How do I set my opening hours?

Set your timezone, weekly opening hours and up to four breaks a day — closed for a break between services, or just pause online bookings while you stay open — and where to narrow the hours customers can book online.

You set when you're open on Settings → Venue → Hours (/dashboard/settings/hours): your timezone, your weekly hours and breaks, and seasonal hours, one section under another. A special date's own hours — Christmas Day 12:00–16:00, or closed all day — are set on Settings → Bookings → Special dates, with everything else about that date; the Hours page links there. Your weekly hours are the baseline for everything: when customers can book online, when staff bookings are checked, and how the app decides you're open.

Owners, Admins and Managers can open this page.

Which of those hours customers can book online — online booking times and drinks-only online booking times — is set on Settings → Bookings → When people can book, and a date blocked for online bookings on Settings → Bookings → Special dates; the Hours page links to both.

Set your timezone

In the Timezone section, set your Local timezone. The default is United Kingdom (London).
The picker offers United Kingdom (London) and Ireland (Dublin) — ResoFlow currently supports venues on UK and Ireland time (daily customer emails and texts run on a UK clock).

Every booking time — what customers see and what the app checks — runs in your venue's timezone.

Set your weekly hours

In Standard operating hours, every day is already showing — nothing to expand.
For each day, set the from and to times, tick Open 24 hours, or tick Closed. A day you've never configured counts as closed. Tick Same hours every day to copy Monday's hours to the whole week (and keep them in step while it's ticked), or use a day's copy button to copy just that day everywhere. Times can be typed as 17:30, 1730 or 5.30pm.
Click Save changes.

If a day's closing time is earlier than its opening time, you'll see the hint "Closes the next morning — is that right?". That's deliberate support for late-night venues (the day is treated as closing the next morning) — but check it isn't a typo.

You can also type it into the search: "open 12 until 10 on Sundays" opens this page with Sunday's times set, waiting for your Save — see What can I type into the search?.

Open 24 hours, and why your day runs from 5am to 5am

In ResoFlow a venue's day runs from 5am to 5am the next morning. A time before 5am always belongs to the night before — so a bar that closes at 2am is still on the same day's service, and a booking at 1am shows on the evening it belongs to. Your customers see the real date, though: their emails, texts and booking pages call a 1am booking after Saturday night's service "Sunday", the day it actually happens — the booking page's list of times marks it "1am (Sun)". An event that starts after midnight keeps the date and time you gave it.

That's why an opening time before 5am isn't accepted. An opening of 00:00 would mean midnight tonight, and every part of the app would treat you as closed from 5am until then. If you type one, the day shows why — "Your day runs from 5am to 5am, so an opening time before 5am would start the next day. For a late close, put the closing time after midnight — e.g. 02:00. Open all day? Choose Open 24 hours." — and your hours won't save until it's fixed. Opening and closing at the same time isn't accepted either (that would mean 24 hours).

If you're open all day, tick Open 24 hours on that day (it works on seasonal days and special dates too). The day then reads "Open 24 hours" everywhere — your booking page, your venue page and website, Google, your screens and the top of your dashboard — and customers can book any time. A booking still has to finish by 5am, when your day ends, and walk-ins and the waitlist stop the usual number of minutes before 5am (Last walk-in before close and the waitlist's cut-off).

Hours saved before this change with an opening before 5am are left exactly as they are, but the day shows the same explanation until you change it — and if it was clearly meant as open all day (00:00–23:59, say), a button next to it makes it Open 24 hours in one tap. A closing time after 5am the next morning (say 17:00–06:00) shows a warning rather than being refused: it runs into the next day's opening hours.

Close for a break in the middle of the day

If you shut between lunch and dinner, set it once on the day itself rather than blocking out every date:

On any open day, tick Closed for a break.
Set shut from and until (it starts you off at 15:00–17:00).
Click Save changes.

Customers can't book online during that window, and a booking that would still be sitting when the break starts isn't offered either — so if you shut at 15:00 and a booking normally runs 90 minutes, the last lunch time offered is 13:30.

Bookings already in the diary are left exactly as they are — nothing is cancelled or moved, and they still show on your screens. One thing to know: a customer holding a booking that now falls inside your new break can't change it themselves without also moving the time (they're told which hours are closed). That's the same as any other hours change — bring your closing time forward and customers with later bookings are in the same position. If you add a break over times you've already taken, it's worth a quick look at that day's diary.

Both times have to sit inside that day's opening hours with time left either side. If they don't, the break isn't applied and you'll see a warning saying so — bookings keep being taken right through it until you fix it. That's deliberate: a mistyped break should never empty your diary without telling you.

A break belongs to the day it's set on, so you can shut Monday to Friday afternoons and run straight through at the weekend. Seasonal hours and a special date's own hours (on Special dates) can each carry their own breaks — and because a special date replaces that day's hours completely, setting one with no break is how you open straight through for a one-off.

More than one break a day

A day can have up to four breaks, on every plan — so you can stop online bookings at 11:30 for 15 minutes and also close from 15:00 to 17:00 on the same day. Once a day has a break, click Add another break under it for the next one, and Remove beside a break to take it off. Each break has its own We stay open — just pause online bookings tick, so one day can mix the two — for example a short pause in online bookings at 11:30–11:45 while the kitchen changes over, and a proper close from 15:00 to 17:00:

Tick Closed for a break and set the first one — 11:30 until 11:45 — then tick We stay open — just pause online bookings under it.
Click Add another break and set 15:00 until 17:00 (leave its tick off — you're closed).
Click Save changes. Copy to every day (or Same hours every day) copies all of a day's breaks.

