Does Microsoft Bookings cost extra?

No. Bookings is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, among other plans. It is not sold as a separate app.

Do customers need a Microsoft account to book?

No. On a public booking page, a customer simply picks a time and fills in their details. You can also restrict a page to people inside your own organisation.

What if a staff member puts an appointment in their calendar outside Bookings?

Bookings checks the staff member’s Outlook calendar. An appointment there makes that slot unavailable on the booking page, as long as it is marked as busy.

Can we put the booking page on our own website?

Yes. You can link to the page from your website or embed it, so customers can book straight from your site.

Can we stop everyone from creating their own booking pages?

Yes. An admin can turn Bookings on or off for the whole organisation and limit the creation of booking pages to specific staff members.

Letting customers book appointments online: how an SME should set up Microsoft Bookings safely and clearly

A customer wants an introductory call, an engineer needs to visit, or an adviser is planning an intake meeting. Often a string of emails comes first: does Tuesday work, no, Thursday then? Microsoft Bookings is already included in most Microsoft 365 plans and lets customers pick a free slot themselves. That is convenient, but only if the calendars are accurate and you decide up front who can see what.

What Microsoft Bookings is

Bookings creates a web page where customers choose a service, such as ‘30-minute introductory call’ or ‘maintenance visit’, and then a free time slot. To do that, Bookings checks the Outlook calendars of the staff you link to the page. If something is already in someone’s calendar, that slot is not offered. The customer gets an email confirmation, the appointment lands in the staff member’s calendar, and rescheduling or cancelling works through a link in that confirmation.

There are two variants. A shared booking page is meant for a team or department, with several services and staff members. A personal booking page in Outlook (Bookings with me) is for one person who lets others pick a time with them. For an SME, the shared page is usually the place to start.

When it helps and when it does not

Helpful: recurring appointments with a fixed duration, such as intakes, advice sessions, demos, service visits or consultation hours.
Less helpful: appointments that need tailoring or discussion first, or schedules that depend on materials, travel time between customers or a separate planning system.
Mind existing systems: if you already use an industry package that schedules appointments, such as in a practice or salon, avoid letting two systems take bookings side by side.

How to set up the booking page properly

Services with a fixed duration and buffer: give each service a duration and, if needed, buffer time before or after, for example for travel or notes. Also set how far ahead and how close to the time someone can book.
Calendars in order: Bookings is only as reliable as the calendars. Agree that staff actually put days off, field work and internal meetings in Outlook. See also our article on calendar sharing and delegate access.
Only the right staff: add only people who should really be bookable, and give the Administrator role only to those who manage the page. Others get Viewer or are linked only as the staff member delivering the service.
Online or on site: for online appointments, Bookings can add a Teams meeting link automatically. Decide in advance how external people are let into that meeting; see our article on Teams meetings with external guests.
Confirmations and reminders: adapt the confirmation and reminder emails to your own tone, with the address, parking details or anything the customer should prepare.
On your website: you can link to or embed the booking page on your website, so customers do not have to email first.

Privacy and management: what to set centrally

Who can create booking pages: without agreements, every licensed user can create their own pages, which leads to sprawl. As an admin you can turn Bookings on or off for the organisation and limit who can create booking pages.
Staff consent: with the staff approvals setting, a staff member must first agree before their availability is shared through a booking page.
Ask for little customer data: only ask what the appointment needs. Do not use the custom questions for sensitive data such as medical information or national ID numbers. In the organisation settings you can also restrict the collection of certain customer details.
Visibility: decide whether the page should be public or only for colleagues, whether staff contact details may appear in emails to customers, and whether search engines may show the page.
Clear naming and an owner: a booking page has its own email address. Use a recognisable name and agree who manages the page, just as with shared mailboxes.
When people leave: remove departing staff from booking pages, so no more appointments come in under their name. Include this in your joiner and leaver checklist.

How Floor ICT handles this

Floor ICT works out with you which appointments customers can schedule themselves and which they cannot. We set centrally who can create booking pages, configure the privacy settings and set up the page with services, buffer times, Teams links and your own confirmation texts. Then we link the page to your website and check with the staff involved that their calendars are accurate. That way customers book their own appointments and nobody has to email back and forth about a suitable time.

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