Setting up reservations in the Back Office

Set up guest capacity in the floor plan

Use the Floor Plan to set up the minimum and maximum group size for each table in your business.

• Go to Settings > Floor Plan.
• For each table, select whether it is reservable and set the minimum and maximum group size that can sit at the table.

Set up table groups in the floor plan (optional)

Use this to create capacity for situations where you can combine tables together to cater for (larger) groups.

For example in the image below, the tables 03 and 04 in the table group ‘03 + 04’ can be combined to cater to a larger group of 6 people. Note: This is a lower number of guests than when the tables are reserved separately. To solve this, read about the Capacity modifier below.

• Go to Settings > Floor Plan > and select Table Groups to view the table groups.

• Click Add table group and draw a box around the tables you want to combine.

• The Capacity modifier is used to change the amount of guests that can sit at this table group as a result of combining tables. If the capacity stays the same after combining the tables, leave ‘0’ in the modifier box. If you win 2 seats, enter ‘+2’, or if you lose 2 seats, then enter ‘-2’. The max group size will adjust automatically.

  In the example below, when combining tables 03 and 04, you lose 2 seats (from 8 guests to 6) so the modifier box says -2.

Set up services and availability

Create Service

Services are what your customers will be reserving for; whether a meal service, a haircut or a workshop.

• Go to Reservations > Availability > Click the green button Create service.
• Enter a name (e.g., ‘Lunch’ or ‘Borrel’)
• Add an optional description and image for the service. These will be shown to customers in the reservation widget.
• Select the duration of the service. This is the amount of time needed for guests at a reservation.
• Squeezing allows customers to book shorter reservations when there is limited availability.
  • For example, if the duration of a service is normally 2 hours, squeezing lets the customer book a service for 1 hour 30 minutes.
  • If no regular service duration is available for the group size at the desired hour, the widget will show a squeezed reservation which a customer can book.
  • Shorter, squeezed reservation end times are highlighted in the reservation widget, in confirmation emails and on check in.
• Turn on the toggle Display end time for customer to see the end time of their reservation in the widget and in emails they receive, so they can see until what time they can remain at their table.
• Enable prepayments for the reservation
  • Enter the prepayment amount
  • Select whether the prepayment is charged per guest or reservation.
  • Determine the cancellation window in which customers will be eligible to receive a refund if they cancel.
• Highlight a service in the reservation widget to promote special services/events by turning on the Promotion toggle:
  • Once enabled, the service will appear highlighted in the reservation widget.
  • Use the link for marketing purposes, to direct customers to the highlighted service
• Once enabled, the service will appear highlighted in the reservation widget.
• Disable Show in widget if you want to hide the service so it does not appear to normal customers looking at your website. This is useful for private events, opening parties and other situations where you do not want the service in the widget. You can use the direct booking link to access the service if it is not shown in the widget.

• Save the service by clicking Create new service.

Create Schedule

Availability is when a service is available for guests to make a reservation.

This is managed via availability schedules. Multiple schedules can be used for one or multiple services to determine when customers can reserve and to guide or limit capacity for the services involved.

• Go to Reservations > Availability > Click Create schedule underneath a service.
• Select the services you want the availability schedule to apply to.
• Seating:
  • Turn on the Allocate guests to tables toggle to automatically assign guests to tables. If you do not use this, table capacity determined in the Floor plan will not be used when calculating whether a customer can make reservations.
  • Select seating areas for this schedule.
• Set the time, day, and date limits:
  • Select if the days are Recurring weekly or only available at Fixed dates.
  • Select at least one of the weekdays to which you want the availability schedule to apply.
  • Select start and end times for reservations.
  • Suspend availability can be used to open or close reservations between certain dates.
• Booking window:
  • Select how far in advance people can reserve.
  • Select how long before service guests can make a reservation.
  • Turn on the same-day reservation cutoff time. This stops new reservations from being book on the same day after a specific time.
• Advanced guest limits:
  • Maximum number of guests: by default, this is the sum of all seats in the area. Reduce the total number of guests who can reserve if you would like to save some capacity for walk-ins.
  • Maximum number of groups: by default, this number is based on the sum of all reservable tables. It is possible to reduce the total number of groups. This number overrides the number of groups filled in under Pacing > Default pacing limits (see section below).
  • Minimum and maximum group size: select the maximum and minimum number of guests who can reserve in a group. This is useful if you want to limit large groups from making reservations. 

Pacing

To reduce overloading your staff, you can limit the number of groups who arrive at the same time with the pacing feature. To set up pacing:

• Go to Reservations > Pacing
• Default pacing limit: the amount of groups that can arrive every 15 minutes. Note: this number will be overridden by the Maximum number of groups filled in for a schedule (see section above).
• Pacing limits per weekday: Use the Adjust pacing if you want to change the pacing frequency for a particular time and day of the week.

Day Limits

Adjust the maximum number of guests you want to accept for a selected day. This will override the general availability and pacing limits.

• Go to Reservations > Agenda
• On the Day view, click the Filter icon on the top right
• On the Month view, click on the Filter icon on the day
• To stop taking reservations for this date, turn on the Closed toggle.
  • This will not affect existing reservations.
• Adjust the maximum number of guests, at the same time for this day. This number applies to all time slots
  • The default is taken from the availability and pacing limits.
• Adjust the pacing limits by selecting the max number of guests per time slot.
• Click Save

Advanced

Go to Reservations > Advanced to view the various advanced reservation features:

• Gaps and Timing: Determine the gaps between reservations and the interval times of when you allow a reservation to start.
• Reviews
  • Internal reviews: Turn the toggle on to send an email to guests after their visit for them to leave an internal review. These reviews are listed under Reservations > Reviews. More on this here.
  • External reviews: Turn on the toggle to request reviews from your guests on other websites. More on this here.
• Redirect users after booking their reservation for analytics tracking.
  • This will automatically redirect users to a page provided by you. If left blank, customers will be redirected to the Tebi success page.
  • Recommendation: the redirect link is to a custom success page, as customers will not be led to the Tebi success page anymore.
• Waitlist: Turn the toggle on to allow guests to join a waitlist to accept a spot if other guests cancel.