Real world buffer settings

Developers
1

I dont know if i am misunderstanding the settings or if there is some misunderstanding in real world cases that effect the application of the logic.

Our real world scenario:

Our team member is available to work at 10am until 14h
They want to offer 30 minutes slots with then 30 minutes afterwards for the team member to prepare for the next slot

so the available slots are
10 - 10.30
11 - 11.30
12 - 12.30
13 - 13.30

my team member will sell 4 slots

however if i place an availability 10 - 14 and a 30m duration and a buffer of 30 minutes afterwards

the customer can book

10 - 10.30
10.30 - 11
11 -11.30
11-30 - 12
12 - 12.30
12.30 - 13
13 - 13.30
(maybe also 13.30 - 14)

if the first customer books 10.30 - 11
then the next books 12 - 12.30
the last slot will be 13-13.30

My team member has only sold 3 slots and has nothing to do for the first 30 minutes.
this is not expected.
What setting can i apply to get the expected slots available.

this is how most real world people work. So while there could be flexible availability we dont want that - we want to program slots at the begining of each hour with a duration of 30 mins and a buffer afterwards of 30 mins. we dont want people to be able to book on the half hour - even if the previous slot is not yet booked.

I hope i have explained this properly.

Your solution is mathematically correct - but not a frequent or workable real world scenario.
But maybe i missed a setting?

Thanks
Matt
(At present our only solution is to book hour slots with no buffer - but that means we tell the client its an hour slot, which is incorrect - they only get 30 mins)

2

Hello Matt,

To clarify, with fixed time availability, you can define exact slots instead of giving a general range. For example, instead of setting your availability as 10:00–14:00 with a 30-minute duration, you would set:

  • 10:00–10:30

  • 11:00–11:30

  • 12:00–12:30

  • 13:00–13:30

This way, customers can only book those specific times. It prevents them from booking at 10:30, 11:30, etc.

3

ok that is a work around but requires more input from the admin and more risk of a mistake
its not a great solution
a great soulition would be for it to work as expected!
your solution is to manually do the buffer. It also means we cant offer multiple durations.

Our team members are available from 9h to 14h - we would like to offer 30 or 45 slots with a 15 minute break afterwards.

we want the first appointement to be available at 9h and the second to be offered at either 9.45 or 10
not 9.30