Push tables together for big parties

Declare which tables can be joined, so a party too large for any single table can still book.

A party of six can't book if your biggest table seats four — even when you'd happily push two tables together on the night. Table groups tell the booking system which tables can be joined, so those bookings come in instead of being turned away.

Find it under Booking settings → Table groups.

Declaring a group

Go to Booking settings → Table groups.
Choose Declare a group, or pick one of the suggested pairs.
Tap the tables on your floor plan. They fill in, so you can see the group taking shape in the room rather than picking names off a list.
Tap one of them again to make it the main table. It gets a green outline. The booking is seated here and the bill runs on it.
Set seats when combined, then choose Declare group at the top of the page.

Declaring opens its own page, so you get the whole room to work with. Saving brings you back to your list of groups, where you'll see the new one with its name and seat total — that's your confirmation it saved.

Tapped one by mistake? Tap the main table again to take it out, or use the × on its name below the plan. There's a Pick from a list instead link under the plan if you'd rather work from names.

Changed your mind? Cancel takes you back without saving. If you've already picked tables we'll check you meant it, so you can't lose the work with a stray click.

Suggested pairs

We look at your floor plan and suggest tables that sit next to each other, so you don't have to hunt for them. They're only suggestions — nothing is created until you confirm it. Two tables can touch on the plan and still be impossible to join in real life, because of a pillar, a walkway or a fixed bench, and only you know that.

If you haven't drawn your floor plan

If your tables haven't been laid out yet, there's no room to tap, so you'll get a simple list of them instead — everything else works exactly the same. Lay the room out under Restaurant settings → Floor plans and this page turns into a plan of your venue. Any table you've added but not placed yet also shows up as a button under the plan, so you can still pick it.

Seats when combined

We fill this in from the tables' own seat counts as a starting point, and you should change it if it's wrong. Two four-seat tables pushed together often seat six rather than eight, once you allow for the join. What you type is what gets offered, so set it to what the group really seats.

As you type, we tell you what it buys: "This group seats 8, so you'll be able to take bookings for 5 to 8 online." That's the whole point of declaring a group — those are the parties you can now take that you couldn't before.

The main table

The booking is seated on the main table and the bill runs there. The other tables in the group are held for the same window, so nobody else is offered them and no walk-up is seated on top of the party.

They're released as soon as the bill is settled — including if you mark the tab as paid, void it, or close it from the portal.

If you move the party

Move a booking onto a different table and the held tables are let go straight away, so nobody is holding a table for a party that isn't there any more. Move it back onto the main table and the group is held again.

If you move a big party onto a table that is itself the main table of another group, we use that group instead — but only when the table on its own is too small for them. A party that fits the table gets the table, and nothing else is held.

What happens when someone books

If a party fits a normal table, they get one. A group is only used when no single table will do, so you don't lose two small tables to a party that would have fitted on one.

You don't have to do anything else — once a group is declared it's offered automatically, smallest suitable group first.

Changing or removing a group

Edit a group any time to change its tables, its main table or its seat count.

Removing a group stops it being offered from that moment. Bookings already taken on it keep their tables — nothing already in the diary is disturbed.

If we can't load your groups' tables, the page says something went wrong rather than showing your groups with no tables in them. Reload the page to try again — your groups haven't changed.

Tables in different sections

You can group tables from different sections, and we'll warn you when you do. Two things to know:

Covers and orders are counted against the main table's section.
Closing any of those sections takes the whole group out of service.

Holding tables for one booking instead

A group is something your room can always do, so it's offered to every booking that needs it. If you only need several tables for one booking — a birthday that takes the whole loft on Saturday — you don't need a group. Open the booking and use Book tables.

If you hold tables on a booking that's already on a group, the tables you hold replace the group for that booking.