Each break follows its own rule, exactly as if it were the only one: no online booking starts in the pause, and no online booking starts in or runs into the closed break. Your booking page, venue page, website, TV screens and Google show the day as "09:00–15:00, 17:00–22:00" — the pause isn't a gap, because you're open through it.

The breaks have to fit together. A break that runs into an earlier one, or starts the very minute the one before it ends, isn't applied — the row says so and Save changes won't save it until you change it (two back-to-back breaks are one longer break). The same goes for a break outside the day's hours, one with only one time typed, and a fifth break. Hours saved before this change are left exactly as they are.

The waitlist during a break

As soon as you've set a break anywhere, one more setting appears at the bottom of Standard operating hours: Let customers join the waitlist during a break. Online bookings and walk-ins are always closed during a break — the waitlist is your choice.

Let customers join the waitlist during a break is on to begin with. Someone arriving at 16:30 while you're shut until 17:00 can put their name down for when you reopen, and the wait they're quoted already counts the break, so they're told 17:00 rather than "5 minutes".

Switch it off and the waitlist shuts with the kitchen: customers are told which hours you're closed and asked to try again after that, and your team can't add anyone to the waitlist either until you reopen. Choose that if there's nobody on the door while you're shut.

It's one setting for the whole venue, and it applies the same way to customers joining online, customers joining on a kiosk screen, and your own team adding someone from the dashboard.

The waitlist is Available on Complete plan. On other plans the setting waits under More options with a padlock ("Not on your current plan — there is no waitlist to join"), and the break's own line under each day doesn't mention the waitlist. If it was switched on before a plan change, it stays at the top with a Switch off button.

Stay open and just pause online bookings

Some venues are open all day but only want online bookings at certain times — say open 09:00–23:00, with online bookings for lunch and dinner but not the quiet afternoon, when it's walk-ins only. Set the gap as a break and tell ResoFlow you're staying open:

On the day, tick Closed for a break and set the gap.
Tick We stay open — just pause online bookings under it. The times now read paused from … until.
Click Save changes.

The day then says, for example, "Open 09:00–23:00 · online bookings paused 15:00–17:00", and under it, in the day's own times: "Guests can't start an online booking between 15:00 and 17:00. A booking that starts before 15:00 can run on into it." What that means:

You show as open all day — on your booking page, your venue page, your website, your TV screen and Google, and the top bar says you're open.
Customers can't start an online booking during the pause. A booking that starts before it can run on into it — you're open. So a pause from 15:00 to 17:00 makes 14:45 the last online start before it (with times every 15 minutes), even for a 1 hour 45 minute sitting, and 17:00 the first one after. A customer changing their own booking is held to the same rule. (A plain break is different: there, a booking that would still be sitting when the break starts isn't offered, because you're closed.)
Your team, walk-ins and the waitlist carry on as normal. Your team can add a booking in the pause with no warning, walk-ins are seated, and the waitlist stays open. The two settings a break raises — Let customers join the waitlist during a break and Also stop your team during your break — don't apply to a pause.
Order & Pay keeps taking orders — your kitchen is open. To stop customers picking a collection or delivery time inside the pause as well, switch on Also pause order-ahead during paused online booking times in Order & Pay's collection and delivery settings (off to begin with) — it stops "as soon as possible" orders during the pause too. Ordering at the table always carries on.

Copy to every day copies the tick with each break, and a season's days and a special date's own hours (on Special dates) have the same tick. A special date replaces the day completely, so its breaks are the only ones that day. Untick We stay open — just pause online bookings and that break closes you again, exactly as before.

Your team on closed days and during your break

Online bookings are never taken on a day you're closed or during your break, and walk-ins are closed during your break too. (A break ticked We stay open — just pause online bookings is different: you're open, so walk-ins and your team are never stopped or warned by it.) Your team is only warned — they can still add a booking, after a warning that names the rule. To stop them too, switch on Also stop your team on days you're closed (a special date marked closed included) and Also stop your team during your break, at the bottom of Standard operating hours. Both are off to begin with. The break's switch appears once you've set a break anywhere. Either way, a regular booking's visit is never made on a closed day or during your break.

Online booking times

By default, online bookings follow these opening hours. To take online bookings in a narrower window — say you open at 9am but only take bookings from 11am — set Online booking times on Settings → Bookings → When people can book. "Online booking times can only narrow your opening hours — never widen them." Staff can still book any time you're open. If you offer food and drinks-only bookings separately, the same page has Drinks-only online booking times too. See When can customers book?

How the hours layers stack

Which wins: "A special date's hours beat seasonal hours, which beat your weekly hours." Special opening hours (a specific date, set on Settings → Bookings → Special dates) and seasonal hours (a date range) work on every plan, including Free — so does marking a special date closed. A special date's hours also set its online booking times — your usual online booking times for that weekday don't apply to it — unless the date has online booking times of its own. Dates blocked for online bookings (a date's Online bookings closed on Special dates) work on every plan, sit on top of all of these, and block online bookings only.

Related: How do I set holiday hours, seasonal hours and closures? · When can customers book? · What's different about Christmas Day? (Special dates) · Why does my booking page show no available times?