I am the delegate for 3 meeting rooms at my workplace which each have their own Outlook calendar. The idea is that my colleagues create meetings, then "invite" or request the presence of the meeting room they need. I get the meeting request on behalf of the meeting room, and either accept the meeting if there is no conflict, or suggest a new time if there is a conflict. The system has worked out OK until recently.

This week we had a major scheduling problem. My colleague is certain that he did create a meeting request and invite the meeting room he needed. His Outlook calendar confirms this: the meeting is in there, and when you open it and click on Scheduling, it shows a list of attendees that includes the meeting room. However, I definitely did not receive the invitation/meeting request on behalf of the meeting room in question. Therefore I didn't reserve the room for that time slot and it was in use by someone else when my colleague arrived with his client.

I've checked my inbox and the meeting room's inbox for any messages related to that meeting, to no avail.

My question is then, how did this happen, and what can be done to avoid it?