Show travel as busy in a shared Google Calendar

Published 15 October 2026

Your team lead wants a quick video call at 14:00 and checks everyone's availability in Google Calendar™. From 13:30 to 14:30 you look free. In fact at 13:30 you'll be leaving a client across town and driving back to the office. The invitation arrives; you either join from the car or not at all.

Nobody did anything wrong. A calendar only shows what's in it; if the drive isn't in your calendar, the time is free to anyone who looks. This guide is about making the hours you spend travelling show as busy to everyone who looks at your calendar, without showing where you're going.

What other people see in your calendar

When you share a Google Calendar™ with someone, you give them a permission level:

• See only free/busy (hide details): they see when you're busy; no titles, places or descriptions.
• See all event details: they see your events' titles, places and descriptions.
• Make changes levels: they can edit your events. Of these, only "Make changes to events" with details and above see the details of private events too.

Sharing is under "Settings and sharing", from the three dots next to your calendar in the list. In a company account your colleagues usually see at least when you're busy without you doing anything; it also shows when they invite you, under "Find a time".

One thing matters most here: whatever the permission, if nothing is in your calendar, the time shows as free. The permission decides how much of a busy slot is shown; it never makes a free slot busy.

Making an event "Busy" and "Private"

Every Google Calendar™ event has two settings that concern the people who look at your calendar. They sit side by side when you edit an event:

• Busy / Free. A busy event shows the time as taken; a free one stays in the calendar but doesn't close your availability. New events start as busy.
• Visibility: Default visibility / Public / Private. Default follows your calendar's sharing. Public shows the details to anyone who can see your calendar. Private shows only a "busy" block, even to someone allowed to see details; the details are seen only by you and by people who may make changes with details, such as an assistant.

The right combination for travel: busy and private. Busy, because you really aren't available then. Private, because a travel event often carries your home address and where you're going from and to, none of which a colleague checking your calendar needs. All they need is that you're taken.

By hand: put the trip in as a busy event

Google's way to put a trip in the calendar is to get directions from the meeting's location on a computer and choose "Add to calendar"; the steps are in how to add travel time to Google Calendar. Or you create an event called "Travel" before the meeting yourself. Either way, open the event afterwards and set its visibility to "Private".

For a meeting fourteen minutes' drive away at lunchtime, a twenty-minute busy "Travel" event, parking and getting in included, keeps a colleague from pulling you into a call at that time. For the way back, do the same in reverse.

The known gaps of doing it by hand:

• The way back gets forgotten. You add the trip there; the half hour after the meeting still looks free, and it's the first to fill.
• When the meeting moves, the trip stays. Move the meeting an hour later and the old trip blocks a time you're no longer travelling, while the new one looks free.
• The trip stays for an invitation you haven't said yes to. The road to a meeting you may not go to makes your calendar look busy for nothing.

Automatically: DOFOTT's travel blocks

DOFOTT writes a travel block before and after every meeting with a location in your Google Calendar™, timed by Google Maps™ for that hour. For the people looking at your calendar, the blocks have three properties, each a deliberate decision in the product:

• Blocks are written as busy. A colleague looking at your calendar, "Find a time" and booking pages all see your travel as taken. At first blocks were written as free; that changed precisely because the road could be booked over.
• Blocks are written as private. Even if you share your calendar with every detail, the person looking sees only "busy", not your home address or where you're going. The details are seen by you and by people who may make changes with details.
• The trip to an invitation you haven't accepted is written as free. The road to a meeting you said "maybe" to, or haven't answered, stays in the calendar without blocking anyone. The moment you say "yes", it turns busy.

When the meeting moves, the blocks move; when it's deleted, they go. All three gaps of the manual way close.

Know its limits too: DOFOTT only writes to Google Calendar™. It writes no trip for a meeting with no location, or one whose location is only a Meet or Zoom link. It never declines an invitation for you or moves a meeting; it only writes its own blocks.

If an invitation comes in while you're on the road

Looking busy doesn't mean getting no invitations. The person inviting you sees you as taken under "Find a time" but can still send it; sometimes on purpose, because there is no other time. The best answer is a short one: "I'm on the road then, does 14:30 work?" When you reply "No" or "Maybe" in Google Calendar™ you can add a note or propose another time.

And one suggestion: if you do have to join a call from the car, keep it the exception. As long as your calendar shows the road truthfully, the exception stays an exception.

As a team

Everything in this guide was about one calendar. When everyone on a team puts their own travel in, "Find a time" shows the real gaps, and nobody gets called into a meeting from the car. How field teams build their day is in planning client visits; to try this with a team, apply for the pilot on the teams page.

How do I show my travel time as busy to colleagues in Google Calendar?

Put the trip in your calendar as an event, set it to Busy and its visibility to Private. Anyone who looks at your calendar then sees the time as taken, without the details. DOFOTT writes such a block before and after every meeting with a location.

Can someone I share my calendar with see the address of my travel event?

If the event is Private, no: they see only a busy block, even with permission to see event details. Only you and people who may make changes and see details, such as an assistant, see what is inside.

How does a private event look in a shared calendar?

As a plain "busy" block with no title, place or description, whatever details the person may otherwise see.

Does the trip to a meeting I haven't accepted make my calendar busy?

An event you add by hand stays busy until you change it. DOFOTT writes the trip as free while the invitation is a maybe or unanswered, and turns it busy the moment you say yes.

Google Calendar™ and Google Maps™ are trademarks of Google LLC.