1+2 Multi-staff scheduling in Microsoft Bookings

Hi @Martin, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Microsoft Bookings now supports multi-staff appointments, allowing you to assign multiple staff members to a service and require that all selected staff be available for a booking to proceed. However, it does not currently support the specific scenario you described, where one staff member (A) must always be present, and the others (B and C) are optional depending on availability. 

As a workaround, you can create separate services for each possible combination: 

• Service 1: A + B + C (when all three are available) 
• Service 2: A + B (when only A and B are available) 
• Service 3: A + C (when only A and C are available) 

Each service should use the “Assign all of your selected staff” option. This setup allows customers to book based on availability, but it does require manual selection and may cause some confusion for users. 

Microsoft has acknowledged this as a frequently requested feature, and community discussions show that this limitation affects many organizations needing flexible staff assignments. While the workaround requires more setup and maintenance, it provides a way to match your operational needs within the current capabilities of Microsoft Bookings. 

Personally, I believe your question highlights a valuable feature that Microsoft Bookings could improve in the future to enhance flexibility in staff scheduling. However, as a forum moderator, I hope you understand that I don’t have the ability to modify or escalate product issues directly. 

I strongly recommend submitting your feedback via the Bookings · Community 

This is the official portal where your input goes directly to the product team and can be considered for future improvements. Here’s a sample message you can use or adapt:    

In Microsoft Bookings, I’d like to create a service with three staff members where one (Staff A) must always be assigned to the booking, and the other two (Staff B and C) can be optionally included based on availability. Ideally, the booking should automatically assign A + B + C, or A + B, or A + C depending on who is available. Currently, this setup isn’t supported. It would be great to have conditional staff assignment or grouped availability logic to support more flexible scheduling scenarios. 

Thank you for considering this feature! 

Once you've posted your feedback, feel free to share the link in the comments here. I’ll be happy to vote for it to help bring more visibility. In the meantime, I’ll also do my best to raise awareness of this issue internally. 

If my response has helped clarify the concern and guide you toward a possible next step, please consider marking it as the Accepted Answer. This will pin the post to the top and make it easier for others in the community who may be facing the same question to find your feedback and support it. 

Thank you again for your understanding and contribution.

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