How to set up Bookings with me (step by step)

By the end of this guide you'll have a working Bookings with me page: one link people can use to book a 1:1 meeting with you, based on your Outlook calendar, with the meeting types, hours and buffers you want. It's for anyone with a Microsoft 365 work or school account who wants to stop the email back-and-forth. That covers consultants, account managers, academics and IT staff. Setup takes about 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes of testing. Microsoft Learn now also calls the feature Personal Bookings. If more than one person needs to be bookable, or you need to ask bookers questions, read shared booking pages vs Bookings with me before you start.

Before you start#

Check three things. Each one blocks setup completely if it's wrong.

1. A licence that includes Bookings. Microsoft lists Office 365 A3, A5, E1, E3, E5, F1, F3, G1, G3 and G5, and Microsoft 365 A3, A5, E1, E3, E5, F1, F3, Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Teams Essentials and Teams Premium. A1 isn't included.
2. Personal Bookings allowed for your mailbox. It's on by default. Admins can turn it off with the PersonalBookingsDisabled setting on an OWA mailbox policy. Since August 5, 2026, that's the only control, because the old EWS-based settings no longer apply.
3. The Bookings app enabled for your account. Your organization doesn't need shared Bookings switched on, but Microsoft says the Bookings app must be enabled for you.

If any of these fails, or Bookings shows only shared booking pages, why you can't create a Bookings with me page goes through the fixes, including GCC tenants.

Step 1: Open your personal booking page#

Go to book.ms and sign in, or add Bookings to the left rail in Outlook or Teams: select Apps, search for Microsoft Bookings, select Add, then pin it. On the Bookings home page, find the Personal booking page section.

Your page is already published with two meeting types, 15 mins meeting and 30 mins meeting. Nobody sees it until you share the link, so you have time to set it up first.

If the page gets stuck on "Creating your booking page. This might take a while", don't wait for hours. In a 2025 Q&A thread, users fixed it by opening https://outlook.office.com/bookings/homepage directly instead of the older bookwithme/me link in Outlook calendar settings.

Step 2: Plan your meeting types#

A meeting type is one kind of meeting you offer, such as "Intro call (30 min, Teams)" or "Office hours (15 min, in person)". Before you edit anything, decide:

• One meeting type per length and location. The booker can't choose a location within a meeting type, so offer "Advice session, Teams" and "Advice session, in person" as two types.
• Names you can search for. Each booking appears in your Outlook calendar under the meeting type name. Distinctive names make bookings easy to find later.
• What to do with the defaults. Edit the two default meeting types or delete them. Leaving an unused "15 mins meeting" on the page invites bookings you didn't want.

Step 3: Create or edit each meeting type#

Select Create meeting type in the Personal booking page section, or select an existing tile to edit it. Microsoft documents these settings:

Four things are worth knowing before you save:

• Regular hours follow Outlook, custom hours don't. If you use regular hours, set your work hours in Outlook first. Use custom hours when a meeting type should only run on, say, Tuesday afternoons.
• Your calendar still decides. Only time that is free in your calendar is offered, so events marked Busy block bookings and events marked Free don't.
• Starts sit on a grid. A personal page aligns starts to a grid counted from midnight, so with 30-minute steps starts fall on :00 and :30. A before-buffer shifts every start by the buffer.
• Lead time gets an extra 15 minutes. A slot must start more than the minimum lead time plus 15 minutes from now. When the meeting type sets none, the page uses 1 hour.

We found these rules by capturing live personal pages. Availability that doesn't match your work hours explains them with examples, along with the buffer and increment limits.

Step 4: Add reminders and follow-ups#

In the meeting type form, open Advanced Settings and scroll to Email Reminders. Select Add an email reminder and choose when to send it, from 15 minutes to two weeks before the meeting. Then write the message, which can include a link, and select Save Changes. You can also set follow-up emails, for example to ask for feedback or invite people to book again. A reminder the day before, with the joining details repeated, is a sensible default.

