My booking page

Hello,

I can figure this out since there are a few different settings in Microsoft Bookings that can cause open time slots to vanish.

• Is this happening across all the services you offer on your booking page or just a specific one?
• I also need to know if you are syncing your personal Outlook calendar with Bookings.

If you are, it would be helpful to know if your Outlook calendar has any hidden, recurring, or all-day events marked as busy or tentative on those problem dates, even if it is just a placeholder block.

• Finally, let me know what your minimum lead time and buffer time settings are currently set to for the affected service.

Sometimes Bookings blocks a time simply because a tiny buffer window slightly overlaps outside your regular business hours, or because a client is trying to book past the minimum lead time limit.

Drop me those details and we will narrow down exactly what is causing the ghost blocks.

Several settings in Microsoft Bookings can cause customers to see “date and time not available” even when nothing is on the calendar. Check these areas step by step:

1. Service availability settings
   For each service on the booking page:
   • Open the service’s Availability options.
   • Confirm that the service is not set to Not bookable for the dates in question.
   • If Set availability for a different date range is enabled, make sure the date range actually includes the dates being requested and that it is not set to Not Bookable for those dates.
2. Booking page availability vs. business hours
   On the Booking page settings:
   • Check Availability. If specific time and date ranges are configured, Bookings will only allow bookings inside those ranges and will show other dates/times as unavailable.
   • If availability is restricted for holidays, closures, or special hours, confirm that the affected dates are not unintentionally blocked.
3. Staff working hours and days off
   For each staff member assigned to the service:
   • Open the staff member’s working hours.
   • Ensure the day is not marked as a day off (no x next to that day). If it is, the staff member will appear unavailable and customers cannot book them.
   • If the day was previously set as off, re‑enable it with the + next to that day.
4. Buffer time and duration
   In the service definition:
   • Check Duration and Buffer time. Long durations or large buffer times can make it impossible to fit an appointment into the remaining working hours, causing all times to appear unavailable even when the calendar looks empty.
5. Personal vs shared Bookings behavior
   If using Personal Bookings (Bookings with me), remember that Bookings respects free/busy status, not just visible events. All‑day events marked as Busy will block the entire day; all‑day events marked as Free will not. Verify that there are no all‑day Busy events or time‑off blocks on those dates.

If, after checking these, the dates are still unavailable, review each service and staff member for any custom date ranges or time‑off entries that might be overriding normal business hours.

References:

• Configure service availability in Microsoft Bookings
• Customize and publish your booking page
• Microsoft Bookings
• Define your services in Shared Bookings
• Employee working hours in Microsoft Bookings