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 guest 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 guest on your booking page or website widget) or Your team (someone adding the booking from the dashboard).
• Under Judge on, keep The bookings you have (the default — the date's real bookings, as your booking page counts them), or choose An empty day to see what your rules allow on their own.
• 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. When a limit is full it names the limit and its numbers: "Not offered online right now — “Most guests arriving every 15 minutes” is full: 6 of 8 guests arrive 18:00–18:15, and 4 more would make 10." 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.
• What filled it and the nearest times. "Taken by: the booking for 6 at 18:00 (online)" — if you can see bookings, with the guest's initial and surname and Open it. Then the nearest times that fit.
• 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 guest would see: "Offered online right now on this date: …". If every limit fits but the time isn't in that list, no table is free for that party then.
• 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 at that time, counted on that day's bookings the way your booking page counts them: Most guests seated at once, the food and drinks-only ones and your pacing rules (online shares too), a special date's own replacing your everyday ones. One that is full says so, with how many of how many and in which stretch; otherwise the line shows each count with this booking. A rule for 17:00–22:00 doesn't count a 22:00 booking. For your team, each rule says whether it warns them or stops them too.
• What the guest 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." A special date's own deposit or card to hold beats your everyday payments — on a date with its own card to hold, What a booking pays says "its own card to hold replaces your everyday deposit". 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 any of your breaks isn't offered online (a day can have several; the line names the one it meets). On a break ticked We stay open — just pause online bookings the line is Online bookings paused instead, and only a time that STARTS inside the pause is refused — a booking that starts before it can run on into it, and your team can still book it.
• 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 guests 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 (or its No online bookings this day switch — your team can still add bookings), 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 guests.

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 guest 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 guests 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 guest 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 guests 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 guests 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 guests book? · How many guests can book at once?