Troubleshooting why times are still available

YouCanBookMe works by checking your linked calendar for conflicts and blocking that time on your booking page. But what if you check your calendar and find there are times available for booking when you're not? Follow this guide to troubleshoot the issue and avoid double bookings.

In this article:

• Check all-day events in your linked calendar
• Adjust your units per slot setting
• Make sure busy events on the correct calendar
• Adjust your fixed start and end dates
• Adjust your availability window
• Verify your timezone is correct
• Ensure the Calendar Managed Availability phrase and calendar event title matches

Check all-day events in your linked calendar

You may have added an all-day event to your linked calendar to block time for a holiday or vacation. All-day events typically revert to a Free status which is invisible to YouCanBookMe. To resolve this and block your availability, set the all-day event to Busy. 

Adjust your units per slot setting

If you are taking group bookings, YouCanBookMe allows you to take bookings on top of busy events in your calendar. To fully block out time, you will need to put the phrase YCBM-OVERRIDE-UNITS into the event title of any event you want to block you from being booked. Only one YCBM-OVERRIDE-UNITS event is allowed per day. Adding more than one will open up availability again!

Make sure busy events are on the correct calendar

YouCanBookMe will only check the calendar you've connected to your booking page for availability. All busy events intended to block you from being booked must reside on the calendar we are checking (you can verify which calendar this is in your booking page settings, under Calendar & teams).  

If you have a dentist appointment on Tuesday at 11am on your Personal calendar, but YouCanBookMe is only looking at your Work calendar, it will still display you as available Tuesday at 11am. 

To resolve this issue, copy or move this event to the calendar linked to YouCanBookMe. To copy an event in Google, click the three vertical dots and select the calendar you want to copy the event into. 

Adjust your fixed start and end dates

If you using fixed start and/or end dates, YouCanBookMe displays availability during this specific date range only. Review this setting if you're not seeing availability. 

Adjust your availability window 

YouCanBookMe will only search for availability between the hours you set on the When Duration & Availability. Check that you didn't start your availability at 9PM instead of 9AM, or select a day you're not available for bookings. 

Verify your timezone is correct

Set your working hours as 8am - 5pm but the start time is earlier or later than you expect? 

YouCanBookMe will automatically detect your booking page timezone based on your linked calendar. The timezone may be reported incorrectly to YouCanBookMe, but this is easy to fix. 

Uncheck "Automatically detect timezone from my calendar" and select your preferred timezone for the booking page. 

Ensure the Calendar Managed Availability phrase and calendar event title matches

If you are using a generic Calendar Managed Availability phrase like  Sales or Support, any event set to Free in your calendar with those words in the title or description may be picked up for availability. It is best to use a distinct key phrase that won't be used in any other events in your calendar. 

For further questions, contact our team at support@youcanbook.me.

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