Table booking

Switch it on

1. 01Go to Table booking › Settings in the dashboard, and switch table booking on.
2. 02Create a service under Services — for example dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 17.30 to 23.00.
3. 03Create your rooms and tables under Tables.
4. 04Share the link to the booking page — it is under Settings once table booking is switched on.

Services and closed days

A service is the days and the hours you take guests: how often there is a time, how long a table is taken, and when the last table can be booked. A party of six can get longer than a table for two. Caps on the number of bookings and guests are set per service or per time, and so is how short a notice a guest can book at. How far ahead guests can book, you set under Settings.

Closed days you set under Closed days: a whole day, a holiday or a window of time — the staff meeting on Tuesday from 17 to 18. A special day, such as Christmas Eve, can have its own service that replaces the usual one.

Tables and the plan

Every table has a name, how few and how many it can take, and the room it stands in. Tables that can be pushed together you create as a combination. A table or a room can be «only you»: it cannot be booked online, but you can still seat guests at it.

Under Tables you also draw the plan: drag the tables to where they stand, or pick a table and move it with the arrow keys. A table's size comes from how many it can take; you choose only whether it is round or long, and whether it is turned. The plan is saved only when you press Save plan, and two tables on top of each other cannot be saved.

How the guest books

The guest picks a day and a party size and sees the times when there is a table. The system gives them the smallest table that fits; if there are tables of the same size in several rooms, they get one in the room you use first. The confirmation arrives by email with a link to the guest's own page, where the table can be moved or cancelled.

You can ask up to 10 questions the guest answers when they book: a line of text, a choice between a few options or a box to tick. The answer is saved together with the question as it was worded, so a question can be edited or removed without changing old bookings.

If the time is taken, the guest can put their name on the waiting list. When a table comes free, the next person in the queue whom the table fits gets an email with a link to book it. The table is not held — the first to book gets it — but for 30 minutes nobody else on the waiting list is written to about the same table. The waiting list is on the evening's list, and with Book you enter the guest without typing them in again.

Reminders and confirmation

Under Settings you choose when the guest gets a reminder before the table, and whether guests are asked to confirm one, two or three days before. A guest who does not answer does not lose their table — you simply see who has confirmed, and can call the rest.

The evening

Bookings shows the evening three ways: as a list with allergies and notes beside the name, the tables on a timeline, and on the plan, where every table says whether it is free, booked, getting guests within the hour, or whether the guests have arrived. From the list you mark that guests have arrived, been seated, left or not turned up, and with Move you give a party another time, day or other tables.

Phone bookings and walk-ins are entered with New booking. If the system says the time is full or the table is too small, it is a warning you can book past. Why full? shows, for a day and a party size, which times a guest online would be refused, and why.

The guest book

Every guest who books goes into the guest book under Guests, with visits, no-shows, next table, allergies and your notes. A guest can be given a warning that stands beside the name on the evening's list. If a guest asks to be deleted, you delete them from their profile once they have no table still to come.

Plans

The prices exclude VAT, and everything is in every plan. A booking counts when it is not cancelled or declined — a no-show counts too — and it counts in the month its evening falls in. If you get more bookings than the plan holds, no guest is turned away: when the month is 80 % full, the owner gets an email, and again when it is full, and the plan changes only when you press the button yourselves.

Move from another system

Under Table booking › Settings you bring the bookings in from a file from resOS, DinnerBooking or easyTable. You see first what will be brought in; tables are matched by name, the guests go into the guest book, and nobody gets an email. If you run the same file again, nothing is added on top. The whole diary can also be downloaded as a file.

Deposits and no-show fees

Under Services you choose for each service whether the guest pays a deposit when they book, or leaves a card that is only charged for a no-show. The amount applies per person or per booking, and can apply only from a certain party size. The shop has to be connected to Stripe before a service can ask for money.

The cancellation deadline can be always free, from 2 hours to 14 days before, or never. The guest sees the amount and the rule on the booking page and in the confirmation. If the guest cancels before the deadline, the deposit is refunded automatically and the card is not charged; if the guest cancels after the deadline, you keep the deposit, or the fee is charged. If you mark a guest as a no-show, the fee is charged to the card. If you cancel the table yourselves, it is always refunded, and if you undo a no-show, a fee already charged goes back.

While the guest pays, the table is held for 30 minutes. If the guest does not pay, the table is released, and the booking does not count towards the plan. The evening's list shows what has been paid or charged; with Refund the owner gives the money back, and a card that declined the fee can be tried again with Charge the fee again.

Large parties

Under Table booking › Settings you can take requests from parties larger than your services take online, and set how many guests a request may be for. The guest then sends a request from the booking page with the day, the time they would like, the number of guests and a message. A request holds no table and does not count towards the plan until you have said yes.

The requests are under Bookings. With Accept you choose a time and tables — if the evening is full, the system says so and you can accept anyway — and the guest gets an ordinary confirmation. With Decline you can write a few words that the guest gets in the email. If there is no answer by the time the evening begins, the request is closed and the guest is told.

Payment link for phone bookings

If you take a phone booking for a service with a deposit or a fee, you can send the guest a payment link by email instead of booking without payment. You choose how long the guest has to pay — 1, 6 or 24 hours, but never later than the table. The link opens the guest's own booking page, where they pay. If the guest does not pay in time, the table is released and both the guest and you are told. A payment link needs the guest's email address and cannot be sent to a walk-in.

Guests' ratings

Under Table booking › Settings you turn on «Ask the guests how it was» and choose whether the guest is asked 2 hours after the table or the next morning at 10. Only guests you have marked as arrived, seated or left are asked, and only once. The email has a scale from 1 to 5, and the guest can also rate the food, the service, the atmosphere and the price and write a comment.

The guest can answer for 30 days and correct their answer for 24 hours. The answers are on the evening's list, in the guest book and in the report under Guests' ratings. If a guest gives 2 or less, the owner and the managers get an email the same day, and if the guest has said yes to a reply, you can write back with Reply to the guest.

Messages and the day's overview

Under Table booking › Settings each member of staff chooses in Your messages what they want to be told about — new bookings, cancellations and requests from large parties — and how: by email, as a push notification on the device they turn it on on, or both. The messages can be limited to parties of 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 guests or more and to cancellations within 2, 6, 24 or 48 hours before the table, and each person chooses whether they also want to hear about bookings a colleague has made. Nobody is told about something they did themselves, and the bookkeeper gets no messages about guests.

The day's overview is an email in the morning on days with bookings, at the time the member of staff chooses between 6 and 12 o'clock: how many are coming, by service and by hour, and what has to be in place before the door opens.

Without a connection

The dashboard keeps the latest copy of the evenings a member of staff has had open on the device. If the connection drops, Bookings opens with the saved list and says when it is from. Everything that changes something is hidden while the connection is gone, so two members of staff do not move the same party in different directions — but the list can be read and printed, and it fetches itself again as soon as the connection is back. Logging out deletes the saved list from the device.

The booking page on your own website

The same line that puts the gift card on your website can also open the booking page. Put data-booking on a link or a button, and table booking opens on top of your own page — in the guest's language with data-locale. If the service asks for a deposit, the browser switches over to Stripe when the guest pays, just as with a gift card. If the button in the corner should not sell gift cards, data-button="off" turns it off.

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