Room Finder problems with meetings that aren't in 30-minute intervals

Symptoms

Consider the following scenarios when you use the Room Finder feature in Microsoft Outlook.

Scenario 1

• You create a new meeting request for which the end time is not in a 30-minute increment, such as from 2:30–3:15 PM.

• You select a room that appears to be available during this time, and then you send the meeting request.

• The room that you selected has automatic booking enabled.

In this scenario, you receive a meeting decline notification indicating that the room had already been booked for part of the same time, such as from 3:00–4:00 PM. This occurs even though the room appeared to be available in Room Finder when you booked the meeting.
Scenario 2

You create a new meeting request for a meeting of less than 30 minutes, such as from 2:00–2:25 PM, or from 2:01–2:30 PM. In this scenario, Room Finder shows that there are no available rooms, even though there are rooms available during this time. 

Cause

The Outlook Room Finder feature uses 30-minute intervals as the default meeting duration. It does not support shorter intervals.

Workaround

To work around this issue, use the following methods.

Method 1: Book meetings in 30-minute intervals to avoid the issue.

Method 2: Use another method to find available rooms, such as through the Scheduling Assistant in Outlook.