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“Give me a call and we’ll find a time.” Then come four emails, two rescheduled calls and a meeting that starts ten minutes late because the invitation was in the wrong time zone. Google Workspace solves this at no extra cost with appointment schedules, the booking pages built into Google Calendar. In our experience a minority of companies use them, mostly because nobody told them the feature exists.
This article covers how to set one up, what the paid tiers add, when Calendly is still worth the money, and the calendar-sharing setting behind most “I can’t see my colleague’s calendar” complaints.
What a booking page does
You publish a page that shows only your free slots. A customer, candidate or colleague picks one, enters their name and email, and the meeting lands in your calendar with a Google Meet link and an invitation goes to theirs. If another event arrives in a calendar the page is set to check, the slot disappears automatically. Double bookings stop, provided the page is checking the right calendars, which is the setting most people miss (see co-hosts below).
Checked against Google’s appointment-schedule documentation on 9 September 2026.
Setting it up
- Open Google Calendar, click Create and choose Appointment schedule.
- Name it for the customer, not for you: “30-minute intro call”, “IT support slot”, “Interview”.
- Set the duration, the days and hours you are available, and a buffer between meetings. Ten minutes is enough for most people to write notes and get coffee.
- Set how far in advance and how late somebody can book. Same-day bookings sound flexible and usually mean a meeting you did not prepare for.
- Turn on the Google Meet link if the meeting is remote, or enter a location.
- Save, click Open booking page, copy the link and put it in your email signature and on the website.
The page uses the visitor’s own time zone. This alone removes the “is that 10:00 your time or mine?” email.
What comes free and what needs a paid plan
Personal Google accounts and Business Starter get a single booking page with the basics. The premium features that make it a team tool, multiple booking pages, checking several calendars for conflicts, co-hosts, email reminders to the person who booked and optional payment collection through Stripe, come with Business Standard, Business Plus, the Enterprise editions and a few other paid editions; a handful of legacy and education editions do not have appointment schedules at all. Google adjusts this list from time to time, so treat the booking-page settings in your own Calendar as the authority on what your edition includes, and compare editions on Google’s own feature page before buying an upgrade for this.
Do you still need Calendly?
| Calendar appointment schedule | Calendly and similar | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Included in the licence (premium features depend on edition) | Free tier plus paid per-user plans; check the current price list for your region |
| Sync | It is the calendar; nothing to sync | One more integration that can stop working |
| Team scheduling | Co-hosts, basic; you must add their calendars to the conflict check | Round-robin, collective, routing forms |
| Vendors and data flows | One vendor you already have a contract with | A second vendor, a second data-processing agreement, a second place customer data lives |
| Branding | Google look, your photo and colours | Fully custom on paid plans |
Honestly: if you run a sales team where the next free rep should get the lead, or you need routing based on answers to questions, Calendly is stronger and worth its price. For most small companies we work with, the built-in page does the job at no extra cost and without adding another vendor to the list of places customer data lives.
“I can’t see my colleagues’ calendars when booking”
A common follow-up question, and usually a sharing setting rather than a fault. If you cannot see whether a colleague is busy when you create an event or set up a shared booking page:
- Admin console: Apps, Google Workspace, Calendar, Sharing settings. The internal sharing options set the default for new calendars in the organisation; See only free/busy is the sensible minimum. Many companies set it to No sharing years ago and forgot.
- Each user: in Calendar settings, under Share with people in your organisation, the user can adjust their own calendar’s sharing up or down from that default. If a colleague’s calendar shows nothing, ask them to share free/busy with you, or with the team, rather than opening it to the whole company.
If a colleague shares free/busy only, you see the blocks but not the event titles. That is a setting, not a bug. Note that the external sharing limit works differently: there the administrator sets a ceiling that users cannot exceed. These settings are part of a proper Google Workspace setup, like shared drives and security policies.
Three practical uses beyond sales
- Internal “office hours”. An IT support slot, a finance question slot, a manager’s open half-hour. Colleagues book themselves and the “have you got a minute?” interruptions drop noticeably.
- Recruitment. Send candidates the interview booking link instead of proposing three times by email. It also signals a company that has its tools in order.
- Customer onboarding and support. A 20-minute “getting started” page in the welcome email replaces a week of scheduling for every new customer.
Frequently asked questions
Are Google Calendar booking pages free?
One basic booking page is included with personal accounts and Business Starter. Multiple pages, conflict checking across calendars, co-hosts, reminders and payments need a paid edition with the premium features; compare editions on Google’s feature page.
Can people outside my company book a slot?
Yes. The booking page is a public link. Anyone with it can book, and they do not need a Google account.
Can two people share one booking page?
With the premium features you can add co-hosts to a booking page. Adding a co-host does not automatically check their calendar for conflicts: you must also add their calendar to the page’s “check calendars for availability” list, otherwise the page will offer slots when the co-host is busy. True round-robin allocation is not built in; that is where a dedicated tool earns its fee.
Related articles
- Shared inbox in Google Workspace: what it is, what it is not, and when to use it
- Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365: how to choose without trialling both
- Google Workspace licensing and prices
If you want calendars, booking pages and sharing to work without surprises, we sort it out in one pass.
Want booking pages that just work? We configure availability, co-hosts and calendar sharing, test time zones and cancellations, and train the staff who own it. Book a free 30-minute audit or call +371 22 30 50 90.
