosen meeting space was unavailable, and the corresponding instances in the series are updated with the alternative meeting space. If no suitable alternative is found for a particular date, no meeting space is booked for that instance of the series.
If you search for a meeting space for an existing recurrence that includes dates occurring in the past, Condeco searches for suitable meeting spaces available on the next date in the future of the series.
If alternate meeting spaces are automatically selected, an email is sent detailing the alternative spaces booked. If any of the alternatives are not suitable, open the specific instance in the series and use the Condeco Outlook add-in to search for a different meeting space.
If an instance of a recurrence is moved in Outlook to a different time slot, the instance will self-heal and automatically select an alternative meeting space matching the requirement. Learn more about self-healing when moving appointments.
The smart recurrences feature is only available with the Condeco Outlook add-in for Microsoft 365.
Recurrence patterns and Outlook
Condeco supports daily, weekly, and monthly recurrences, and you can set a specific recurrence to repeat a booking on particular dates in an irregular pattern. Learn more about repeat bookings
For the most part, Condeco and Microsoft Outlook support the same set of repeat booking options, however, there are some differences. Condeco manages these differences by either converting the booking to a specific (irregular) recurrence pattern or advising the user to amend the recurrence pattern before continuing.
Condeco Outlook add-in does not support unlimited recurrences.
Recurrence comparison table
Repeat booking options for Microsoft Outlook and Condeco are compared in the table below.
| Pattern | Repeat options | Microsoft Outlook | Condeco |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | Repeat every # days (i.e. every 2 days) | Yes | Yes |
| Set weekdays only (exclude weekends) | Yes | Yes | |
| Weekly | Repeat every # weeks (i.e. every 2 weeks) | Yes | Yes |
| Select the days of the week (i.e. every Monday and Friday) | Yes | Yes | |
| Monthly | Set the date of the month (i.e. on the 15th of the month) | Yes | Yes |
| Repeat every # months (i.e. every 3 months) | Yes | No* | |
| Set the week of the month (i.e. every first week of the month) | First/Second/Third/Fourth/Last week | First/Last week | |
| Set the day of the month (i.e. every Monday on the first week of the month) | Yes | Yes | |
| Yearly | Yes | No* | |
| Specific** | Select specific days in an irregular pattern | No | Yes |
*If a recurrence pattern is selected in Outlook that is not supported by Condeco, Condeco creates a ‘Specific’ recurrence pattern for the series.
**Specific recurrence patterns enable bookings to be set to repeat on specific dates that do not form a regular daily, weekly or monthly pattern.
See Condeco in action – Smart recurrences
Required: Condeco meeting space booking with Microsoft 365 integration and the Outlook add-in
In this video, our Condeco user creates a single booking in Meeting Room C and then creates a recurring booking, also in Meeting Room C, where one of the instances in the recurring series falls on the same date and time as the previous booking. Watch how Condeco automatically books an alternative meeting space for the clashing instance in the series.