Google Workspace: Meeting Rooms
Ashby can sync your Google Workspace meeting rooms so they appear as bookable locations when scheduling interviews. This article explains how meeting room syncing works, how event detail visibility is controlled, and how to configure your setup to match your organization's security requirements.
Prerequisites:
- The Google Workspace integration must be active in your Ashby account.
- The Primary Google Workspace Admin configured in Ashby must have the admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly scope and Admin Console > Directory > Buildings and resources (read) permission in Google.
How meeting room syncing works
Ashby uses separate authorization paths to discover meeting rooms and read events from room calendars.
Room discovery
Ashby uses the primary Google Workspace admin configured in the integration to discover Google resource calendars and populate the meeting-room list. That user must have the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly scope and Admin console > Directory > Buildings and resources (read) permission in Google Workspace.
Room event syncing
Ashby reads events from each room calendar separately. The Google user or service account used to read that calendar must have at least Reader access, also shown as See all event details, on the room calendar.
A room can appear in Ashby even when its events are not syncing. If a room is shared with only See only free/busy (freeBusyReader) access, Ashby cannot use the current room-sync flow to read its events. In that case, the room may appear blank or available even when Google Calendar contains bookings.
If you would like to designate a single specific user to authorize all meeting room event syncing, contact Ashby Support.
Meeting room event detail visibility
By default, when Ashby cannot read a meeting room calendar's access control list (ACL), it displays free/busy availability in the Ashby scheduling interface rather than full event details.
There are two supported visibility patterns depending on your organization's security requirements.
Domain-wide visibility set to "See all event details"
This is the default setup for most organizations. No special configuration is needed in Ashby. Room event details are visible to all users in your domain, and Ashby displays them in full in the scheduling interface.
Hide event details in the Ashby scheduling interface
If your organization wants schedulers to see only free/busy availability, Ashby can configure meeting-room event details to be hidden in the scheduling interface. This controls event-detail display in Ashby. It does not provide free/busy-only access to the Google calendar and does not guarantee that event details are excluded from backend processing or storage.
Contact Ashby Support to discuss your requirements.
The current meeting-room sync requires event-read access. Ashby may read and store event fields such as the event title, description, start and end times, attendees, organizer, creator, location, visibility, busy/free status, and conference data.
FAQs
Why aren't my meeting rooms appearing in Ashby?
Confirm that the Primary Google Workspace Admin on the integration page has the admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly scope and read access to Buildings and resources in the Google Admin Console. If the admin's scope has changed, room discovery stops updating in Ashby.
Why did a meeting room stop syncing?
Work through the following checks:
- Confirm the Primary Google Workspace Admin still exists and has valid OAuth in Ashby.
- Confirm that admin still has the admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly scope.
- If you are using individual OAuth rather than Domain-Wide Delegation (DWD), confirm that at least one active Ashby user with access to the room calendar has completed Google OAuth in Ashby with the calendar scope.
If the room is still not syncing after these checks, contact Ashby Support.
Can interviewers book a meeting room they don't have permission to use in Google?
No. Whether a user can book a meeting room is determined by their own Google Calendar permissions, not by the Ashby integration. Each user who schedules interviews must have permission in Google to create events on any meeting room they are expected to use. Ashby does not grant or proxy this access.
Why am I seeing free/busy information instead of full event details for a meeting room?
This happens when Ashby cannot read the room calendar's ACL. Ashby falls back to free/busy visibility in the scheduling interface rather than showing full event details. If your organization requires full event detail visibility, confirm that the user authorizing the room calendar sync has at least reader-level access to that room calendar in Google. If your organization intentionally restricts event details and needs a different configuration, contact Ashby Support.
Can I sync meeting rooms using free/busy-only access?
Not currently. Google Workspace meeting-room event syncing requires Reader or See all event details access. freeBusyReader access alone is not sufficient for the current sync flow.
If you need to limit what schedulers see in Ashby, contact Ashby Support about configuring meeting-room event details to be hidden in the scheduling interface. This UI setting does not change the access required for syncing or prevent event details from being processed by the current sync.
Why does a meeting room appear available when it is booked in Google Calendar?
Room discovery and room-event syncing are separate. Ashby may have discovered the room successfully, but the calendar authorization or permission needed to read its events is incomplete. Confirm that the account used to read the room calendar has Reader or See all event details access, then contact Ashby Support if the room remains blank or available.