Remove the 'Anyone' staff option in Microsoft Bookings

What the settings actually do#

The staff choice is set per service, on the Assign staff page of the service editor. The Bookings FAQ says it can also be changed from the Booking page, where it's worded "Allow customers to choose a specific person for the booking".

In our September 2026 captures of the public booking page, choosing "Anyone" didn't leave the booking open: the page picked one of the staff free for that slot at random, in the browser, and sent the other free people as candidates. We don't know whether the Bookings server reassigns it after that. Community reports describe alphabetical assignment instead; how Bookings assigns staff sets out both.

The demand is real. "How do I disable the automatic assignment of staff members?" has 37 "same question" votes on Microsoft Q&A, with no solution in eight replies. Newer threads asking to remove "Anyone" got the same answer, and a Capterra reviewer (December 2023) describes "no way to remove the wildcard 'Any staff' option".

Workarounds that get close#

Assign only the people who should be chosen#

"Anyone" only matters when several people deliver a service. If one person delivers it, assign only that person, and every booking goes to them.

One service per person#

For practices where customers must choose a named clinician, adviser or tutor, create a service for each person, for example "Initial consultation – Dr Patel", and assign only that person. Choosing the service is choosing the person. Each service has its own URL, so you can link to it from that person's profile page; see linking to one service. This multiplies services, and Microsoft recommends keeping to 50 or fewer per booking page, so it suits small teams.

Separate booking pages per team#

If "Anyone" is a problem because the wrong group gets pulled in, split the teams into separate shared booking pages. "Anyone" can then only mean someone from the right team.

Reassign after the fact#

If a manager needs to allocate work, let Bookings assign automatically, turn on Notify when a booking is created or changed, and have the manager move appointments in the Calendar. It isn't a true unassigned queue, but it's the closest native option. The customer receives an updated confirmation when the booking changes. The any-available-staff guide covers how to shape who is in the pool.

Doing this with BookingsXP#

If you embed your shared booking page with the BookingsXP widget, its Staff choice setting can follow your Bookings page, make choosing a person optional, or hide the staff list so visitors never see it. You can also limit which people are offered, and the staff attribute preselects one person, for example on a consultant's profile page. When the widget shows a staff list it still includes "Anyone available", and it handles that choice the way the booking page Microsoft hosts does, so it changes what visitors see, not how Bookings assigns. See embedding for the setup. BookingsXP is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.