Google can "rate limit" calendar activity that comes from a single account, such as your booking user in Robin. This depends on how you set up your account. The limit is temporary and can have several causes. See the common causes in Google's help.
Note: this is a Google Calendar limitation, not a Robin limitation.
This error usually comes from co-working spaces or other multi-tenant environments where this happens:
Sending too many invitations or emails to external guestsIn order to prevent spamming, Google Calendar limits the number of invitations a user can send to external guests. This limit varies depending on the action, and is usually between 100-300 guests.
G Suite users can send invitations to any number of guests from their primary domain, or from secondary domains associated with their primary domain.
Here is an extreme example:
- You connect a booking account to Robin: booking@example.com
- You have 10 users in Robin on different domains, none of them on example.com
- Everyone books an event at the same time, and each invites 10 friends on different domains.
- When these users try to book their next events, they see "Rate Limit Exceeded" errors on save.
Here is another example:
Book your event after a rate limit
After your Google account's calendar hits a rate limit, the only way to book new events is to wait until the limit ends. Google manages this rate limit, so Robin cannot estimate how long it lasts. Limits usually last from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
There is one exception. If you are an admin for your organization in Robin, you can try one of the approaches below to fix the problem right away. If this is not an option, try again after the rate limit ends, and use the tips below to prevent it from happening again.
Why rate limits happen
None of the people in the example have permission to book the calendars directly. So Robin uses the booking account to create the event for everyone. Google does not know this. It sees only a single account (for example, booking@example.com) that sends invites to 210 external people (10 events x 11 invitees, including the organizer) in a short time. If this happens too often, Google applies the rate limit to prevent spam.
This does not happen when your whole company works from the same domain. Google does not treat invites between coworkers the same way.
Prevent rate limits
You have a few options. The first one is the best.
Enable impersonation
If your booking account is on the same Google domain as your users, enable impersonation in Robin. Impersonation lets people book events as themselves in Robin, not through the booking account. It needs extra permissions that multi-tenant environments do not have (for example, co-working spaces with hundreds of people on dozens of different email domains).
Add a Backup Account
For co-working spaces, you can connect a second booking account in Manage > Integrations > Google > Backup Account. After you connect it, the backup account steps in when the primary account reaches the rate limit. Robin goes back to the primary account when its limit resets.
Give both Google accounts the same access to calendars. If they differ, you are likely to see permission errors when the backup account manages events that the original booking account made.
Reduce external invitees on events
If you cannot enable impersonation (for example, in co-working) and you often hit rate limits under normal use, Robin recommends a small change for your end users.
Have tenants use Robin to book the room, not to manage their invitee lists. This reduces the number of off-domain calendar invites sent during the day. Tenants reserve the room in Robin, then invite their guests from their normal calendars.
To stop tenants from adding invitees to room reservations, use the Reservation Mode setting.
If you still often hit rate limits near the end of the day, contact the Robin support team. The team helps you configure your account to match your average workday.