Take a phone booking

Open the form

Every way in opens the same form, Take a booking:

• New booking in the side menu, from any screen. On the service screen it opens over the night you are looking at; anywhere else, as a page of its own.
• A free table on the Floor map tab: the form opens on that table.
• An open square on the Calendar tab: the form opens on that table, at that time.

Take the booking

1. Under The booking, set Date and Guests, and under How it came in choose Phone.
2. Under Time, tap a time. The times are grouped by service, and a time that cannot be booked says why on it.
3. To give them more or less time than usual, move How long they have the table, under the time you chose.
4. Under The guest, fill in Name, Email and Phone. All three are needed, except a walk-in’s email when Ask walk-ins for an email is unticked in Settings › General; Requests is optional.
5. Press Book. Once a time is chosen, the button also shows the start, the end and the number of guests, so you can read it back to the guest.

A message at the bottom of the screen confirms the booking, with its reference, and Open opens it. On the New booking page, the confirmation stays on the page and the form empties for the next call.

Phone, walk-in or staff

What you choose under How it came in stays on the booking: Phone when the guest called, Walk-in when they are at the door, Staff for any other booking your team types in. The booking popup says it at its foot — taken over the phone, for example — and Insights shows where your guests come from.

Guests you already know

On Pro and Enterprise, typing two letters or more of a name in Name lists your recent guests with that name, with their contact and their visits. Press Use: the booking goes on their record, and their email and phone fill any empty box.

That list only looks through your most recent guests. To find anyone in the book, type their full email address or phone number in Name instead. If nobody matches, fill in the email and the phone and press Add to the book: their record is made first, and the booking goes on it.

On every plan, an email or a phone number that already belongs to a guest in your book puts the booking on that guest’s record, and the message that confirms the booking says whose.

When a time is full

A time with no free table that fits says no table and cannot be pressed: try another time, another number of guests or another date. If a whole date has nothing to offer, the form says why — no service that day, no tables yet, the day closed, too far ahead — and, where a setting is the cause, links to it.

Opened on a table, the form only offers the times that table can take. Switch on Any table, at the top, to let any free table that fits take the booking instead.

With pacing set up (Pro and Enterprise), a time where pacing is full says pacing full but can still be pressed. Press Book: if the house may seat through it, the form asks first, and a ticked box says: Pacing is full at this time. Book again to seat them anyway — it is recorded as an override. If pacing is set so that not even the house may go over it, the booking is refused.

A big party

The smallest and largest party in Settings › General are what guests can book online. Your team can book any number here: Guests goes from one to every seat on the floor.

When no table or combination seats the party, the form says so and opens Join tables. Pick the tables to put together: once they seat everyone, the times those tables are all free show, and the booking holds every one of them. Switch Join tables on yourself to choose the tables for any party.

A booking on joined tables keeps them when you move it to another time, as long as they are all free then.

What the guest receives

If Confirmation is on in Settings › Messaging, the guest is emailed a confirmation with a private link to their booking. If Reminder is on too, a reminder goes out before the meal — but not for a booking made less than 24 hours ahead.

On every tablet, the booking is on the guestlist, the floor map and the calendar of its night straight away.