Is it rude to send someone your booking link?

It depends on who asked whom. A booking link is a courtesy to someone who wants your time and a small imposition on someone whose time you want. This answer is for freelancers, consultants and recruiters who share a booking link from Google Calendar, Outlook or TrackHeros and wonder how it lands. The set-up is in how to make a 'book time with me' link.

When is sending a booking link polite?

When the other person wants the meeting. A prospect who asked for a call, a candidate invited to interview, a client who asked "can we talk this week?": for them, a link that shows real free times and books in a minute is quicker than three emails. Recruiters and consultants with busy diaries send them all day, and many people are used to receiving them.

It also helps across time zones. Two people in London and Dubai, or Madrid and New York, can lose a day to "does 3 pm mean yours or mine?"; a page that shows times in the reader's own zone settles it. A link in your email signature offers the same courtesy without anyone asking.

When can it come across as rude?

When you are the one asking. A link in reply to nothing, or in a first message asking for someone's time, says "you do the scheduling". It lands worst with senior people, people doing you a favour, and anyone who already has an assistant managing their diary. It also lands badly when the page offers one slot a fortnight away, or times at three in the morning in their time zone.

How do you send a booking link politely?

Make it an option rather than an instruction, and give a reason for the call. Something like:

Would a 20-minute call next week work? Tuesday at 10:00 or Thursday
at 15:00 (UK time) are free on my side. If neither suits, you can
pick any time that does here: [link]

Three habits help:

• Offer two or three times in the message for people who would rather reply than click.
• Say how long the call is and what it is for, so they can judge it.
• Open the page in a private browser window first, to check it shows times worth offering.

What should a booking page show the person who opens it?

Open times in their own time zone, a short description of the call, and nothing about the rest of your diary. A page that leaks event titles, or shows times that turn out to be taken, is worse manners than any wording. TrackHeros booking pages show open times only, never titles, attendees, busy blocks or which calendars were checked, in the visitor's time zone unless you lock it to yours, in English, French, Spanish or Arabic. Free time is checked across every Google and Microsoft calendar you tick, so the times offered are free in all of them. More on the booking links page, and on what visitors can and cannot see in can people who book see my other meetings.