How do I choose how people can book?

Switch online bookings, your team's bookings, walk-ins and the waitlist on or off, approve online bookings first, let big groups send a request, offer a Notify me list on full dates, and split food and drinks-only bookings.

Every way a booking can reach your diary is switched on one page: Settings → Bookings → How people book (/dashboard/settings/how-people-book). Owners, Admins and Managers can open it. The line at the top says in one sentence how people can book right now, and whether online bookings wait for your approval.

Ways people can book

Each switch is one way of booking. Which wins: "Switching a way of booking off beats every other rule for it." — a way of booking that is switched off is off, whatever else is set.

• Accept online table bookings (on by default) — customers book a table on your booking page and your website widget. Switched off, both say you are not taking online bookings. Events, and bookings you add yourself, are unaffected.
• Enable staff bookings (on by default) — your team adds bookings from the dashboard: the Bookings, Timeline and Floor plan pages and a customer's profile. Switched off, your team can't add a booking from anywhere in the dashboard — the add-booking buttons are hidden and the booking form says why. Walk-ins and the waitlist have their own switches.
• Enable walk-ins — your team can seat customers who arrive without booking, from the timeline and the floor plan. What the walk-in form starts with is set on Settings → Bookings → Walk-ins.
• Turn on the waitlist (*Available on Complete*) — a live queue for when every table is taken: each customer gets an estimated wait, and the next suitable party is matched to a table as it frees up. How the queue works is set on Settings → Bookings → Waitlist.
• Let customers join from their phone (*Available on Complete*) — customers scan a code at the door and add themselves to the waitlist, without your team typing anything. When it's on, the page recommends switching on text messages too (Settings → Communications → Customer notifications), so waiting customers get a text the moment their table is ready.

On a plan without the waitlist, its two switches wait under More options with a padlock. If a plan change leaves either switched on, it stays at the top of the section with a Switch off button.

Approving online bookings

Available on Plus plan and above.

• Require manual confirmation (online bookings only) (off by default) — when on, bookings made on your booking page land as pending and wait for someone on your team to approve them. Bookings your team adds, and imported bookings, always confirm straight away.
• Approve only some online bookings (off by default) — narrows it to the bookings that need a human eye: Parties of this many or more wait and/or Bookings made less than this many hours ahead wait (0 turns a condition off).
• Let bigger parties send a request (off by default) — a party bigger than your online maximum can send a request from your booking page (the date, a time, how many, their name, contact details and a note) instead of being asked to call. It arrives waiting for your approval, with no table and no payment.

When a customer changes a booking that needed approval — or changes it into one that would — the change comes back to you for approval; declining the change keeps their original booking. A special date can approve every online booking, or none, on its day (Special dates → Approving online bookings). Which wins: "A special date's own approval rule wins on its day; otherwise approving only some bookings works only while approval is on, and a request from a party bigger than your online maximum always waits for approval." See How do I approve or decline online booking requests?

If your plan no longer includes approvals but one of these was left on, online bookings confirm straight away (bigger parties are asked to contact you) and the row offers Switch off.

When a date is fully booked

Available on Complete. Notify me if a table frees up (off by default) puts an offer under a fully booked date after today on your booking page. Customers leave their name, an email address, the times they'd like and their party size. When a booking on that date is cancelled — or a no-show your team marks frees its table — everyone it suits is told once, in the order they asked, with a link to book. There's no hold: the first to book gets the table. Each request is deleted the day after the date, or sooner if the customer books or takes themselves off the list.

Let customers choose a text instead of an email (off by default) lets them leave a mobile number instead; each text uses one of your text credits, and customers only see the choice once text messages are set up for your venue.

Which wins: "On a full date, today shows your waitlist and later dates show the Notify me list — each only when it's switched on." See Can customers be told if a table frees up on a fully booked date? (Notify me)

Food and drinks-only bookings

Available on Plus plan and above. Switch on Offer food and drinks-only bookings separately and customers choose between a Food booking and a drinks-only booking on your booking page — your team gets the same choice when adding or editing a booking. Existing bookings are unaffected and count as food bookings.

• What customers see for the drinks option — rename it to suit your venue, for example "Bar seating" or "Drinks & nibbles" (up to 40 characters; it reads "Drinks only" until you change it). The food option is always called "Food".
• Drinks-only times, length and limits live beside their food twin, so the two are always compared side by side: Drinks-only online booking times on When people can book, Drinks booking length on How long a booking lasts, and Most drinks-only guests seated at once on How many at once.
• Switching it off hides the choice again. Your drinks settings are kept for when you switch it back on, and old drinks bookings keep their type.

The customer's choice shows as a "Booking type" line on their confirmation screen and email, and on their manage-booking page; your dashboard shows a Food or Drinks chip on each booking row. Drinks-only bookings never receive pre-order invitations.

Your team's booking form

• Booking sources — the choices in the Source dropdown when your team creates a booking. Leave the list empty and your team sees the five defaults: Phone, In person, Email, Walk-up, External platform. Add your own with Add (for example "Concierge"). A booking tagged Walk-up is never marked a no-show automatically.
• Confirmation comms for staff bookings — whether a customer hears anything when your team books for them is set with all your other messages, on Settings → Communications → Customer notifications (Staff-created booking confirmation).

Your booking page

• Booking confirmation message — your own words shown to customers straight after they book (up to 300 characters — directions, parking tips, a warm welcome). Leave it blank for the standard wording. Only an Owner or Admin can change it.
• See it as a customer does — Open public booking page opens your real booking page in a new tab.

Click Save changes when you're done.

Related: Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance) · When can customers book? · How do I share my online booking page? · How do I set up and seat walk-ins? · How do I configure how the waitlist behaves?