How do I take my first booking?

Switch on online bookings, find and share your public booking link, and create your first staff booking from the Home screen.

Once your setup essentials are done (hours, tables, policies), taking bookings needs two things: your public booking link for customers, and the New booking button for bookings you take yourself.

Let customers book online

• Open Settings → Booking rules and expand Booking channels. Check Accept online table bookings is switched on (it is by default). Enable staff bookings lives here too.
• Scroll to the Preview card at the bottom of the same page. Your public booking link is shown there (it looks like …/book/your-restaurant), and Open public booking page opens it in a new tab so you can see exactly what customers see.
• Share the link — put it on your website, and add it to Google, Apple Maps and your social profiles with the walkthroughs at Settings → Get more bookings. Customers pick a party size and date, choose a time, enter their details and get a confirmation email.

Take a booking yourself

• On Home, click New booking in the topbar (on the Bookings, Timeline and Floor plan pages too).
• Fill in the time, party size and customer details, pick a table (or leave it to auto-assign), and save. The customer can be sent a confirmation, depending on your confirmation settings for staff bookings.

What happens next

New online bookings appear on Home and in Bookings in real time, with a sound and a notification if you have those switched on. If you'd rather approve each online booking yourself first, see the manual-confirmation option in your booking rules.

Related: How do I create a booking for a customer? · How do I share my online booking page? · How do I add the booking button to my own website? · How do I control booking times and durations?