How do the guest waitlist screen and self-service kiosk work?

The guest waitlist screen — numbered rows, never names, a chime when a table is ready — and the self-service kiosk where guests join the waitlist themselves.

Part of How do I set up wall screens?. This part covers the waitlist's own two screens: the guest waitlist screen and the self-service kiosk.

The guest waitlist screen

Each waiting party appears as a numbered row — position, party size and an estimated wait like "approx. 20 min" (rounded up in 5-minute steps, never promising less than approx. 5 minutes, and capped at your maximum wait if you've set one) — never a name. When a table becomes ready the guest is announced at the top by first name and initial — "Sarah M. — your table is ready!" — with a chime (once per announcement). If the TV's browser is holding the sound back, "Tap anywhere to turn this screen’s sound on" shows until someone touches the screen. A large code lets guests join the waitlist from their own phone, and Walk-in wait right now tells a passer-by how long a new party would wait. The screen works upright too, on a TV hung on its side.

The self-service kiosk

The self-service kiosk is a touch screen where guests join the waitlist themselves, one guest at a time, without anyone from your team having to type for them. Needs the Complete waitlist.

Between guests the kiosk shows a welcome screen carrying your branding: your logo (or your initials if you haven't uploaded one), your cover photo as a backdrop (without one, a subtle wash of your accent colour), your headline and message (the standard copy is "Welcome — join our waitlist" and "Tap below to add your party to the queue — you'll see your place straight away.", or just "Tap below to add your party to the queue." when your waitlist doesn't show queue positions), a live numbers-only line (how many parties are waiting and, while your waitlist shows estimated waits, the current wait — never names), a large Join the waitlist button in your accent colour, and a small code in the corner — Or join on your phone — for anyone who'd rather not touch a shared screen. The logo, cover photo and accent colour all come from your existing Branding settings; the kiosk's dark or light background is its Background setting, in the kiosk's own section.

Joining walks the guest through one question at a time — "Step 2 of 6 · Your wait", with a dot for each step and a big Back button — and the kiosk brings its own on-screen keyboard, so it works even on a screen locked in kiosk mode that never shows the tablet's own keyboard: letters for names and notes, a number pad for the phone, and shortcuts such as @gmail.com and .co.uk for the email. A bar on top of the keyboard shows which box you're in, with the step's Continue, so nobody has to close the keyboard to move on. A phone number from any country is accepted. The steps: how many guests → their wait ("Your wait will be approx. 25 minutes", with the estimated table time and, when your waitlist shows queue positions, their place — this step is skipped when your waitlist hides estimated waits) → their name → email and phone with the notify-me choices → an optional extras step (notes, allergies where your plan includes them, special occasion) → a final confirm step with the loyalty tick, the marketing opt-out and the small print — the terms and privacy notice open in a card on the kiosk itself, and nothing on the kiosk takes a guest off it to another website. It asks for exactly the same details as joining from a phone. The confirmation says "You're on the waitlist!" and — only when your waitlist shows queue positions (Show queue position on the public waitlist page on, and you seat first come, first seated: the same rule as the guest's own phone) — their place as it stands the moment they join ("You're #3 in the queue" — one further back than the wait step showed if someone else joined in between), with a personal QR code under "Scan to track your position" ("Scan to follow the queue on your phone" when no place is shown), so they can follow the queue from their phone. Tapping Done — or 45 seconds passing, shown as a ring counting down — clears the screen back to the welcome page. A half-finished join left untouched for 30 seconds shows "Still there?" with a countdown and a Keep going button (or tap anywhere); a full minute untouched and it resets itself from any step, wiping anything typed. The kiosk never shows one guest's details to the next. It uses the same self-service join as your public waitlist page, so Turn on the waitlist and Let guests join from their phone (Settings → Bookings → How people book) both need to be on. With either off (or on a plan without the waitlist), the kiosk shows a plain welcome screen instead: the headline becomes "Welcome", the message reads "Our waitlist sign-in is closed at the moment — please speak to a member of the team and we'll look after you.", and the join button and queue line are hidden — guests are never invited to start a join that would be refused.

Related: How do I set up wall screens? · How do I manage the waitlist during service? · How do I change how my wall screens look, and lock them? · Which wall screens can I show?