Booking setup rules

The Rules card on a booking setup governs every booking made through it. Open the setup and click Rules to open it — it follows the three cards that say what the setup books: Sections, Opening hours and, on Pro, Booking flow.

• Slot interval — the gap between bookable times: 15, 30 or 60 minutes.
• Default turn time — how long a table is held per booking, in minutes. You can vary this by party size — see Turn time by party size below.
• Online allocation — the share of this setup's tables released to online booking, as a percentage. The rest are held back for you.
• Minimum notice — the earliest a guest can book, measured from now, in minutes.
• Booking window — how far ahead guests can book, in days.

To apply your changes, use the Save button at the top of the setup page. There's one Save for the whole page rather than one per card: it stays greyed out until something changes, shows "Unsaved changes" while you have work waiting, and a single click saves the rules together with anything else you've edited on the setup.

The cards open and close

Every card on a booking setup is closed when you arrive, and clicking its name opens it. A closed card shows what it is currently set to underneath its name — "Max 40 covers per slot", "24 hours' notice" — and a card you have not changed shows nothing there at all, which is how you tell the two apart at a glance.

Closing a card never loses what you typed. A card with unsaved work is marked Unsaved, pressing Save at the top opens anything it is about to save, and a card that cannot save opens itself and tells you why.

Turn time by party size — a table of two isn't a table of ten

A table of two and a table of ten don't eat for the same length of time, so one turn time for both is wrong in both directions. Set it long enough for the big table and every couple holds a table longer than they need. Set it short enough for the couples and the big table runs into the next booking.

The Turn time by party size card sits under Rules and has three boxes:

• 1–2 guests
• 3–4 guests
• 5 or more guests — this covers every party of 5 and up, however large.

Type a number of minutes in any of them, between 15 and 480. Leave a box blank and that size uses the setup's default turn time from the Rules card — the blank box shows that number greyed out, so you can always see what it will fall back to.

If you set none of them, nothing changes at all. Your setup keeps working exactly as it does today.

Once you set them, every part of the booking system uses the same number: the times offered on your booking page, the table we hold while a guest is filling in their details, the table we pick, and the length that shows in your diary.

Changing these only affects NEW bookings. Anything already in your diary keeps the turn it was booked with, so a change you make on a busy morning won't move tonight's service around. If you need to change one booking that is already in, drag the right edge of it in the diary instead.

Protect a table before a booking — don't give it away too late

A guest books bar 3 for 11 o'clock. At ten to eleven someone walks in, and a member of staff sits them at bar 3. They can't possibly eat and leave in ten minutes, so the guest who booked arrives to find their table still busy.

The Protect a table before a booking card stops that. It sits under Turn time and has the same three boxes:

• 1–2 guests
• 3–4 guests
• 5 or more guests — this covers every party of 5 and up, however large.

Type the number of minutes that size of party needs in front of a booking.

The size is the party you are sitting down now, not the one who booked. A couple eats and goes; a big table takes its time. So it's the walk-in's size that decides how much room they need, and a party of eight needs a wider gap in front of the same booking than a couple does.

Leave a box blank and that size can be seated at any time. If you set none of them, nothing changes at all — your setup keeps working exactly as it does today. You can also type 0 for a size you never want held back.

When a table is protected, your staff are told which other tables are free, or they can add the party to the waitlist and call them when a table comes up.

Pacing — cap how full any one time gets

Online allocation in Rules controls how many TABLES go online. Pacing controls how much TRADE any one time is carrying, whatever the tables allow. Use it when the kitchen, not the room, is the limit.

A booking counts for its whole turn, not just its start time. With a 120-minute turn, a table booked at 19:00 is still counted at 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30, because those guests are still in the room. So a cap "at 20:00" is really a cap on everything the room is carrying at 20:00, not on how many people arrive at 20:00.

The Pacing card sits under Rules. Its first two boxes cap the room; the third, under Arrivals, caps the door. Leave any of them blank for no limit.

• Max covers per slot — the total number of guests whose booking covers that time. Set 24 and a party of 4 is turned away once 24 covers are already on, even with tables free.
• Max parties per slot — the number of bookings that cover that time, whatever their size. Set 6 and a seventh booking is turned away.

The two work independently: whichever is reached first stops the booking.

Arrivals — cap how many guests start at once

Max new guests starting per slot (online only) counts something different: only the guests whose booking starts in that slot. How long they stay doesn't matter. A booking at 19:00 counts towards 19:00 and no other slot. With 15-minute slots, a phone booking at 19:10 counts towards 19:00.

For example, with 15-minute slots and a limit of 16: four tables of 4 at 19:00 fill 19:00, and 19:15 is still open. Use this when the pressure is the door and the kitchen's first courses, not how full the room is.

The difference from Max covers per slot: Max covers counts everyone still in the room at that time; Arrivals counts only who walks in during that slot. Typing 16 into Max covers would cap the whole room at 16 people.

• The limit is per booking setup. If two setups share one kitchen, each has its own limit.
• A party bigger than the limit can't book online at all. The card warns you when the limit is below the setup's Max party size, and those guests are asked to call you.
• Bookings you or your staff take count towards the limit, so a phone booking of 8 at 19:00 leaves 8 online places there.
• Lowering the limit below what's already booked closes that time to new online bookings. Nobody already booked is moved or cancelled, and a guest can still make their own booking smaller.

Cancellation window — tell a late cancellation from an early one

Under Pacing, the setup carries a Cancellation window: how much notice a guest has to give for their cancellation to count as being in policy. Type a number of hours, up to 336 (two weeks).

It doesn't stop anyone cancelling. A guest can still cancel five minutes before, exactly as they can today. What changes is that we record whether they were inside your window, so a late cancellation and a fortnight's notice stop looking the same in your book.

• Leave it blank if you don't have a window. We record the cancellation as having no window rather than treating it as being in policy.
• Type 0 if guests may cancel free right up to the booking time. That is a real window, and it is not the same as leaving the box blank.

The wording your guests actually read and agree to is set separately, on your booking flow's terms step. We never change one from the other, so if you edit one it is worth checking the other still says the same thing.

What's next

• Booking setups — create the setup these rules belong to.
• Which tables fill first — choose the order tables are offered.