Forum Discussion

MattShepherd's avatar
MattShepherd
Copper Contributor
Mar 30, 2022

Can I have Bookings ignore tentative blocks in my calender?

When my staff take vacation, I ask them to book it in their calendars as full-day events and invite me, and I accept as "tentative" just to have that visible block telling me who is out of the office at a glance. Is there a way to have Bookings ignore tentative blocks? I know it means a slight risk of people double-booking in Bookings, but that's not an anticipated issue for me.

  • MichaelF79's avatar
    MichaelF79
    Brass Contributor

    MattShepherd I have the opposite problem.  My bookings page is completely ignoring entries that are in my primary Outlook calendar or from a different Bookings service.  I can't figure it out for the life of me.  
    Bookings constantly shows times available that have other things already scheduled in them... I'm at a loss.

    • brandiwoodson's avatar
      brandiwoodson
      Brass Contributor
      I find this extremely frustrating. As most users would probably agree the bookings tool should recognize "tentative" as available. The whole point of tentative is you "may" go but you want to keep your options or availability open in case something more urgent comes up. There should be an option in booking to "include" tentative as available. I would think giving users the option to include this status to appear would not be a difficult feature to add to this application.
      • johncoast's avatar
        johncoast
        Copper Contributor

        brandiwoodson I like that tentative is seen as busy, but it depends how you use your calendar. You could try accepting a meeting as tentative and then changing "Show as" and set it to free, that should make that slot bookable. 

    • fiterbek's avatar
      fiterbek
      Brass Contributor
      MichaelF79 most likely the setting to let bookings take your personal outlook's availability into account isn't switched on. This is under staff -> your account name. For this to work, your presence busy information (from Outlook) must be shared within your tenant (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/bookings/bookings-faq?view=o365-worldwide#the-staff-member-needs-to-change-their-calendar-permissions) .
      Also, if your role is Guest, you can't sync your personal calendar with bookings iirc.
      • MichaelF79's avatar
        MichaelF79
        Brass Contributor
        That was it. I couldn't find that setting mentioned anywhere and I only found it when I switched to classic view. Anyway, thanks for the heads up. It worked.
  • MikeOps's avatar
    MikeOps
    Copper Contributor

    No, Bookings should ignore tentative meetings. That's why they are tentative. If I wanted that time blocked I would have accepted the meeting outright rather than marking tentative.

  • fiterbek's avatar
    fiterbek
    Brass Contributor
    No, 'tentative' is seen as 'Busy'. You could edit your status in those fake 'appointments' to 'working elsewhere' or 'free' after accepting. These values are seen by Bookings as available. But you will have to edit these entries manually.
  • SteveMellen's avatar
    SteveMellen
    Copper Contributor

    You can classify the blocked out time as "Free" and it will allow it to be available for Bookings but also show on your calendar so people don't blatently schedule other meetings through the bookings times

Resources