Overview
Calendly allows you to enable overlapping bookings by adding meeting exceptions within an event type’s Free/Busy rules. This feature requires a connected calendar that is set to be checked for conflicts. Exceptions are based on matching event titles found on your connected calendar.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Connect and Verify Calendar Sync
- Go to your Calendar Sync page.
- Ensure at least one calendar is connected and checked for conflicts. This is required for overlapping meetings to work.
- Open Your Event Type Settings
- Edit the event you want to allow overlaps for.
- Select More Options.
- Open Free/Busy Rules
- Select the Free/Busy rules dropdown to access overlap settings.
- Add a Meeting Exception
- Select (+ Add meeting exception).
- Choose How to Match Titles
- Use the dropdown to select Includes or Matches exactly to control how Calendly looks for event titles on your connected calendar.
- Enter the Title to Ignore
- Type the calendar event title you want Calendly to allow booking over, then select Apply.
- Calendly will list the detected matching meetings, and those will be bookable over for this event type.
- (Optional) Allow Calendly-over-Calendly Overlaps
- You can also allow an event type to book over other Calendly meetings.
- If an overlap occurs, you’ll see a notification in your New Event email for visibility.
Key Notes & Limitations
- A connected calendar must be checked for conflicts or overlapping meetings will not work.
- Exceptions are driven by titles that exist on your connected calendar in the future; if the title isn’t present on your calendar, it cannot be selected or detected.
- Includes finds any calendar events whose titles contain your text; Matches exactly requires an exact title match. If Matches exactly returns no results, try Includes.
- After you apply an exception, all events shown in the “x meetings” list become eligible to be booked over for that event type.
- When overlapping Calendly meetings, you’ll receive an overlap notice in the New Event email rather than a hard block.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: My event still can’t book over the calendar block I added as an exception. What should I check?
A: Confirm the calendar with those blocks is connected and set to be checked for conflicts, verify the target titles actually exist on your future calendar dates, and try switching from Matches exactly to Includes before adding the exception. If it still fails, use the booking page Troubleshooting view to see whether the time is blocked by Calendar or another rule, and then contact support with screenshots.
Q: Can I run a paid group session at the same time as my regular 1:1s?
A: Yes. Create a Group Event with a capacity greater than one, and separately use Overlapping Meetings to have your 1:1 event ignore the group event’s title (and vice versa) so both can be booked concurrently. Each would have its own booking page.
Q: Can I allow two bookings for the same time slot using just one booking link?
A: You can approximate this by using a Group Event and setting the maximum number of slots to two so two invitees can pick the same time from a single page.
Q: How do I contact support if overlaps still don’t work after setup?
A: Email support@calendly.com. Paid accounts can also use in-app chat to request a live screen share for troubleshooting.
