Set Up Table Bookings
Bookings lets your own guests book a table from a link you control: on your website, your Google profile, Instagram or a QR code on a flyer. Every booking lands in your dashboard and, when the guest is a member, on their loyalty card. It is included in every plan, and there is no fee per guest or per booking.
It is made for the regulars you already have. It is not a marketplace: guests see your name and your colours, nobody else's.
Switch bookings on
1. Open Bookings in the sidebar. On your first visit you see Take bookings from your own guests. Click Set up bookings. 2. If you have several shops, pick the shop under Location. Each shop has its own bookings and its own link. 3. Check the Timezone. It is pre-filled and marked as suggested for this location. Seatings and reminders follow this clock. 4. Under Services, click Add service for each part of the day you take bookings, for example Lunch and Dinner. For each one set the Days, the First seating, the Last seating and the number of Seats. Seats are guests at the table at the same time, not tables. Two services on the same day can't overlap. 5. Under Party sizes, lead time and cancellations, set the Largest party that books online. Bigger parties, up to Largest party that can ask, send a request that you answer yourself. Choose Confirm automatically or I confirm each one for When someone books. A seated booking counts as a visit on a member's card unless you switch off Count seated guests as a visit in the same section. 6. Under Email me about new bookings, add the address that should hear about every new booking. Under Phone for alerts, add a mobile number with the country code if you want a text about same-day bookings. 7. Click Switch on.
The page then opens on Today. The three tabs, Today, Settings and Share, sit under the heading, with a line under the one you are on. The Share tab has your link, your website code and your table card. Once bookings are on, the switch at the top of Settings reads Taking bookings: turn it off to stop new bookings, and existing ones stay. You can come back to Settings at any time and click Save after a change.
Find your way around Settings
The top bar of Settings holds the Location picker and the Taking bookings switch. Under it, every part is a section you open and close: Timezone, Services, How long a table is held, Party sizes, lead time and cancellations, What to ask guests, Card offered after booking, Closed days and special hours and Messages. A closed section shows an icon and a two-line summary of what is set now, so you can check everything without opening it.
- Related fields sit on one row with an example sentence under them, for example: "Guests can book 1 to 6 people instantly. Groups of 7 to 10 send a request you confirm. Bigger groups are asked to call". Read it as your guests would.
- Each service is a row with Edit; Add service adds another.
- Save sits at the top of the page, next to the Taking bookings switch. On a phone it sits in the bar above the bottom navigation. Once you change something, Unsaved changes appears next to it until you save, and leaving the page asks first.
- If a save fails, the section the problem belongs to opens by itself and shows what to fix.
Services, seats and how long a table is held
A guest can book a time when your seats are free for the whole time their table is held. Under How long a table is held you list party sizes from smallest to largest, for example up to 2 guests for 90 minutes and anything larger for 2 hours. Time between bookable slots is 15 or 30 minutes. The optional Bookings per time slot limit stops everyone arriving in the same quarter of an hour.
Staff can always add a booking by hand, even over capacity. Only online guests are held to your limits.
What to ask guests
Under What to ask guests, name and party size are always asked and an email is always required for online bookings, because that is where the confirmation goes and how a guest is matched to their loyalty card. The phone number is your choice: switch it on and it is required, untick Required to make it optional, or switch it off to leave it off the form altogether. You can also ask for the occasion, a birthday and dietary needs. Fewer questions mean more bookings. Right under it, Card offered after booking decides which loyalty card guests are offered once they have booked: it shows on the confirmation screen and in the email, and a guest who already holds one of your cards is linked to it, so their visit history and no-shows land on the right card. Automatic picks the card with a sign-up link at this venue, otherwise your oldest stamp, point or level card. Pick another card from the list to change that. Coupons, memberships, prepaid cards and cards that need a sign-up code are never offered, and if the card you chose is later unpublished, the page quietly goes back to Automatic.
Messages and closed days
- Messages: guests always get a booking email. Turn on Text guests a reminder only if you want to spend SMS credits on it (how SMS works); it never reaches the US, and Belgian (+32) numbers can't receive SMS yet. The wallet and email reminders are free.
- Booking policy: a sentence shown to guests as they book, such as your no-show rule.
- Closed days and special hours: holidays, private events and days with their own hours. Guests can't book a closed date, and on a special day they see only the times you set (see below).
Holidays and special hours
In Closed days and special hours, Add special day sets one date with its own hours. Tick the services that run, change their First seating, Last seating or Seats, and add a note such as "New Year's Eve". A day with no service ticked is closed. Guests see only those times, and Today shows "Special hours today" on that date. Existing bookings stay as they are.
Repeat no-shows
Under Party sizes, lead time and cancellations, Block online booking after repeated no-shows stops online bookings from a guest with 2, 3 or 5 no-shows in the last 90, 180 or 365 days. The guest is asked to call you and is never told why. Staff can always add the booking. To lift it, restore the no-show on their booking.
What is not in this version
There is no deposit or card guarantee and there are no table plans yet: you hold seats, not named tables. You can still write a table name on a booking.