Microsoft Outlook - Find a Room Using Room Finder

Roy DePhillip

Updated July 30, 2026 19:58

Room Finder helps you quickly locate available meeting rooms and shared resources when scheduling a meeting or appointment in Microsoft Outlook. You can search for rooms based on criteria such as building, date, time, and capacity, making it easy to find the best location for your meeting.

Before You Begin

Before using Room Finder:

Open Microsoft Outlook.
Navigate to your Calendar.
Create either a New Meeting or New Appointment.

Tip

Use New Meeting if you plan to invite attendees. This ensures everyone receives the meeting invitation along with the room information.

Open Room Finder

There are two ways to access Room Finder, depending on whether you are creating a meeting or an appointment.

From a New Meeting

Open your Calendar.
Select New Meeting.
In the meeting window, select Room Finder.

From a New Appointment

Open your Calendar.
Select New Appointment.
Select the Location field.
Type any letter to display location suggestions.
Select Browse with Room Finder at the bottom of the list.

Search for a Room

Once Room Finder opens:

Select the desired Building.
(Optional) Select a Capacity.
Verify the meeting Date, Start Time, and End Time.

Room Finder will automatically display available rooms that match your search criteria.

Review Available Rooms

Each room listing may include information such as:

Room name
Building
Seating capacity
Availability during your selected meeting time

If no rooms are available, try:

Choosing a different meeting time.
Selecting another building.
Lowering the minimum capacity requirement.

Select a Room

Select the room you want to reserve.
The room is automatically added to the meeting.

Once selected:

The room appears in the Location field.
The room is added as a required attendee.

Reserve Multiple Rooms

If your meeting requires more than one room:

Repeat the Room Finder process.
Select each additional room.

Multiple rooms may be added to the same meeting invitation.

Important

Selecting a room does not guarantee the reservation. The room must still be available and either automatically accept your request or be approved by the room's delegate(s).

Tips

Search by building first to narrow your results.
Use the capacity filter to avoid reserving rooms that are too small or unnecessarily large.
If your preferred room is unavailable, Room Finder can help you quickly identify alternative locations.
Reserve rooms as early as possible for large meetings or during busy times of the year.

Summary

Room Finder helps you quickly locate and reserve available meeting rooms based on your meeting requirements. By filtering rooms by building, capacity, date, and time, you can efficiently find the best space without searching individual room calendars.