Forum Discussion
Use Bookings as efficient as possible
Hi everyone,
I'm using bookings to let clients make an appointment (of 15 minutes + 5 min buffer timer) In my calender. Buf if I reserve time (let's say 14.00-14.40) for a cliënt, they schedule it from 14.10-14.30, and therefore only one client can use the time for a reservation instead of two (14.00-14.20 + 14.20-14.40). Does anybody know how to solve this?
5 Replies
Thank you! I'll try that!
Welcome! If it work well, just select my answer as solution. Thank you!
This issue happens because Microsoft Bookings allows flexible scheduling where clients can pick any available slot, rather than enforcing fixed intervals. To optimize your calendar and prevent overlapping time slots, follow these steps:
1. Adjust Your Service Duration & Buffer Time Correctly
Go to Microsoft Bookings → Services- Select your service and ensure:
- Duration = 15 minutes
- Buffer time before & after = 5 minutes
- This ensures each appointment is locked into a 20-minute cycle.
2. Set Fixed Time Increments (Best Solution)
By default, Bookings lets customers pick any start time, but you can force fixed time slots:- Go to Microsoft Bookings → Booking Page
- Look for Time Increments under "Availability"
- Set it to 20 minutes (so slots are only at 14:00, 14:20, etc.)
- This forces appointments to follow your desired structure.
Hi! I tried this but unfortunately it does not work; the availability is still 11:10; 11:20; 11:30 etc instead of 11:00; 11:20.. Any other suggestions?
1. Go to your Service in Microsoft Bookings
- Bookings → Services → Select your 15-min appointment service.
2. Set the Service Duration + Buffer
- Duration: 15 minutes
- Buffer after: 5 minutes
- (No buffer before, unless needed)
3. Click "Set different availability for this service"
- This is the key. Do not use default business hours.
- Choose “Custom hours” and manually add the exact start times you want:
- Example: 11:00–11:15, 11:20–11:35, 11:40–11:55
- Repeat this pattern across your available days.
4. Save the service, and test it from the client view.
- Now clients will only see the slots you manually defined, and not the overlapping 11:10, 11:30, etc.
