Reservations
Reservations hold a table for a party at a set time, and keep a waitlist for walk-ins when the floor is full. Staff take bookings from the admin dashboard, the POS register or the captain handheld, and seat them on the floor when the party arrives. This page is for the manager who sets reservations up and the hosts who run them.
Switching reservations on
Section titled “Switching reservations on”Reservations belong to the fine dine service style. Open the outlet, go to its Order Flow (POS/KDS) section, choose Fine dine (table service) and turn on Reservations. Three settings sit beside the switch:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default turn (minutes) | How long a booking holds its table, 15 to 360 minutes. A table can override it in Floor & Tables |
| Reservation hold (minutes) | How long before and after the booking time the table shows as reserved and the booking counts as due, 5 to 60 minutes |
| Default waitlist quote (minutes) | The wait quoted to a walk-in unless staff change it |
Bookings are matched to tables, so set up the outlet’s tables — with seat counts — in Floor & Tables first.
The Reservations screen
Section titled “The Reservations screen”The dashboard screen shows one day at a time, in the outlet’s own time zone, grouped the way a host reads a book:
| Group | Bookings in it |
|---|---|
| Due | Inside the hold window around their booking time — the party should be arriving |
| Late | Past the hold window and not yet seated |
| Upcoming | Later in the day |
| Seated | At their table now |
| Waitlist | Walk-ins waiting for a table |
Filter by Status (requested, confirmed, seated) and Section. Each row shows the time, guest, status, section, where the booking was taken (Source) and how long it holds the table (Duration). Export CSV downloads the day.
Creating and editing a booking
Section titled “Creating and editing a booking”Choose Create reservation and fill in Guest name, Phone, Party size, Date and time, an optional Section (or Any section) and Notes. The booking is given a table with enough seats that is free for the whole of its duration. If no table fits, or the time is outside the outlet’s hours, the booking is refused with the reason.
A phone number that already holds a booking overlapping the same time is refused as a possible duplicate, naming the existing booking’s time, rather than booked twice without anyone noticing. On the register and the handheld a host can still allow the duplicate on purpose.
Requested and confirmed bookings can be changed with Edit, marked No-show, or Cancelled. If someone else changed the booking while you had it open — a host on the register, say — saving stops and highlights the fields that changed, instead of overwriting their edit.
A seated booking cannot be cancelled. The party is at the table; the table is closed from the register or the handheld when they leave, and the booking is completed with it.
On the floor
Section titled “On the floor”The register and the captain handheld each have their own reservations view for the host stand, with the same bookings:
- Add booking takes a booking at the door or on the phone, with a Check availability step before it is saved.
- Add walk-in puts a party on the waitlist with a quoted wait. A phone number is optional for walk-ins.
- Seat puts a booking or a walk-in on a table and opens the table for ordering. If the table was taken in the meantime, the next free table that fits is offered.
- Edit, No-show and Cancel work as on the dashboard.
On the floor plan, a table with a booking inside its hold window shows as reserved. Seating a different party there is possible, but the register and handheld warn that the table has a booking first — that is how a walk-in ends up on a table promised to someone arriving in ten minutes.
How a booking becomes a table
Section titled “How a booking becomes a table”- The booking is confirmed with a table matched to its party size.
- Around the booking time it moves to Due, and its table shows as reserved.
- A host seats the party from the register or the handheld. The table opens with the party’s covers, and the booking moves to Seated.
- Orders, rounds and checks run as for any table — see POS register and Captain handheld.
- When the table is settled or cleared, the booking is completed.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Try this |
|---|---|
| There is no Reservations switch | The outlet must use the Fine dine (table service) service style |
| Every booking is refused | Check the tables have seat counts and that the time is inside the outlet’s hours |
| A booking will not cancel | It is already seated — clear or settle the table instead |
| A late party still holds its table | Mark it No-show to free the table |
| Saving says the booking changed | Someone else edited it — review the highlighted fields and save again |
Related: Floor & Tables · POS register · Captain handheld
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