Pre-order menus

Bookings → Pre-order menus lists the offers a guest can choose when they book — a set menu, a festive lunch, a tasting menu.

A pre-order menu is just an offer

There's nothing separate to build. A pre-order menu is one of your existing offers, made available on a booking flow. This page shows them in one place so you can see what a guest is being shown when they book, without hunting through your menus.

For each one you'll see its name, its price, whether a booking flow is already offering it, and when it last changed.

Adding one

Use Add a pre-order menu. It asks what kind of offer you're building first — a set menu or bundle, a single-item offer, or a multi-item offer — and then only asks for what that kind actually needs. Most pre-order menus are a set menu. You can change your mind later with Change type at the top of the builder. A deal across a category (any two pizzas, the cheaper one half price) isn't offered here: it's a percentage rule rather than a priced menu, so build one from Items → Offers. Nor are a spend-and-get offer ("spend £10, get the fries free") or a set price across a category ("£3 on any drink") — both are rules staff apply on the till, with no whole price a pre-order could carry. If you already have one of these it still shows in this list like any other offer, and opens in its own builder. The builder opens here in Bookings, so you stay where you were — you don't get moved into another part of the portal to make one.

It's the same builder as Items → Offers, because a pre-order menu is an offer. Whichever door you come in by, you're pricing the same thing once. Save takes you back to this list with the new menu on it.

What the builder asks for, in order

The form runs top to bottom, and every part of it is on one screen:

1. Name and description — what staff see on the till, and what guests see when they pre-order.
2. Base price — what the whole menu costs. Premium choices add their upcharge on top of this.
3. Show on menus — click each menu this should sell on. A menu turns black when it's on. Leave them all off and the menu still saves, but no till can sell it, and the builder says so.
4. Sections and items — one section per course. A section is what lets the guest choose: add "Starter", then the two or three starters they can pick between. Items can come from any menu or category.
5. When can guests get it — leave it on Always available, or give it an availability window so it only runs at certain times. The same step takes a first day and a last day if the menu only runs for part of the year (a Christmas pre-order, say). Both days are included, and once the last one has passed the menu stays in your list marked Ended so you can run it again next year by moving the dates.

Save lives in the bar at the top, next to Archive, and stays there however far down the form you are.

Editing works the same way: click a menu in the list and it opens here, saves here, and brings you back to this list.

Once the menu exists, attach it to a booking flow under Booking settings → Booking flows to start showing it to guests.

Related

• Set menus on a booking flow — attaching one so guests can choose it.
• Deposits and prepayments — taking money for a pre-order at the time of booking.