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, see what a fully booked date offers, 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) — guests book a table on your booking page and your website widget. Switched off, both say you are not taking online bookings — on every date — and guests also can't change their booking's date, time or party size online, Notify me if a table frees up stops, and Experiences no longer show on your booking page. Events, and bookings you add yourself, are unaffected. To stop online bookings on one date only, close that date on Settings → Bookings → Special dates instead.
• Your team can add bookings (on by default) — your team adds bookings from the dashboard: the Bookings, Timeline and Floor plan pages and a guest'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.
• Your team can add walk-ins — your team can seat guests 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. While it's on, your venue page also shows a live "Tables free now" line under your name whenever a table for two is free right now — it never names a table, a booking or a guest.
• Turn on the waitlist (*Available on Complete plan*) — a live queue for when every table is taken: each guest 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 guests join from their phone (*Available on Complete plan*) — guests 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 → Guest notifications), so waiting guests 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.

• Approve online bookings before they’re confirmed (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 instead of being asked to call. On your booking page the line under How many of you? then says "We can seat up to 6 guests online — for more, send a request below." (with your own maximum), and the sizes end with a "7+" button (one more than your maximum) beside the "More than 6? Send a request" link. Either one opens a How many people? box for the exact size (from 7) — and so does a link that arrives already set for a bigger party (a shared booking link, your website's booking box or Book the same again); with requests off, such a link is lowered to your maximum — and from there it's the same steps as any booking: the date and the same times as an ordinary booking that day (your online booking times, the date's breaks and pauses, any blocked times and your notice), then Your details — the same boxes, filled in for a returning guest when you let them sign in — then Check and send, marked "Request — not a booking yet", with a Send request button. A request skips extras, pre-orders, promo codes and gift cards. It asks for what any booking waiting for your approval asks for: a card for no-shows if you hold one (nothing is charged — the card is released if you decline or don't answer in time), and any deposit or payment your settings ask for. Picking a size you take online, or Back to a normal booking, takes them back to an ordinary booking. Afterwards they see "Booking request sent", "Request for 10" and that you'll check it and email them to confirm — with no Add to calendar until you approve it. It arrives waiting for your approval, with no table.

When a guest 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 Plus plan and above. Notify me if a table frees up (off by default) puts an offer under a fully booked date after today on your booking page. Guests 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 guest books or takes themselves off the list.

Let guests 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 guests only see the choice once text messages are set up for your venue.

Both switches live with your other guest messages, on Settings → Communications → Guest notifications in When a date is fully booked. This section shows whether the list is on, with a link there.

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 guests 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 guests 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.

The quickest way to set it all up is Set up food and drinks-only bookings, at the top of the section. A step-by-step window asks On or off, The drinks option (its name) and Length and limits (the drinks booking length, and the most food and drinks-only guests seated at once — 0 for no separate limit; the limits come with the Pro plan or above), then shows a Review of what guests and your team will see. Click Use these choices to close the window, then Save changes — the length and limits update on their own pages too. The drinks-only online booking times stay on When people can book; the Review says what they are.

• What guests 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.
• A special date can take only one of the two online — Booking types → Food & drinks only or drinks-only — or switch both on for that date even when they're off every other day (Booking types → Both), and have its own Drinks-only online booking times, on Settings → Bookings → Special dates (see How do I set a special date's hours, limits and who can book online?).
• 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 guest's choice shows as a "Booking type" line on their confirmation screen and email, and beside the party size on their manage-booking page ("Table for 4 · Food & drinks"; "Request for 10 · Food & drinks" while a request waits for you); your dashboard shows a Food or Drinks chip on each booking row — also on a special date that switches them on for itself. Drinks-only bookings never receive pre-order invitations.

Your team's booking form

• Booking sources — the choices in How they booked 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.
• Messages for bookings your team adds — whether a guest hears anything when your team books for them is set with all your other messages, on Settings → Communications → Guest notifications (Staff-created booking confirmation).

Your booking page

• Booking confirmation message — your own words shown to guests straight after they book (up to 300 characters — directions, parking tips, a warm welcome). Leave it blank for the standard wording. A booking that waits for your approval doesn't show it on its "Booking request sent" screen — only a confirmed booking does. Only an Owner or Admin can change it.
• See it as a guest does — Open public booking page opens your real booking page in a new tab. Before you press Go live it opens your private preview instead, which only you can see.

Click Save changes when you're done.

Related: Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance) · When can guests 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?

Under the date on your booking page are one-tap buttons for Today, Tomorrow and the coming weekend. When none of those days can be booked — say you don't open until a date a few weeks away — the buttons show your next open days instead ("Wed 11 Nov", "Thu 12 Nov"…, up to four, inside how far ahead guests can book), and the calendar's Today becomes First open day, which picks the first of them. While any of the near days can be booked they stay as they are.