why do clients not see accurate availibilty?

Hello Drew B,

To assist you better, could you please help confirm the following details?

• Is this a personal booking page or a shared booking page?
• Is the privacy setting configured as Public or Private?

If the page is set to Private, could you please switch it to Public, generate the booking link, and open the link using an InPrivate window (Microsoft Edge) or an Incognito window (Google Chrome)? Please let us know whether you experience the same issue when accessing the link this way, as your clients do.

Additionally:

• Does this issue occur on one specific booking page or all of your booking pages?
• Could you please confirm whether the availability details your clients are seeing reflect your initial configuration?
• Do you set lead time for your booking page?

Please feel free to let me know if you have any updates or additional information. I look forward to hearing from you.

Several common configuration issues in Bookings and Outlook can cause clients to see incorrect availability even after updating the booking page:

1. Personal/all-day events set to “Free” instead of “Busy”
   If all-day events or personal appointments are marked as Free, Bookings and “Bookings with me” will treat those times as available.

To fix:

1. Go to Outlook on the web: https://outlook.office.com/calendar.
2. Open any all-day or blocking events on days that should be unavailable.
3. In the event options, change the status from Free (or other non-blocking status) to Busy.
4. Save the event and recheck the booking page. Times covered by those events should no longer appear as available.
5. Service-level availability not matching working hours
   Each service in Microsoft Bookings has its own availability settings that can override general business hours. If a service is configured with custom hours or date ranges, clients may see availability that does not match expectations.

Check service availability:

1. Open the Bookings app and go to the service that clients are booking.
2. Open Service settings → Availability options.
3. Confirm whether it is using Business hours or Set different availability for this service.
4. If using different availability, verify the days/times and date ranges are correct.
5. Not blocking specific dates as “Not bookable”
   If certain days (holidays, vacations, personal days) should not be bookable but still show as available, the service may not have those dates blocked.

To block dates for a service:

1. Open the service’s Availability options.
2. Select Set availability for a different date range.
3. Enter the date range that should not accept bookings.
4. Select Not Bookable and save.
5. Buffer times affecting visible slots
   If buffer time is configured, Bookings only shows time slots where both the appointment and its buffer fit. This can make availability look wrong or more limited than expected.

To review buffer time:

1. Open the service’s Service details page.
2. Ensure the buffer time toggle is set as intended.
3. Check the Before and After values. Remember that a 60-minute appointment with a 15-minute buffer before requires a 75-minute free block; shorter gaps will not appear as available to clients.
4. Multiple calendars or mobile calendar visibility
   If availability is being checked from Outlook mobile, only calendars enabled in the app’s calendar list are considered when choosing times. If some calendars are unchecked, they may not be blocking time as expected when reviewing availability.

On Outlook for Android/iOS:

1. Go to the Calendar tab.
2. Tap the menu button (top left).
3. Ensure all relevant calendars (work, shared, etc.) are selected with a checkmark so that busy time from those calendars is visible when validating availability.

If, after verifying calendar status (Busy vs Free), service availability options, blocked dates, and buffer times, the booking page still shows incorrect availability, re-save the service settings and test using an incognito/private browser window with the public booking link to rule out caching.

References:

• Bookings with me calendar doesn’t honor user’s personal calendars
• Configure service availability in Microsoft Bookings
• Troubleshooting: I'm not seeing the calendar or calendars I expect when choosing my availability
• Microsoft Bookings
• Shared Bookings Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)