How to create an availability poll

Step 1: title and range

Give the poll a title people will recognise in a chat — "Ben's leaving dinner", not "Availability". Add a short note if the plan needs context, like a location or a rough budget, so people are not clicking a bare link with no idea what they are agreeing to.

Then set the date range. Include every date you would accept and nothing you would not; a range with dead dates in it makes the results harder to read and slows people down as they scroll past options that were never realistic.

Step 2: time slots, if you need them

If a whole day is too coarse, add time slots to individual dates — up to eight per day. Participants then answer each slot separately, which is useful when a plan genuinely depends on morning versus evening.

Leave slots off if the day is the real question; every extra option costs response rate, since each slot is one more decision a participant has to make before they can submit.

Step 3: share the public link

Creating the poll gives you two links. The public one goes to your group — paste it into the chat or send it directly. The private organizer link stays with you: it controls the poll, shows contact details submitted alongside answers, and should never be pasted into the group chat by mistake.

It helps to say, in the same message as the link, what happens next and by when — "mark what you can do by Sunday and I'll book the winner" gets more complete answers than the link on its own.

Step 4: read and close

The results page ranks the dates by availability and shows the full grid, including who marked maybe on each date. Ranking is a starting point, not a verdict — check who is missing from the top date before you announce it.

When you have enough answers, close the poll so nobody responds to a decision that has already been made, and announce the date somewhere permanent, like a calendar invite or a pinned message.

Optional settings worth knowing about

• A deadline that closes the poll automatically, so you do not have to remember to do it manually.
• A note field participants can use to explain a maybe, without needing to message you separately.
• CSV export of the raw responses, useful if you need to share the data with someone who was not part of the poll.
• A print-friendly view of the results, handy for a printed itinerary or a board pack.