Forum Discussion
Buffer time included in meeting time
MicrosoftThe booked slot will appear as per the service duration on the Bookings calendar. Outlook calendar will keep the entire chunk of time (including buffer time) to avoid double booking during same time. This is not a recent change in Bookings behaviour. Thanks.
Debasish_Thakur thanks for your reply. The Outlook desktop app is where we access all our appointments. It would be convoluted to access a website for the appointments made through the Bookings app. It shows in the Outlook calendar desktop app as a 45-minute meeting for the client but a 75 minute meeting for myself; this is very confusing. Is there a way to show buffer time as buffer time please and not as part of the appointment. I have attached a screenshot of what this looks like. Thank you
This behaviour is bizarre though, and is definitely not the way it used to behave. A booking of 30 minutes, with fifteen minute buffer either side is now showing as a single booking of one hour. This is causing much confusion with people as they're going to log on to a meeting at the event start time when it doesn't actually begin for another fifteen minutes.
Either buffer time needs to show separately on Outlook calendars as 'buffer time' OR it doesn't show on the calendar at all as a physical entry, but the buffer logic still applies.
I agree! It is so confusing! We were using Calendly previously. It has a button you just toggle on to prevent back-to-back meetings, which is what the buffer is trying to accomplish. Not all my meetings are booked using Bookings and there is no indicator on the meeting invitation, so I find myself jumping on calls early.
Come on Microsoft! If Calendly can do it so easily, I am sure you can too!- Agreed - such a terrible way to "buffer" and is causing a lot of confusion for the client AND the agent. Seems to be a low priority to MS as the reports on this are going back for quite awhile. Can we just block the time on my calendar during a "buffer" without showing it as part of the meeting time? If not, our entire organization of 2000 is going back to Calendly where it's simple and clear.
I really want to move back to Calendly for the same reason.
