How do I decline a meeting request in New Outlook, with a message?

I ran into this recently as well, but there is a way to do it. The option to accept or decline with a note is a bit hidden now under “RSVP with note to organizer.” When you select that, you can enter your comment and then use the “Select RSVP” dropdown to choose “Accept” or “Decline.”

Hello @Kari Haapala,  

Good day! Thank you for posting your valuable question on Microsoft Q&A forum.   

Based on your description, I understand that in New Outlook, selecting Decline on a meeting request automatically sends the response without giving you an opportunity to add a message explaining the reason for declining. 

Please let me know if I misunderstood any part of your issue or if there are additional details you’d like to share. 

In New Outlook, you can’t choose a predefined reason when declining a meeting. However, you can add your explanation by replying to the invitation and emailing the organizer before declining the event. 

Method 1: Decline a meeting from your inbox 

1.Decline and propose a new time 

Use this option if your reason for declining is related to scheduling. 

• Open your Inbox and select the meeting invitation email. 
• In the meeting details, click the three dots (More options) in the upper‑right corner. 
• Select Propose new time > Decline and propose new time. 

• In the pop‑up window, choose a new proposed time. 
• Click Add a note, then enter your reason in the message field. 

• Select Send to notify the organizer. 

2.Decline with a note (other reasons) 

Use this option if your reason is not related to changing the meeting time. 

• Open the meeting invitation from your Inbox. 
• Click the three dots (More options) in the meeting details. 
• Select RSVP with note to organizer. 
• A note field will appear under the meeting information. 
• Enter your message explaining the reason for declining. 
• Select Decline to send your response. 

Method 2: Decline a meeting from your calendar 

• Open your Outlook Calendar and select the meeting you want to decline. 
• Enable the Email organizer option. 
• Enter your reason in the note section. 
• Select Decline to send the notification to the organizer. 

I hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions or need further assistance. Thank you, and have a great day! 

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Hi everyone.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience you're having when the expected option isn't available for you now.

If this response doesn’t address what you’re looking for, could you please describe the feature you need in more detail and create a new thread ? If possible, including a screenshot would be very helpful.

You'll receive more promptly and directly support this way.

If the feature is completely greyed out or not available in Outlook, you can submit your feedback to request this feature at:  Outlook · Community .

The Product Team is in-charge of the feedback site, and they are constantly checking the comments and feedback from our customer. Many features have been developed or improved based on users' comment, so you can try to contact users with similar issue to upvote your feature request.   

After submitting your request on the site, you can return here and paste the link into this thread. That way, other users who visit this discussion can click the link and upvote your request to help bring more attention to it.  

In the meantime, you can check Microsoft 365 Roadmap for updating features in the future. 

Please note that Q&A forum moderators do not have access to backend systems or the ability to change app behavior directly. Our role is to assist based on available documentation and guidance from Microsoft based on our knowledge.  

I genuinely appreciate your feedback and share your goal of making Outlook better and more user-friendly.   

In the New Outlook, if you want to decline a meeting request and include a message, you may need to use an alternative method since the direct decline option sends the response without allowing you to add a reason. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open the meeting request in your calendar.
2. Instead of clicking the Decline button, choose to respond with comments. You can do this by selecting the option to Tentative or Decline and then selecting Respond with Comments.
3. In the body of the response, write your message explaining why you are declining the meeting.
4. Send the response.

This way, the meeting organizer will receive your decline along with your message.

References:

• You can't send a response to a meeting request in Outlook