A free booking page: Google Calendar can do what Calendly does

"Would Tuesday at ten work for you? No? Wednesday at two, then?" Arranging a time by email is a three-day game of ping-pong. Tools like Calendly solve it with a booking link — few people know that plain Google Calendar can do the same thing. The Appointment schedule feature builds a public page listing your open slots: send the link, the other person clicks a time that suits them, and the meeting automatically appears on both your calendar and theirs. With a free Google account you get one booking page with one meeting type — plenty for consultations or intro calls.

How to do it

1. In Google Calendar, click Create in the top left and choose Appointment schedule.
2. Set a name (e.g., "30-minute consultation"), the meeting length, and the days and times when you can be booked — say, only Tuesday and Thursday, 1–4pm.
3. In the further options, set how many days in advance people can book, and add buffer time between meetings so calls don't stack back-to-back.
4. Save, click the schedule in the calendar grid, and choose Copy link. Send that to anyone — anybody with an email address can book, no Google account required.
5. Slots where you already have something on your calendar won't be offered on the page. After a booking, both sides get an email confirmation and the meeting appears on both calendars.
6. When booking, the person fills in their name and email; you can also add a custom question to the form ("What would you like to discuss?") so you walk into the call prepared.

A typical scenario

An English tutor offers trial lessons. She used to trade four emails with every interested student before landing on a time. Now her email signature and website carry a single link: "Book a time here." Prospective students pick from the times she set up once, and she just checks her calendar each morning to see who's coming. The same trick works for a teacher's office hours with parents or for a freelancer arranging calls with clients.

What you get out of it

Arranging a time shrinks from days of correspondence to a single link. And because you're only offering times you set aside yourself, meetings stop popping up in the middle of focused work — you control your availability, not whoever reaches out first.

Related: office hours — availability with boundaries.

Pro tip

Put the booking link wherever people ask about your availability: your email signature, your social profile, your website. "Pick a time here" replaces the whole scheduling back-and-forth — and comes across as more professional than "let me know when works." Just make sure your calendar reflects reality: the booking page trusts whatever's on it, so log private blocks and reschedules honestly.