Running a walk-in-first venue

Switch on walk-ins and run service from the floor plan — with online table bookings closed or limited if you barely take bookings.

If most of your trade walks through the door, ResoFlow works well as a live walk-in board: see which tables are free, seat walk-ups in a couple of taps, and let turnaround timings keep the room honest.

1. Switch on walk-ins

Walk-ins are off by default. Go to Settings → Bookings → How people book and switch on Enable walk-ins — a walk-in button then joins the creation options across the dashboard. Then set how long a walk-in keeps its table (the Walk-ins line of Standard booking length, on Settings → Bookings → How long a booking lasts) and the walk-in form's Default party size (Settings → Bookings → Walk-ins) to match your service. Full detail (including Smart Walk-Ins auto-placement, a Complete feature): How do I set up and seat walk-ins?.

2. Walk-ins skip the lateness automation — by design

Walk-ins are seated from the moment you add them, so they're never flagged Late and never touched by Mark no-shows automatically (it only marks bookings made online or by your team — never walk-ins). You can seat walk-ups all night without any alert noise. See What do the booking statuses mean?.

3. Decide what happens to online table bookings

Three ways to run it:

• Keep them — plenty of walk-in-first venues still take online bookings for weekends. Nothing to change.
• Limit them — narrow the Online booking times on Settings → Bookings → When people can book so times are only offered when you want them (When can customers book?). To keep room for walk-ins as well, switch a room off in Rooms online bookings can use, or keep particular tables back with Keep a table for bigger parties or walk-ins — online customers can only book them from a number of hours before (both on Settings → Bookings → Tables and seating); on Pro and above, of which online at most beside your guest limits (How many at once) keeps part of your capacity off the booking page.
• Close them completely — switch off Accept online table bookings in Settings → Bookings → How people book. Your booking page and widget then say you're not taking online bookings (customers still see your phone number and address), while ticketed events — and bookings you add yourself — carry on as normal (Selling event tickets without table bookings).

4. On busy nights, the waitlist

When the room fills, the waitlist takes names and tells customers when their table is ready — including a self-service join page customers can reach from a QR code. It's Available on Complete plan. If a walk-up can't be seated, the Smart Walk-In flow offers Add to Waitlist on the spot.

Everything else — deposits on the bookings you do take, confirmations and reminders, events — works exactly the same in a walk-in-first setup.

Related: Ways to run ResoFlow · How do I run service from the floor plan? · How do I control dashboard alerts and sounds?