Step 5: Choose public or private#

Use See More on a tile to copy its link, duplicate it, switch between public and private, or delete it.

Step 6: Pick a banner image#

Choose a banner from the predesigned options, preview it, and save. Microsoft documents no image upload and no other branding options for personal pages.

Step 7: Share the link#

Select the Personal booking page heading, then the copy button. Microsoft documents three ways to share:

• Copy the link and paste it into Teams chats, social profiles or documents.
• Share via email, which opens a form for addresses and a message.
• Email signature, which adds the link to the signature Outlook uses.

To put the page on your website, link to it from a "Book a meeting" button. Microsoft provides no embed code for personal pages. Embedding Bookings with me explains what does and doesn't work.

What the person booking sees#

1. They open your link and pick a meeting type.
2. They pick a date and time. Times are shown in their own time zone.
3. They enter their name, email address and notes.
4. Depending on your page and their account, they may be asked to sign in or Continue as guest, and to enter a verification code sent by email.
5. You both get a confirmation email, and the meeting is added to your Outlook calendar.

What we saw when testing (September 2026)#

We captured the calls a live Bookings with me page makes and tried booking on it. The personal page required an email code. The first submit doesn't create the booking. Instead, Microsoft emails a 6-digit code to the booker, and the booking only exists once the form is sent again with that code. A wrong code is rejected, and "Resend" simply submits the form again. Our shared test page, on default settings, never asked for a code. The personal booking request carried only name, email, notes and time zone: no phone number, no questions and no tracking data. There's no documented setting to remove the code, as turning off Bookings with me verification explains. Warn clients about it in your email.

Test before you share#

• Open your page link in a private browser window, so you see what a stranger sees.
• Click through a few days, including next month. On personal pages, days in a later month can look available but show nothing when clicked, while the previous day's times stay on screen. Check the date heading before trusting the list.
• Book a real test meeting using a personal email address. Check that the confirmation arrives, that the Teams link works, and that the event appears in your calendar.
• Check that you received a notification. If you didn't, sort that out now rather than after a missed meeting.
• Ask a colleague in another time zone to look at the page.
• Cancel the test meeting.

Known limits (as of September 2026)#

Bookings with me is built for simple 1:1 scheduling. Microsoft doesn't document any of the following, and users confirm they're missing:

• No custom or required questions. You can't collect a phone number or a reason for booking.
• No list, report or export of bookings. Each booking is just an event in your calendar. Finding everyone who booked your page shows how to work around this.
• No API. Microsoft states that the Graph Bookings API "is not applicable for personal bookings", and the Power Automate Bookings connector needs a booking mailbox, which a personal page doesn't have.
• No approvals. Every booking is confirmed straight away.
• No embed code, no custom branding beyond the banner, and no way to turn off the verification code or the guest screen.
• One person, 1:1 only. There's no delegation, no daily booking cap, and no way for admins to restrict who books from outside your organization.
• Limited start-time increments, as covered in step 3.

When to use a single-staff shared page instead#

Choose a shared booking page with yourself as the only staff member if any of these apply:

• you need required questions
• the page has to be embedded on your website
• bookings must reach a CRM or reports
• someone else manages your diary
• you need 45-minute starts or guaranteed gaps
• you need to restrict booking to your organization

It costs you one Exchange scheduling mailbox and a little more setup. Shared booking pages vs Bookings with me has the full comparison and the rebuild steps.

Doing this with BookingsXP#

BookingsXP puts a booking widget on your website, with conversion tracking, and it's built for shared booking pages, which it fully supports. It can load a Bookings with me page on a best-effort basis, including a box for the email code. Microsoft still sends the code, and BookingsXP can't switch that step off. We don't promise personal-page support, so if most bookings will come from your website, embed a single-staff shared page instead. See /features/embed. BookingsXP is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.