Create options for users to book into your calendar (Personal and Group)

Overview

Microsoft Bookings and Bookings with me are two methods used to allow users to book into your personal calendar.  Microsoft booking specializes with booking within a group of users, where Bookings with me specializes on 1:1 meetings.  Let's investigate the differences, advantages and disadvantages of both methods.

Target Audience

All

Microsoft Bookings

See setting instructions below...

Advantages:

• It’s a comprehensive scheduling and appointment management system.
• It integrates with Outlook, optimizing your staff’s calendar.
• It provides automated notification emails to reduce no-shows.
• It allows you to conduct virtual appointments via Skype or Microsoft Teams.
• It’s designed to meet the needs of multiple parts of any organization.

Disadvantages:

• It might be more complex than necessary for simple 1:1 meetings¹1.
• It requires a Microsoft 365 license.

When to use: Microsoft Bookings is ideal when you need to manage the scheduling for a team or when you have a business that involves booking appointments with customers¹1.

Bookings with me

See setting instructions below...

Advantages:

• It’s a simpler, more personalized version of Microsoft Bookings.
• It’s designed specifically for 1:1 meetings.
• It doesn’t create a new mailbox.
• It’s integrated directly into the Outlook web app.
• It provides automated notification emails to reduce no-shows.
• No Information Technology assistance is required.

Disadvantages:

• It’s not as feature-rich as Microsoft Bookings.
• It’s only accessible through the web app version of Outlook.

When to use: Bookings with me is ideal for personal meetings and appointments that don’t need to involve your team. It’s great for scheduling customer and client meetings, interviews with external candidates, 1:1 meetings with other people, tech support, and mentoring appointments.

In conclusion, the choice between Microsoft Bookings and Bookings with me depends on your specific needs. If you need a robust system for managing appointments across a team or business, Microsoft Bookings is the way to go. If you’re looking for a simpler solution for 1:1 meetings, Bookings with me is a great choice.

How to setup - Microsoft Bookings

Creating a Microsoft Booking page involves several steps. Here’s a general guide:

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365: You can do this by going to your Office 365 dashboard at www.office.com.
2. Access Microsoft Bookings: In Microsoft 365, select the app launcher, and then select Bookings.
3. Create a Personal Booking Page: Click the “Personal Bookings” tab and hit the “Get Started” button to create a new personal booking page.
4. Customize Your Booking Page: Under Shared booking pages, choose the booking page you want to customize. Then select Booking page.
5. Configure Your Booking Page: You can customize the booking page with various options. This includes setting up your bookings page, publishing your page, configuring booking page access control, setting up customer data usage consent, scheduling policy, email notifications, staff, and availability.
6. Publish Your Calendar: Make your service bookable by publishing your calendar live. You can share the link to your calendar via email and Twitter, and add a Book Now button to a Facebook page.

Remember, the exact steps might vary depending on your specific needs and the version of Microsoft 365 you’re using. For more detailed instructions, you can refer to the official Microsoft Learn documentation² or watch tutorial videos³⁴⁵.

 

How to setup - Bookings with me

Bookings with me is a feature in Outlook that facilitates scheduling 1:1 meetings between you and others based on mutual calendar availability and your specified meeting preferences. Here’s how you can enable and use this feature:

1. Access your Bookings with me page: Go to the Bookings with me page in Outlook (https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/me). You can also get started via the “Create bookings page” menu item in your Calendar on Outlook for the web.

2. Create a new meeting type:
   Public: These meetings will appear on your booking page:
   Click the plus sign within the Public meeting pane to create a meeting type. You can create meeting types for various purposes and name them accordingly.

   

3. Private: These meetings are not visible, to those booking meetings with you, on your bookings page, but is only visible if they have the link to view it.

4. Customize your meeting: You can customize your meeting with the following settings:

   • Title: This will automatically appear on invitations created from this meeting type.
   • Category: Same as Outlook categories. Visible only to you.
     • Recommendation: Create a new Category, such as Online Bookings or Bookings With Me, and choose a different colour. This provides an easy way to see meeting that have been booked using this technology. 

• Click New category

• Type a Name
• Pick a colour
• Click Save

• Description: Purpose of meeting, etc.
• Location: Physical or online (e.g., Teams).
  • You can create online meetings only, or add a meeting room
• Duration: Default is 30 minutes.
• Public or Private:
  • Public: Anyone with page link can see
  • Private: Access only via meeting link
• Schedule customization 
  • If you use "Use my regular meeting hours", make sure to click See regular meeting hours, to very it is set based on your active schedule
• Advanced Options - Meeting hours, buffer before and after meeting, limit start time to, minimum and maximum lead time.
• ​​​​​​​Email reminders
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Timing: Choose a time when the email will be sent
  • Message: Enter a message that you want to person who booked the appointment
• Email Follow-up
  • If you want collect feedback from those you met with automatically, choose this option

Share your page: With setup complete, you can now personalize your page and let others know it’s available for them to schedule meetings with you. You can change your banner image and share the link to your public Booking page.

This feature is a web-based personal scheduling page that integrates with the free/busy information from your Outlook calendar. It lets people schedule a meeting or appointment with you.

Sharing your page

• Go to your booking page https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/me 
• Click Share - This will give you 3 options on sharing your new resource.
  1. ​​​​​​​Copy link - This is the most flexible option where you can advertise the link using any method.  Adding to your email signature is the recommended method.
  2. Share via email
  3. Email Signature settings - This is the easiest method for adding your new resource to your signature.