Prevent Double Booking on Google Calendar: Step-by-Step

FYI: Before you start, for most companies, the best way to manage scheduling conflicts or double booking with Google Apps is to use resource calendars instead of standard group calendars.

If you haven’t been introduced to this yet, we recommend checking out this Google room resource calendar guide first. If you’re setting up your Robin account, check out our Help Center the most up-to-date information and resources.

‍This issue comes up all the time. You have a shared Google Calendar that despite best efforts, still manages to get overbooked. It can be frustrating, and it takes away from every effort you make to ensure your days are as productive as possible.

Fortunately, it’s remarkably easy to set your Google Calendar group calendars and calendar resources to prevent collisions, so you can rest easy next time you book a meeting. Below are steps to prevent double booking events on Google Calendar.

Interested in testing out Robin’s meeting room scheduling software? Start a 14-day free trial today.

Fixing Double Booking in Google Calendar

From your Google Calendar view, open the settings for the calendar you want to adjust the settings for by going to:

‍My calendars in the left sidebar, hovering over the specific calendar and clicking the three dots to the right of it.

Choose Settings and sharing in the dropdown.

Prevent double booking in Google Calendar by first going into your settings in the left sidebar.

From there you’ll be taken to your Google Calendar Settings page. Click General at the top left and scroll down to where it says, Event settings.

Settings to Prevent Scheduling Conflicts

In your settings, the default response to where it says, “Automatically add invitations,” is Yes.

If you see this, it’s a pretty self explanatory reason for all the trouble you’ve been experiencing. But we can do one better. Let’s change it to “Auto-accept invites that do not conflict” instead and see how that works. Check out the image below for more info on what that looks like.

That’s literally all you need to do. You can celebrate any way you know how, but know that now, when someone tries to double book an event on your calendar resources, the calendar will reject it. Instead of double booking, they’ll have an opportunity to find a different time for their meeting. Nice job!

Using a Conference Room Scheduling Software to Prevent Double Booking in Google Calendar

Another solution to the issue of double booked events is pairing your resource calendars with a conference room scheduling software for extra protection. By pairing Google Calendar with Robin, for example, everyone has visibility into the office schedule in the Dashboard view.

Oftentimes, without a scheduling software, users have no way of knowing whether a meeting room is double booked or not until the time of the meeting. If you’re booking a 3 p.m. meeting in a conference room that’s already booked for that time, your Google Calendar paired with a solution like Robin will automatically provide a Conflict notification along with alternative spaces available at that time.

If you want to book a room that already scheduled at the same time, a Google Calendar conflict notification will appear in the Robin extension and you'll find suggested alternative spaces.

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Double booked events is a common problem in every office as a result of a lack of visibility into the office schedule. Luckily, there are easy fixes like Google Calendar settings and conference room scheduling software solutions to prevent double booking meetings.

Check out how T3 Advisors solved this issue in their own office with Robin.