Question

Adding and removing blocks to Google Calendar

  • 22 March 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 61 views

Userlevel 1

Is there a way to create a zap that would add calendar blocks across a 6-month period, and remove them if needed later? We have several people scheduling sessions and need to ensure none of us book the same time slot on any given day. Each customer gets 7 meetings over a 6-month period. Manually blocking the times we’ve offered our customers, while awaiting their confirmation, is time consuming - and then, if different times are needed, we have to go in and delete all the blocks and start over. I just wanted to confirm there isn’t a Zapier way to do this!

 

Perhaps a zap from Google Sheets where we enter dates/times and some sort of trigger word? Calendly could also be an option, if that would work, but we already have dates in a spreadsheet so that would be the easiest approach.


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4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @Alyson!

There might be a way to accomplish something like this, but I’d honestly recommend using a tool that’s built for this exact use case, that then syncs with Google Calendar automatically. Something like Calendly, as you mentioned.

You also mentioned Google Sheets, and although that could work I’d much prefer using Airtable. A few reasons:

  • It acts more like a database, and has more options available.
  • It has its own automations built in, which could be helpful.
  • You can create forms, which could serve as the booking mechanism.

Depending on your familiarity with Airtable, the following may not be very clear. Just for demo purpose, though:

Here’s an example of a form that’s limiting the dates a person can choose to the filtered view I set up, that will only show dates that are not booked:

 

And then an automation in Airtable that updates the record when someone books it, so nobody else will see it in the form:

 

For the Google Calendar part, you could use Airtable automations or use Zapier with the Airtable integration. Totally up to you, but if you already pay for Zapier it would save your Airtable automations (you get 100 runs per month on the free plan).

Hopefully that helps!

Userlevel 1

Thanks, I’m intrigued! I’m somewhat familiar with Airtable as a database, and their forms, though haven’t used this type of functionality before. How is this set up originally? As a calendar? We’d need it to see the events on our Google Calendar and not offer those time blocks. Trying to play around with this in Airtable, but failing! 😅

Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Hi @Alyson 

Good question!

Here are few links you may check to see how you can use Airtable as Calendar.

Let me know if you need further assistance! 😊

Userlevel 1

Thank you!