Sometimes you only want people to schedule time with you during a specific window—whether it’s for interviews, consultations, office hours, or a short-term campaign. Instead of manually coordinating availability, you can create a focused booking calendar in Outlook that only accepts appointments during the dates and times you choose. This blog will show you how to do it using Microsoft’s Bookings tool.
What You’ll Need
- To use Microsoft Bookings, you need to have one of the following licenses: Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Education (A3/A5).
- Your specified availability (e.g., June 10–12 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM)
Step 1: Go to Bookings with Me
Navigate to Bookings or open Outlook in your browser and select the calendar icon. In the left-hand side panel, click “Go to my booking page”.
Step 2: Choose or create your calendar
Select the calendar of your choice to create your event in or create a new calendar.
- To learn how to create a new Bookings calendar, view this blog here.
Step 3: Edit your services for specified availability
Once your calendar has been selected or created, lets edit the availability of your service. The default settings will be your normal business hours set to the calendar. However, for this specific service, (e.g. Student interviews) you only want the calendar to be open for a specified period of time. To prevent bookings outside of that time, set the availability window for the service of your choice.
- Select “Services”
- Select "Edit service"
- Select "Availability options"
- Under general availability, select "Not bookable". This will prevent people from booking outside of the days you are getting ready to set.
- Select "Set different availability for a date range"
- Choose the exact start and end dates (e.g., June 10–12)
- Change the availability to "Custom hours (recurring weekly)".
Please note that this will not recur weekly outside of the specified dates you have set.
- Define the daily time blocks (e.g., 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM). Select the trashcan next to each row if this date is not intended to be booked on.
- Select "Save changes"
- Use the booking link in service details to double check your calendar. You should see that the specified dates are bookable with your specified time block and any other dates outside of that are not bookable.
Tip: You can customize time slots per day if needed—useful for events that span multiple days but have different hours.
Use Cases for Time-Limited Booking Pages
This approach is great for more than just interviews. Some common scenarios include:
- Short-term volunteer onboarding
- Consultation hours for an upcoming campaign
- Mentor check-ins during a specific week
- Office hours during conference season
Final Thoughts
By using Microsoft Bookings and defining a custom availability window, you stay in control of your time—offering flexibility to others without opening up your calendar indefinitely. Whether you're managing an event or just protecting your focus, this is a smart, simple solution built right into Microsoft 365.
