Using Microsoft Bookings, the client is stating the appointment is not booking in the correct time zone

Dear @Nick Armstrong,
Welcome to Q&A forum. I understand that when someone on the West Coast books an appointment, the time shown on your side does not match the expected 3‑hour difference and instead appears only 2 hours different from your New York (Eastern) time zone.

To better assistance, could you please confirm the following:

Is the staff member’s Outlook (web) time zone set to Eastern Time (New York)?

Is the booking page currently configured to show times in the business time zone?

Does this happen with all customers in different time zones, or mainly West Coast users?

Are customers booking through a web browser, mobile device, or both?

Does the issue affect all services in Bookings or only a specific one?

Have there been any recent changes to the booking page, staff settings, or Microsoft 365 time‑zone settings?

Is this behavior new, or has it been happening for some time?

In the meantime, I recommend enabling “Always show time slots in business time zone”, which helps ensure both you and your customers always see the same appointment time.

You can check this setting by following these steps:

Open Microsoft Bookings > Select your booking page > choose Booking page > Region and time zone settings.

Confirm the Current time zone matches your business location

Turn ON “Always show time slots in business time zone”.

Select Save at the top of the page.

Once enabled, customers will see times in your business time zone regardless of where they are booking from, which helps avoid confusion when scheduling across time zones.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

I truly appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or need further clarification, please feel free to reach out. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

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In Microsoft Bookings, all times are stored and configured in the business time zone, and the self-service booking page can either:

1. Show times in the customer’s local time zone, or
2. Force all customers to see times in the business time zone.

The mismatch being seen (3-hour difference expected, 2-hour difference shown) typically happens when the booking page and/or the staff/business time zone settings are not aligned with the actual business time zone.

To avoid this:

1. Confirm the business (booking calendar) time zone
   • Open Outlook on the web for the account that owns the Bookings calendar.
   • Select the gear icon (Settings) and search for “time zone”.
   • In the Language and time zone settings, verify that the Current time zone is set to the correct business time zone (for example, Eastern Time for NYC).
   • Change it if needed and select Save. This setting controls the Bookings calendar time zone.
2. Confirm the booking page time zone behavior
   • In Microsoft 365, open Bookings.
   • In the left navigation, select Booking page.
   • Select Change language and time zone settings.
   • Verify the time zone is set correctly for the business.
   • Check the option related to time zone display on the self-service page:
     • If Always show time slots in business time zone is unchecked, customers see times in their own local time zone.
     • If it is checked, customers see all times in the business time zone.
   • Choose the behavior that matches the scheduling expectation and select OK.
3. Explain to customers how times are shown
   • If allowing local-time display (recommended for cross–time zone bookings), inform customers that the page shows times in their local time zone, while the business calendar always shows them in the business time zone.

Once both the Outlook time zone (for the booking calendar) and the Bookings page regional settings are correct and consistent, appointments booked from different time zones will map correctly to the business’s calendar and avoid the 2‑vs‑3 hour offset issue.

References:

• Set language and time zones in Microsoft Bookings
• Shared Bookings Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)