Seating bookings at tables

By default, table bookings count covers: each booking time holds a set number of guests, and the tables you add are a note saying where a party sits. With table allocation on, every booking sits on a real table that seats the party, no table is given to two bookings at the same time, and a time is offered online only while a table that fits is free for the whole visit.

The covers per booking time still apply. A booking needs room in the covers and a free table, so the kitchen limit you set on a service stays in force.

Table allocation is part of Table bookings, on the Growth plan and above. It is switched on one venue at a time, so a venue that leaves it off keeps counting covers exactly as before.

Before you switch it on

Add every table the venue books, under Bookings then Bookings settings, in the Areas and tables card. For each table:

1. Area: the room or space it is in. Tables are only pushed together within one area.
2. Name: what your team calls it, for example T4 or Window 2.
3. Seats at least and Seats at most: the party sizes the table takes on its own. A table that seats 2 to 4 is never given to a party of 5, or to a party of 1. Leave Seats at most empty for a table with no upper limit.
4. Joinable: switch it on for a table that can be pushed together with others in the same area. The tables list shows "joinable" beside it.
5. Leave In use on.

A booking can only be placed in an area that is in use, and a guest booking online only gets tables in areas marked Guests can choose it online.

Switching it on

1. Go to Bookings then Bookings settings and choose the venue.
2. In the Table allocation card, switch on Table allocation.
3. Choose Save table allocation, then Switch on and seat bookings to confirm.

Bookings you have already taken are seated straight away, earliest first, using the same rules as a new booking. A booking keeps the table noted on it when that table is free and seats the party, so a party already sitting at its table stays there.

After the save, the card lists two kinds of booking, each linked so you can open it and move it:

• Bookings on no table: no table or set of tables fits, for example a party of 12 at a venue with no table or set of tables for 12. They keep their time and covers.
• Bookings seated at a different table: the table noted on the booking was taken or could not seat the party, so it went on another one. The card names the tables before and after, and the booking's history records the move.

Every save of the Bookings settings page while allocation is on seats any booking still on no table, so saving again finishes the job if the first save was cut short.

Switching table allocation off again keeps every table on its booking but stops using them: availability goes back to covers only.

How a table is chosen

When a guest books online, or a member of staff takes a booking from the diary:

1. The party goes on the smallest free table that seats it on its own: the fewest seats first, then the table that needs the larger party, then the order your tables are listed in.
2. If no single table fits, the party goes on the smallest set of two or three joinable tables in one area whose seats add up to the party. A set of two beats a set of three with the same seats. Tables are only pushed together for a party larger than each of them.
3. If neither is free for the whole visit, the time is not offered for that party.

A visit lasts the party's turn time from your Turn times by party size. A table is free when nothing holds it at any point in that time: another booking, a guest's table QR hold or a private hire.

Two guests booking the last table at the same moment cannot both get it. The table is checked again at the instant the booking is saved, so the second guest is told the time is full and nothing is held for them.

Moving a booking to another table

1. In the Diary, choose Move table on the booking's row, or open the booking and choose Move table at the top.
2. Tick the new table, or two or three joinable tables in one area to push together. The tables the booking sits on now start ticked and are marked "(now)".
3. Choose Move booking.

A table that is not in use is not offered. When the booking sits on such a table now, the dialog says so; choose the tables to move it to.

A table that something else holds during the visit is marked with what holds it, for example "Held 18:30 to 20:00: QR scan" or the reference of the booking on it. The move is refused, and the booking stays where it was, when the new tables cannot seat the party, are held at any point in the visit or sit in an area hired privately then; the message says which. For a party already at the table, only the rest of their visit needs to be free. Every move is recorded on the booking's history and in your activity log with the tables before and after.

Move table is offered on bookings still to come and on parties in the room, while table allocation is on for the venue.

When a table becomes free

A booking gives its table back when it is cancelled, marked a no-show or marked completed. A party that leaves early and is marked completed frees the table for the rest of the evening.

Changing a booking's time or party size moves its tables with it. The booking keeps its table when the table still seats the party and is free at the new time; otherwise it is seated again under the usual rules. If no table fits the change, the change is refused and the booking stays as it was.

A party marked arrived after a no-show is seated again on its own table when that table is still free. When no table is free, the booking keeps its new status on no table and the diary says so; move it to a table from the diary.

In the diary

Each booking's row names the table or tables it sits on, for example "T4 + T5", and the booking's own page shows them too.

Above the day's bookings, the diary lists Bookings on no table: any live booking that day that sits on no table while allocation is on, whatever left it there. Each has Move table, because the engine would otherwise give its seats to another party. The same panel lists the guests' table QR holds and walk-ins, and the day's private hires.

Removing a table or an area

While table allocation is on, a table that bookings still to come sit on cannot be removed, and neither can an area with such a table. The removal is refused with the number of bookings, and the dialog lists each one with a link. Move them to other tables first, then remove the table.

Team permissions

Seating, moving and changing bookings need Manage table bookings, as the other diary actions do. Viewing the diary needs View guest data.