Tables and Floor Plan for Bookings

By default, Bookings counts seats: each service has a number of seats, and your team seats people where they fit. If you would rather work with the tables you really have, switch a shop to Use my tables. Guests then only see times when a table fits their group, every booking gets a table, and staff can see the room on Today.

You choose this for each shop, so one shop can count seats while another uses tables.

Switch a shop to tables

1. Open Bookings → Settings → Tables. (On Today, owners and admins of a shop that counts seats also see a tip, Give every booking a table, with Set up tables.)
2. Under How should we decide when you are full?, pick Use my tables. Count seats is the other choice and the default.
3. Add your tables (see below). You need at least one before you can save.
4. Read the notice What changes when you save. It says how your upcoming bookings are affected: how many get a table, and how many don't fit any table yet.
5. Click Save.

Nothing is cancelled. Bookings that fit no table stay booked and show No table on Today, so you can place them yourself. If your team typed a table note on a booking before, a note that matches a table name, like "T4", puts the booking at that table. Other notes, like "window", stay on the booking as they were.

Areas and tables

Tables live in areas, such as Main room or a terrace. Click + Add area to add one and give it a name.

For each table you set:

• Table name: short, up to 12 characters, like T1. Each table needs its own name.
• Fits: the fewest and the most people it seats, for example 2–4. Guests are only offered a table that fits their group.
• Who can book it: Guests online and staff, or Staff only. A staff-only table never shows up on your booking page, but your team can still use it.
• Can join with: one other table in the same area. Joined tables are used only when no single table fits the group. For example, two tables for 4 can seat a booking of 6 or 7.

To add tables quickly, click + Add several tables of one size, say how many, and click Add. Use the menu on a table row to duplicate or remove it. If another shop already has the layout you need, click Copy tables from another shop.

An area can also be set to Walk-ins and staff only. Guests never book it online, but staff can still put a booking there from Today.

Let guests choose where to sit

Guests never see table numbers. They can, however, choose an area, if you let them.

When two or more areas can be booked online, switch on Let guests choose where to sit. On your booking page guests then see Where would you like to sit? and pick No preference or one of the areas. The name they see is the one you type under Shown to guests when they choose where to sit (for example "Inside, by the window"), or the area name if you leave it empty. Two areas guests can book can't share a name.

With only one area bookable online, guests just pick a time and we choose the table.

If no table fits a guest's group on a day, the booking page says so and offers to send a request instead, so you can still say yes.

Draw your floor plan

The floor plan is optional. Until you draw it, Floor on Today shows your tables in rows.

1. Save your tables first.
2. In Settings → Tables, click Draw floor plan (later, Edit floor plan).
3. Add what is in the room: Round table, Square table, Long table, Wall, Counter or bar, Door.
4. Drag each table to where it stands. It doesn't have to be exact. You can also move a selected table with the arrow keys.
5. Tap a table to change its name, seats or Shape, or to turn it with Turn 90°.
6. Click Done.

Line up again puts every table back in rows. It asks first, because your drawing is lost.

Drawing is easier on a tablet or computer than on a phone. Where tables stand is saved as you move them; new, renamed or removed tables are saved when you click Done.

Run service from the floor

On Today, switch List | Floor to Floor. Each table shows its state in words:

• Free
• Arriving soon
• Seated
• Past their time
• Late, not here yet
• Request (?): a request waiting for your answer suggests this table; the table stays free until you accept it.

The time chips under Show the room at are Now and the next few times of today's services; every other time is under Other time. The floor always opens on Now, so you can place bookings and seat walk-ins straight away; before service, a free table shows when its booking is, for example till 20:00. Pick a later time to see who sits where then; Back to now shows the room as it is this minute. Requests waiting for an answer sit in one line above the room, for example 2 requests waiting: Show opens them.

Tap a table to seat, finish or move a booking there. The booking list also helps:

• Place (or Tap to place here) puts a booking that has No table on a free table.
• Seat a walk-in here seats guests who just walked in: choose how many people and confirm. This works while a service is running. After the last seating, add the walk-in from the scanner app.
• No-show can be marked from 15 minutes after the booking time.

On the List view, every booking has a table chip. Tap it to change the table. If you pick a table that is already taken, the booking says so, and Use anyway lets you go ahead. On a request, the button reads Confirm at T8 (with the table's name), so you accept it and place it in one tap. A request that comes with a suggested table shows Suggested: T8; tap it, or Other table, to choose a different one.

More on the day itself: Run service from your booking book.

Who can do what

• Owners and admins choose between counting seats and using tables, change tables and areas, and draw the floor plan.
• Editors seat guests, move bookings between tables and place bookings that have No table.
• Viewers can look, but not change anything.

On the scanner app, whoever has the Can answer and add bookings permission can run the day.

Going back to Count seats

You can switch a shop back to Count seats at any time. Your tables and floor plan stay stored, so switching to Use my tables again later brings them back. Existing bookings keep their table as a label. Guests then see times based on your seats per service again.

Questions