Understanding Round Robin Scheduling

Round robin scheduling is a method of distributing appointments evenly among a group of team members. It ensures that hosting responsibilities are shared fairly, helping balance workload and preventing any single person from being overwhelmed with appointments.

The Round Robin Queue

In meetergo, both collective and round robin Meeting Types use a round robin queue. A queue member can be an individual user or a group of users. How the queue behaves depends on the Round Robin Mode you choose.

Round Robin Modes

meetergo offers two round robin modes that control how hosts are assigned to bookings:

Maximize Availability

1. On the booking page, the combined availability of all hosts is shown. Any slot where at least one host is available appears as bookable.
2. Hosts rotate in order — each new booking goes to the next host in line. After being assigned a booking, the host moves to the back of the queue.
3. If the next host in line is not available for the booked time slot, they are skipped and the next available host is assigned instead.
4. If a group is next in line, all group members become hosts. All group members must be available for the time slot, otherwise the system moves to the next queue member.

This mode shows the maximum number of available time slots on the booking page, making it easy for attendees to find a suitable time. However, because all hosts' availability is shown but only one is assigned per booking, hosts with more availability tend to receive more bookings than others.

Host Priority

You can assign priority levels (1–3 stars) to individual hosts. Higher-priority hosts are booked first when they are available for the requested time slot.

• ⭐ = low priority, ⭐⭐⭐ = highest priority
• Hosts without any stars have no priority (default) and are considered last
• When multiple hosts share the same priority level, the system falls back to the standard rotation (least recently booked first)
• Priority only affects the selection order — it does not change which time slots are shown on the booking page

Example: You have three hosts — Alice (⭐⭐⭐), Bob (⭐), and Carol (no stars). When a slot is booked where all three are available, Alice is assigned first. If Alice is unavailable, Bob gets the booking. Carol is only assigned when neither Alice nor Bob is available.

How to Set Host Priority

1. Open your round robin Meeting Type
2. Go to the Host tab
3. Make sure Maximize availability mode is selected
4. Next to each host, click the star icons to set their priority level (1–3)
5. Save your changes

Load Balancing (previously: Equal Distribution)

1. The system counts how many bookings each host has received within the current distribution period (day, week, or month — default: month).
2. Hosts who are too far ahead on bookings (configurable via Max booking lead, default: 3) are hidden from the booking page until others catch up.
3. On the booking page, the combined availability of the remaining hosts is shown.
4. When someone books a slot, the host with the fewest bookings who is available at that time is automatically assigned.
5. When a booking is cancelled, the host's booking count is reduced so they are not penalized for cancellations.

Load Balancing Settings

• Distribution period (day / week / month): Controls how bookings are counted. At the start of each period, counts reset to zero. Default: month.
• Max booking lead: The maximum number of bookings a host can be ahead of the least-booked host. If a host exceeds this, their availability is hidden until others catch up. Default: 3.
• Prioritize near-term availability: When on, if the fairness filter would push the next available slot more than 2 weeks past the minimum booking notice, all hosts are shown temporarily until an earlier slot is booked. Turn off only if strict fairness is more important to you than near-term availability. Default: on.

Prioritize Near-Term Availability — How It Works

The fairness filter (Max booking lead) is designed to keep bookings evenly distributed. But if the hosts it leaves visible all happen to be booked up for the near term (for example, they're in a busy stretch), the earliest slot shown on the booking page can end up weeks out — even when hosts hidden by the filter are free much sooner. This setting is a safety valve for that situation:

• On (default): if the filtered earliest slot is more than 2 weeks past the minimum booking notice, hidden hosts are temporarily re-included so bookers see the earlier availability. The next booking goes to whoever is fewest-booked among those actually free for the chosen slot, so fairness continues to be enforced across bookings over time.
• Off: the fairness filter is always obeyed, even if that pushes the next available slot far into the future.

Using Buffers and Limits for Workload Control

If you have meeting types with different durations (e.g., small, medium, and large packages), you can use buffers and host meeting limits to prevent hosts from being overloaded:

• Buffer after (Meeting Options): Set a buffer time after each meeting. For example, an 8-hour buffer after a large package meeting effectively blocks the rest of the day for that host.
• Host meeting limits (User Settings): Set a maximum number of meetings per day per host. This works across all meeting types and prevents any single host from having too many meetings in one day.

When to use load balancing:

• You need bookings split evenly across team members (e.g., 20 bookings across 4 hosts = ~5 each)
• Fair workload distribution matters and you don't need attendees to pick a specific host
• Priority stars (for steering bookings to senior reps) are not required

When to use maximize availability:

• You want to use priority stars to direct bookings to specific hosts first
• Your team members have significantly different availability and you want to keep every bookable slot visible
• Attendees should be able to pick a host

How to Change the Round Robin Mode

1. Open your round robin Meeting Type
2. Go to the Host tab
3. In the Round Robin section, find the Round Robin Mode setting
4. Select either "Maximize availability" or "Load balancing"
5. Save your changes

Host Selection History

To provide transparency in the host selection process, you can see the Host Selection History. This shows the reasons behind each host assignment:

In maximize availability mode:

• Assigned as the next host: The host was the next person in the rotation and was available.
• Skipped ahead: The next host in line was unavailable, so another available host was assigned instead.
• Chosen by the attendee: The attendee selected this host (when host selection is enabled).

In load balancing mode:

• Next host in rotation: The host had the fewest bookings in the current period and was free for the booked slot.
• Skipped ahead in rotation: The host with the fewest bookings was not free for the booked slot, so the system assigned the next least-booked host who was available.

This history helps you understand the distribution of appointments and verify that the rotation is working as intended.

Tips and Best Practices

1. Choose the right mode: Use "Maximize availability" when you want priority stars or attendee host selection. Use "Load balancing" when fair workload distribution is your priority.
2. Use priority to direct bookings: In "Maximize availability" mode, set priority stars on your most experienced or preferred hosts. They will receive bookings first, with lower-priority hosts acting as backup when the preferred hosts are unavailable.
3. Equalize Availability: In both modes, hosts with similar availability get the best results. In maximize availability mode, hosts with more availability get more bookings. In load balancing mode, hosts with lumpy availability can end up taking a larger share once they're available again — pair with per-host booking limits to smooth this out.
4. Add More Hosts: Adding more users to the round robin queue expands the pool of available time slots, increasing the chances of finding suitable meeting times.
5. Use Groups Strategically: Create groups for team members who often work together or have complementary skills. When a group is selected, all members become hosts for that appointment.
6. Review Regularly: Check the Host Selection History periodically to ensure appointments are being distributed as desired. If you notice imbalances, adjust availability, priority, or queue order.
7. Keep Availability Up to Date: Encourage all hosts to keep their availability current. This prevents unnecessary skips in the queue and ensures smooth scheduling.