Force bookings start time to be on the hour, always

[UniSam3892]

I am trying to set up an appointment service. Our appointments are 50 minutes long, to give us time to write up after and the student time to get to their lectures etc. People in our org also regularly schedule 50 min meetings that aren't through bookings.

I have set it so that they start at 1 hour intervals, and have a 10 minute buffer after. This works fine most of the time. However, if I am available 10:00-14:00 on a Tuesday, and have an existing meeting in my calendar from 10:00-10:50, then the appointments show on bookings at 10:50, 11:50 and 12:50 for that day. This really doesn't work for our or the student's availability. Other than going through and manually adding a 10 minute appointment in my calendar at the end of any meeting, which isn't really feasible due to how busy we are, is there any way to force bookings to start "on the hour" every time, or another workaround others can think of?

(I thought of moving the buffer to the beginning, which might help for the 50 min example, however if I had a meeting in from 9:30-10:30, appointments would then just go at 10:40, 11:40, etc)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions 

[#2]

Hi @UniSam3892 

I don't have a resolution for you, but I wanted to share my thoughts.

You want Outlook Calendar meetings with a 10-minute buffer time to show as busy in Bookings. 

Also, you want all Booking appointments to start at the top of the hour based on your availability.

This is interesting. I get it.  I hope someone from Microsoft replies to this message.

I am really curious about a resolution or workaround.

Thanks for sharing.

/Teresa

[#3]

@UniSam3892 slots in Bookings are currently designed to optimize time utilization and snaps to the beginning of a free block on the staff calendar - and not hours on the clock. Can you please post a feedback at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/e9c7c7d1-011c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 or file a DCR with Microsoft support with the details?

[#4]

You can also check if Bookings with Me, a companion experience tailed for booking time with individuals, works for your scenario. Bookings with Me currently supports snapping slots to the clock.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/bookings/bookings-in-outlook?view=o365-worldwide

[#5]

@davisjr / @UniSam3892 

Great suggestions, Davisjr. I just wanted to add the primary differences between Bookings for me and Bookings App. 

Bookings for Me is reserved for public and private bookings just with one user - Me. 

Bookings App is also reserved for public/private bookings to manage appointments for single and multiple staff members. 

There are more minor differences, but this response aligns with this post's question. 

[#6]

Hi all, thanks for your responses. I'm afraid bookings for me wouldn't work for us, as we are a service with multiple staff members. But it's useful to know about nonetheless. Thanks also for the link to provide feedback - I have noticed recent updates so hope this may be functionality that is addeed in the future. 

[#7]

@UniSam3892

If you can kindly mark the above posts as the best response or like it, which will help others with the same question.

Thank you.

/Teresa