Forum Discussion
Group Bookings in MS Bookings
kuirb000I was able to create multiple instances for different sessions for the same service (webinar in my case). The trick was to clear the "Use default scheduling policy" box, then (as in the long screenshot above from philmaynard_wap) set the scheduling policy for the service independently, then use the
"+ Set different availability for a date range" for the first session. I have my sessions set for a 1-hour duration but made them available for 15 min prior to 5 min after the advertised time of the webinar. For example, an 11 am session on Monday looks like this:
E.g. 11 am Monday event
Then for the next session of the same service (webinar) again click on "+ Set different availability for a date range" and repeat for the next date and time ad nauseam. Hit save when done.
For me at least, keeping the "Use the default scheduling policy" was a problem.
MitchS-SE You're correct. You have to clear the "Use default scheduling policy" to set custom hours. I tried what you did to create multiple group sessions on the same day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) under one service, but it wouldn't let me save it. It failed with either: "An internal error occurred. The operation failed. Failed to compare two elements in the array." or "The service window hours aren't correct. Please check for overlapping times or a start time that comes after an end time." It would only let me save it if the two windows were on different days.
MitchS-SE I've either had a mental/visual block or that + sign wasn't there for us, but I am seeing it now and it does help a lot. Thanks!
Now, we're being challenged with how to set up recurring offerings in biweekly and monthly cadences (including 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ... week/specific day) matching the available recurrence patterns we have in Outlook. I haven't found a decent solution for that.
MitchS-SE - the challenge with this approach is that if you want your multiple sessions to start at a specific time and not accidentally show time slots as available for which you're not planning to host a group session, you have to juggle and tweak the settings until you see only the correct available time slots instead of just being able to outright select 2 or more specific times on the same day.
There is another discussion on the topic of group bookings at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-bookings-blog/microsoft-bookings-now-supports-online-meetings-and-group/ba-p/1214120
The issue with group bookings on the same day being incorrectly assigned regardless of the time selected by the customer, seems to have resolved itself. I haven't been able to recreate that error.
As your said in your response to Radhika_Khetan_MSFT , not having documentation providing information about the details of group bookings makes this difficult to adopt by a larger user community. People take a look at it, try it out and fail to make it work. If they don't have someone to call on for assistance - since there is nothing published on the internet - they abandon it and turn to other scheduling methods and products.
As long as your service window is larger than your service time/duration, you should be able to see multiple options per day. E.g. - 30-minute services, on Monday 9a-5p should show options on the hour and half-hour all day long.
If you want multiple windows where your service can be (e.g. before and after but not during lunch), turn off the "default scheduling policy" and then click the + to add a new time slot for the given day.I haven't tried it yet with "live studio audience" but in self-testing, this seems to work. Hopefully, that'll help.
Good luck!
Steve_Wileman I finally got it working! It took almost 2 days! It is way too finicky and not user friendly!
- Shame isnt it 😒
Steve_Wileman After all that, I ended up finding a solution with our existing facility access software. Nonetheless, I'm surprised they released this feature with this kind of limited functionality.
Elisa_Hanley for the interim until its sorted i think i might use eventbright to schedule a couple of cpd slots at certain times - and drop in a teams meeting link into it . THis will allow multiple attendees to book and i can open it to externals who may need the support. Once multiple booking can be made ill go back to bookings
AliElle I am having the same issues! I wanted to start training next week and have tried all of the previous recommendations. i can't get it to change past 1 participant either.
Kreera_House MitchS-SE kuirb000 philmaynard_wap Looking for some help connecting some dots. I found my way to the same method all of you are discussing. In our training use case we have 4 different topics (A, B, C, D). Each learner will need to attend all 4 topics. To get through the total number of learners, we will need to run 7 sessions per topic (Ax7, Bx7, Cx7, Dx7) for a total of 28 sessions over the course of 2 months. I was hoping Bookings would allow for people to sign up for sessions and receive an email with a Teams meeting link (just Teams, not Teams Live).
The current issue I'm looking to solve is that the "Add online meeting" isn't working. I toggle it on, and when a slot is booked and the attendee is sent an invitation, there is no online meeting link within.As a workaround we tried creating a meeting in Outlook and copy/pasting the Teams link into the Service, but it is a ridiculously long string that also doesn't render as a hyperlink when the invitation is sent. Has anyone run into that issue and found a fix? Or have any workaround ideas?
