How do I check which rules apply to a booking? (Try a booking)

Try a booking on Booking rules at a glance says whether a date, time and party can book, which rules apply and why — and which times your booking page offers right now.

When a customer says they couldn't book a time — or you want to be sure a new rule does what you meant — use Try a booking. It's near the top of Settings → Bookings → Booking rules at a glance (/dashboard/settings/booking-rules). It only reads your rules: it never changes a setting and never makes a booking.

Try a booking

• Open Booking rules at a glance. Try a booking is near the top of the page (under Things to check, when there is something to check).
• Pick the Date, the Time and the Party size.
• Under Booked by, choose Online (a customer on your booking page or website widget) or Your team (someone adding the booking from the dashboard).
• Click Check.

The answer comes in up to three parts:

• The verdict, in one line. Online: "The rules allow it online — it is offered if a table is free." or "Not offered online —" followed by the first rule that stops it. For your team: "Your team can add it.", "Your team can add it, after a warning." or "Your team can't add it —" and the reason.
• The times offered right now (online only, for today or a later date). Try a booking asks your booking page's own availability for that date, the same way your booking page does, and lists what a customer would see: "Offered online right now on this date: …". If your rules allow the time but it isn't in that list, the tables are taken or a limit is already full at that time.
• Every rule that applies, one line each, with an icon for allowed, stops it, a warning, or simply applies. Each line says why it applies — for example "Christmas Day's own hours" or "Your everyday booking window" — and has a Change link to the place it's set.

What it checks

For every booking:

• Opening hours — that day's hours: a special date's own hours first, then a season's, then your weekly hours. A closed day stops an online booking.
• Booking length — the length that booking would get (a special date's own length, your length for that party size, or your standard length).
• How many at once — every limit that applies at that time: Most guests seated at once and your pacing rules, including a special date's own limits. For your team, each rule says whether it warns them or stops them too.
• What the customer pays — a full payment, a deposit, a card held for a no-show fee, or nothing, with the amount. "Pay in full beats a deposit; a deposit beats a card to hold." When money is taken, Money back if they cancel shows how long before the booking they must cancel to get it back.

Online only:

• Fits before closing — whether a booking of that length, starting at that time, finishes by closing time (and isn't before you open).
• Daily break — a time inside your break isn't offered online.
• Online bookings closed — a date or time blocked for online bookings.
• How far ahead — inside your booking window, a special date that opens early (or one that opens later today, at its own time), or too far ahead for your window or your plan.
• Notice — your minimum notice for online bookings.
• Events — a published event on that date. One that doesn't take table bookings before it closes the whole date online, and customers are sent to buy tickets; one that does stops online bookings from its cut-off time (or its start time, if it has no cut-off). Your team can still add bookings on an event's date.
• Online booking times — that day's online times, a special date's own times or set sittings, or a day-and-time rule's set sittings.
• Party size — your largest and smallest party online, or a special date's or a day-and-time rule's own party sizes. With Let bigger parties send a request on, a bigger party can send a request instead.
• Tables online — any room switched off for online bookings, and tables kept for bigger parties or walk-ins.
• Approval — whether the booking waits for your team to approve it, following Approve only some online bookings (every booking, or only the parties and times you chose) — and, when a special date sets them, Rooms online and the Note for customers.

For your team, the answer lists every rule your team's booking form checks — a closed day, outside your opening hours, your team's cut-off, a time that has already gone, a blocked date, your break, the largest and smallest party, notice, how far ahead and the guests limit. Each is a warning, or a stop when the form refuses it: with Also stop your team on for that rule, or for a rule your team is always held to (outside your opening hours, a start after your team's cut-off — a start exactly at the cut-off is allowed).

Why a customer can't book a time — the quick checklist

A time is offered online only when every rule fits at once, so a missing time means at least one of these stopped it:

• the day is closed, or blocked for online bookings, or beyond how far ahead customers can book (or inside your minimum notice);
• a published event takes the whole date, or its cut-off has passed by that time;
• the time is outside that day's online booking times or set sittings, or too late for the booking to finish by closing time;
• the party is bigger or smaller than the sizes that can book online (everyday, or on that special date or at that time of the week);
• no free table fits the party for the whole booking length (plus any turnaround time) — counting only the tables online bookings may use;
• Most guests seated at once, Most guests arriving every 15 minutes, a pacing rule or an online share is already full at that time.

To see a booking the way a customer does, open your booking page from Settings → Bookings → How people book → Your booking page → Open public booking page. For the full checklist, see Why does my booking page show no available times?. For a whole date that can't be picked, see Why can't customers book a certain date?.

Read every rule in one place

The rest of Booking rules at a glance lists every booking rule you have as a sentence, grouped the way the Bookings pages are, each with a Change link. Things to check explains any two settings that disagree, in one sentence, with a link to fix it. The Which wins: line under each section says what happens when two rules meet — for example, "Every limit applies at once — a time is only offered online if it fits all of them."

Your team isn't held to most of the rules online customers are — each rule's own row says who it covers (Applies to: Online · Your team · Walk-ins · Waitlist).

Related: Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance) · What's different about Christmas Day? (Special dates) · When can customers book? · How many guests can book at once?