Taking reservations
What this is for
Holding a table for a named guest at a set time, so the floor screen shows it as Reserved and nobody seats a walk-in on it.
Bookings reach you two ways:
- You enter them — the phone call, the email, the person at the door asking about Friday.
- The guest books online — from your customer site, with no phone call at all.
Both land in the same book. You control which routes are open under Reservation rules and availability.
Adding a reservation yourself
- Go to Reservations.
- Select New Reservation.
- Fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Date of Booking | The day. |
| Time slot | Chosen from the slots you've configured — not free text. |
| Guests | Party size. Restodesk uses this to offer tables that fit. |
| Customer | Name and contact. An existing customer can be picked; a new one is created as you type. |
| Preferred area | Optional. Terrace, garden, indoors. |
| Table | Optional at this stage — you can assign it now or on the day. |
- Save.
If notifications are on, the guest gets a confirmation email. See Reservation rules and availability.
Assigning a table
You don't have to commit a specific table when the booking is made, and often shouldn't. A booking with no table yet shows Table not assigned, and you place it when you know how the night looks.
To assign: open the reservation and choose a table. Restodesk shows what's actually free at that time — a table already booked in that slot is marked Already reserved, and an area with nothing left shows All tables reserved at this time.
Assign the table when:
- The party asked for a specific spot.
- It's a large group needing a particular table.
- It's the morning of service and you're laying out the room.
Leave it open when the day is still filling up. It keeps your options honest.
Reservation statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Booked but not yet confirmed by you. |
| Confirmed | You've confirmed it. |
| Checked In | The party arrived and is seated. |
| No Show | The time passed and they didn't come. |
| Cancelled | Called off, by you or by them. |
Move a reservation along as the evening happens. It costs seconds and it's what makes the floor screen trustworthy.
Mark no-shows honestly. It's the only way you ever find out how much of your book doesn't turn up, and whether a deposit policy is worth having.
Running the day
Today Reservations is the list to have open during service. It shows who's coming, when, how many, and which table — if you've assigned one.
A practical rhythm:
- Morning — read the day's book, assign tables for anything large or specific.
- On arrival — mark Checked In, then seat them and open the order on their table.
- After the slot — clear anything that didn't arrive as No Show.
When a reserved table gets an order
Open an order on a table that has a live booking and Restodesk asks whether this is the same customer who reserved.
- Same Customer links the order to the booking, so the reservation and the spend belong to the same person.
- Different Customer keeps them separate.
Answer it accurately. It's what makes "how much do our bookings actually spend?" a question you can answer later.
Good to know
- Reservations belong to a branch. Each location keeps its own book.
- Slots come from your settings, not free text. If the time a guest wants isn't offered, the slot configuration is why — see Reservation rules and availability.
- Deleting a reservation removes it from the record. Cancelled and No Show keep it, which is almost always what you want.
- Can't see the Reservations screen at all? Why can't I see this screen?