The Bookings With Me page in Microsoft Outlook for Microsoft 365 lets others schedule time directly on your calendar without endless email chains. You control exactly when you are available, how long each meeting lasts, and whether buffer time is added between appointments. If your current page shows too many or too few slots, or the wrong duration, you need to adjust the availability settings. This article explains how to customize available slots on your Bookings With Me page by modifying meeting duration, working hours, buffer intervals, and advance booking limits.
Key Takeaways: Customizing Bookings With Me Slots
- Bookings With Me settings page: Go to Outlook on the web, select the gear icon, then View all Outlook settings > Calendar > Bookings With Me to access all slot controls.
- Meeting duration dropdown: Change the default 30-minute slot to 15, 45, or 60 minutes to match the type of meeting you offer.
- Working hours and buffer time: Set your available time window and add buffer minutes before or after each slot to prevent back-to-back bookings.
What Bookings With Me Slots Are and How They Work
Bookings With Me is a simplified scheduling tool built into Outlook for Microsoft 365. It creates a public page where people can pick a time slot from the availability you define. The page syncs with your Outlook calendar so that existing events block off those times automatically.
Each slot represents one meeting invitation. The slot length, the time between slots, and the overall availability window all come from your settings. When someone books a slot, Outlook sends you a calendar item and the booker receives a confirmation email with a join link if you added one.
The feature is different from the full Bookings app. Bookings With Me is designed for individual scheduling rather than managing a team or a business with multiple services. You can create one page per calendar and customize it without needing a Bookings license.
Prerequisites Before You Customize Slots
You need a Microsoft 365 work or school account with Exchange Online. The Bookings With Me feature is not available in standalone Outlook for personal accounts like Outlook.com or Gmail. Your admin must have the Bookings in Outlook toggle enabled in the Microsoft 365 admin center. If you do not see the Bookings With Me option under Calendar settings, contact your IT department.
You can only access the settings through Outlook on the web. The desktop Outlook app and the mobile app do not have the Bookings With Me configuration page. After you make changes on the web, the updated slots appear on your live page immediately.
Steps to Change Meeting Duration and Available Time Window
- Open Outlook on the web and go to Calendar settings
Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account at outlook.office.com. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner. Select View all Outlook settings at the bottom of the Settings pane. In the Settings window, click Calendar and then select Bookings With Me. - Select the page you want to edit
If you have more than one Bookings With Me page, click the page name from the list. Each page has its own slot configuration. Changes apply only to the selected page. - Change the meeting duration
In the Meeting duration section, click the dropdown and choose a new length. Options are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes. The slot length determines how much time each booking occupies on your calendar. - Set your available hours
Under Available hours, select the start time and end time for your working day. For example, set 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Bookers will only see slots that fall entirely within this window. If you leave this blank, Outlook uses your default working hours from Calendar settings. - Choose the days you are available
Check or uncheck individual days of the week. Uncheck Saturday and Sunday if you do not want weekend bookings. The available slots only appear on the days you select. - Add buffer time between slots
Scroll to Buffer time. Use the Before and After dropdowns to add minutes between meetings. For instance, set 10 minutes after each slot to give yourself a break. Buffer time is not bookable and does not appear as an option to the person scheduling. - Adjust advance booking and minimum notice
In the Advance booking section, set how far in the future people can book. The default is 60 days. In the Minimum notice section, set how much advance notice you require. For example, 4 hours means someone cannot book a slot that starts in less than 4 hours from now. - Save your changes
Click Save at the top of the settings page. Your Bookings With Me page updates immediately. Open your public page in a new browser tab to verify the new slots appear correctly.
How to Add or Remove Specific Time Blocks
You can create time blocks that override your main availability for specific dates. This is useful when you want to offer extra hours on a particular day or block off a day entirely without adding a calendar event.
- Open the same Bookings With Me settings page
Go to Outlook on the web, click the gear icon, choose View all Outlook settings, then Calendar, then Bookings With Me. Select your page. - Click Add time block
Scroll to the Time blocks section. Click Add time block. A new row appears. - Set the date and time range
Enter the specific date. Choose a start time and end time for the block. For example, if you normally stop at 5:00 PM but want to offer slots until 7:00 PM on a specific Wednesday, set the block from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. - Choose to add or remove availability
Select Available to add this time window to your existing schedule. Select Unavailable to remove this time window. Use Unavailable to block off a lunch hour or a personal appointment without creating a calendar event. - Save the time block
Click Save next to the time block row. Repeat for each date you need to customize. Click the main Save button at the top of the page to apply all changes.
Common Mistakes When Customizing Slots
Slots Do Not Appear on the Public Page
If your Bookings With Me page shows no available slots, check that your calendar does not have an all-day event or a recurring meeting covering the entire day. Outlook treats all-day events as busy time and removes those slots. Also verify that the meeting duration is not longer than your available hours window. For example, a 60-minute slot cannot fit into a 30-minute available window.
Buffer Time Overlaps With Next Slot
When you set buffer time after a slot, Outlook subtracts that buffer from the available time window. If your available hours end at 5:00 PM and you add 15 minutes buffer after a 30-minute slot starting at 4:30 PM, the slot will not appear because the buffer extends past 5:00 PM. Reduce the buffer or extend your available hours to fix this.
Bookers Cannot Pick a Specific Time That You Intended
If you want to offer only two specific slots per day, such as 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, use the Time blocks feature to define those exact windows rather than setting a broad available hours range. Set your main available hours to a short window or use Unavailable time blocks to remove unwanted times.
Bookings With Me vs Full Bookings App: Slot Customization
| Item | Bookings With Me | Full Bookings App |
|---|---|---|
| Number of pages | One per calendar, up to 10 pages | Unlimited businesses and services |
| Meeting duration | Fixed per page: 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes | Custom per service, any duration in minutes |
| Buffer time | Before and after each slot, in 5-minute increments | Before and after each service, in 1-minute increments |
| Time blocks | Available or unavailable on specific dates | Custom hours per service and per staff member |
| Multiple staff | Not supported | Supports multiple staff with individual schedules |
| License | Included with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium | Requires Bookings license or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 |
If you need more than four duration options or want to offer multiple services with different slot lengths, use the full Bookings app instead. Bookings With Me is best for individual scheduling where one slot length serves all meetings.
Conclusion
You can now control exactly which time slots appear on your Bookings With Me page by adjusting meeting duration, working hours, buffer time, and time blocks. Start with a 30-minute duration and modify it based on the type of meetings you accept. Use the Time blocks feature to add extra availability on busy days without changing your main schedule. For advanced slot control like variable durations per meeting type, consider upgrading to the full Bookings app available in the Microsoft 365 admin center.