Google sets a quota on the number of bookings that can be created in its calendar. As with any Google algorithm, the quota calculations are not revealed and there is no set amount of bookings after which the quota activates. Google does publish some numbers, but we have not seen any correlation between these numbers and when the quota activates.
- We have seen the quota activate with as low as 30 bookings per day when they are all done during a very short timeframe. If your activity is spread out evenly over the day, you may be able to go as high as 150 bookings per day before hitting the quota. Customers who schedule with you will see a message from ScheduleOnce alerting them that bookings cannot be accepted at this time.
- When you hit the Google Calendar quota, you will not be able to accept bookings for any Booking pages attached to that User and Google Calendar account for up to 24 hours. This operates on a rolling 24-hour window, so exactly 24 hours after activity took place, that activity is no longer counted toward the quota.
- This means that if many appointments were booked at 3 PM yesterday, you must wait until 3 PM today for these bookings to no longer count toward the quota. At that time, your customers might be able to book normally again. However, if a number of appointments are immediately created soon after, the quota might be hit again, until the next time the rolling 24-hour window moves past activity made exactly 24 hours previously.
When planning your setup, it is important to consider the following guidelines in order to prevent hitting the Google Calendar quota:
Use Users and not calendar sharing: If your Google Calendar is connected to ScheduleOnce and you are accepting bookings for people who share their calendar with you, any bookings they receive will be treated by Google as if they were received by your Google Calendar account and will count towards your Google Calendar quota. To avoid this situation, create each team member as a OnceHub User in the system so they can connect their calendar directly.
Split the load when using sub-calendars: If you are accepting bookings for multiple booking pages by using sub-calendars in your Google Calendar account, you may be getting a large amount of bookings. In this case, you can create another User account in OnceHub and connect it with another Google Calendar account. You can then use pooled availability with automatic assignment to distribute the booking load between the two calendar accounts.
If you have already hit the quota, you have the following options:
- Adjust your setup as described above. If you would like to consult with us on the optimal configuration changes, please contact us.
- Disconnect from Google Calendar and work without a connected calendar. When you work without a connection to Google Calendar, there is no quota and you can accept as many bookings as you like.
Learn more about the differences between working with vs working without a connected calendar