Problem With Availability In Shared Booking Page

Daniel Needemyer 115 Reputation points
2026-06-17T15:22:00.52+00:00

I have setup a shared booking page. There is an issue with the availability in the service. If I manually add a an event directly in my calendar in Outlook, it is not reflected on the booking page.

My Outlook Calendar:

Thursday's Test event was added in Outlook.

User's image

In the shared booking staff page:

It shows as busy

Screenshot_20260617-110116

In the service:

Neither the test nor the all day event show up.

Screenshot_20260617-110208

On the booking page itself:

Friday's all day event blocks all of Friday, but Thursday's test does not show and leaves 1pm available.

Screenshot_20260617-111157

Am I missing something?

Outlook | Web | Outlook on the web for business | Calendar
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  1. Hendrix-C 18,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-06-17T16:37:34.68+00:00

    Hi @Daniel,

    Please notify me if I have misunderstood anything about your situation.

    Based on your information, it seems that your Staff calendar and the Service/public are using different availability rules. With the screenshots you shared, the most likely explanation for your situation would be:

    1/ More than one staff member assigned in your booking

    • Since you mentioned that this is a shared booking page, multiple staff members can be assigned to the booking service and then Bookings can still offer 1:00 PM if anyone of the assigned staff is free at that time, even if your Outlook calendar shows you as busy

    2/ The service may not be set to "Bookable when staff are free"

    • Microsoft availability modes include "Bookable when staff are free", "Not bookable" and "Custom hours".
    • If the service is set to "Custom hours", the public page can still reflect those hours than behaving as what you expect from the Outlook event conflicts

    3/ Event's status should be marked as Busy/Out of office

    • Events marked Free do not block the calendar by default, and you need to mark them as Busy or Out of Office to block availability.

    4/ Less possibility but there may be a short delay

    • If you changed settings recently, the public booking page can lag behind the staff view for a bit

    Therefore, with these possibilities, I suggest you first check these things in order:

    • Check the assigned staff for that service to see if that person time slot is available on Thursday 1:00 PM. You can also do a quick test by temporarily assigning only yourself to the service to see if Thursday 1:00 PM disappears
    • Go to Bookings > Services > [your services name] > Availability options and make sure General Availability is set to "Bookable when staff are free"
    • Go to Bookings > Staff > [your account name] > Edit staff and ensure "Events on Office calendar affect availability" is enabled.
    • Open the Thursday Test event in Outlook and ensure it is saved on your default/primary calendar and Show As is set to Busy/Out of Office
    • After saving changes, wait a few minutes and test the booking page again.

    Please understand that my initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try these steps and let me know if it works for you.  

    If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.    

    Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-06-17T15:22:27.6533333+00:00

    The behavior is caused by how Bookings interprets availability from staff calendars and calendar item statuses.

    Key points from the product behavior:

    1. Bookings relies on staff free/busy information from Exchange.
    2. Only time that is marked as Busy (or otherwise not Free) in the staff calendar is treated as unavailable for booking.
    3. All‑day events created in Outlook default to Free unless the status is manually changed. When an all‑day event remains Free, Bookings still considers that day available. This is why the all‑day event on Friday blocks the day only when its status is set to Busy, while the Thursday test event (if left as Free) does not block 1 PM on the booking page.
    4. For Bookings to correctly sync and honor staff calendars, the staff member’s calendar must be shared with at least Can view when I’m busy so Bookings can read free/busy data.

    To ensure events block availability on the shared booking page:

    1. In Outlook, open the appointment/meeting (including all‑day events) and set the Show as / Status field to Busy (or another non‑Free state such as Away or Tentative, depending on the desired behavior).
    2. Verify that the staff member’s calendar is shared with the organization and Bookings:
      • In Outlook on the web, select Share > Calendar.
      • Under People inside your organization, for My organization, choose Can view when I’m busy and select Done.
    3. In Bookings, on the staff member’s Staff details page, ensure Events on calendar affect availability is checked so that Outlook events are used to determine availability.

    Once events are marked Busy and the calendar is shared with free/busy visibility, Bookings will treat those times as unavailable and they will no longer appear as open slots on the booking page.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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