Read the articles to understand how to manage your services and to enable your customers to understand how and when they can book! 🔎
How do I set up my restaurant services?
The article explains how you can create and configure your restaurant’s services, assigning a name and title, booking modes, and associated menus. It describes how to define availability, cover limits, and booking rules. Finally, it explains how to activate Reserve with Google. Click Configuration > Services/Shifts from the left-hand menu and then click +Add. 🔷 The Service details section In the Service details section, you can: Give your service a name: this name will be visible to you and your staff. Enter the service title and translate it automatically by clicking Automatically translate missing languages: this is what the customer will see on the booking page. Set the desired booking mode for this service. For example, you can make the Lunch service available only for Takeaway, or the Dinner service only In-house. Depending on the services offered by your restaurant, click here on Takeaway or Delivery to find out how to activate them. It’s also possible to make all booking modes available. Choose the menu associated with this service: this way, when the customer sits at the table and scans the digital menu QR Code, they will see the dishes from the menu you selected. For example, if you have a different aperitif menu and dinner menu, you can create two separate menus and associate them with their respective services (aperitif 17:00–19:00, dinner 19:00–22:00). By doing so, a customer who scans the menu between 17:00 and 19:00 will only see the aperitif menu, and vice versa. Click here to learn how to create different menus. Apply a percentage discount for the service: this will be displayed to the customer on the booking page. 🔷 The Service availability section In the Service availability section: Set the start and end time of the service Choose which days of the week the service will be active Limit the service to a specific period and make it valid only for certain times of the year Limit the number of bookable covers: once this option is enabled, a tab will open where you can decide whether to limit the number of covers per time slot or for the entire service Click here to read the article on how to limit the number of covers. Deactivate online bookings: choosing YES will block the ability to book online on your OctoTable booking page until you reactivate it by setting it to NO. 🔷 The Reservation settings section You can then configure the Reservation settings in the dedicated section, where you can: Indicate which times to show the customer in the booking form Set the booking duration. ⚠️ The average meal duration is crucial: it helps the system understand when a table will be available again. For example, if a customer books a table at 19:00 and you set the average meal duration to 1 hour, the system will make that table bookable again at 20:00. If you set 2 hours, the table will be bookable again at 21:00. ⚠️ Close online reservations before the service begins: this option lets you decide when to block customers from making an online booking. Set Receive reservations up to: indicate how many hours in advance customers are allowed to book. For example, if you set 2 hours before arrival, a customer booking at 18:00 will not be able to book for 19:00, but will need to book from 20:00 onwards. Indicate the maximum number of days in advance for which the end customer can make a reservation. Choose the type of confirmation: Immediate confirmation: the customer immediately receives the booking confirmation. Waiting list: the customer is placed on a waitlist and you must accept each reservation. Click here to read the article for more information about the waiting list. Enable automatic waitlist for groups. 👉 Remember you can click the question mark ❓ at the top right to see what to do in each section. 🔷 The External connections section At the bottom of the page, you’ll find the section to send the service to Reserve with Google. Read the full article to learn more about the integration between Google and OctoTable 👇 🔷 The Seating areas/tables section In the Seating areas/tables section, you can: Decide whether to associate the service with one or more seating areas in your restaurant Allow the customer to choose the seating room: if you enable this option and have multiple rooms associated with the service, the customer will be able to read the room description and choose it Choose whether to show seating areas that are full or not. 🔷 The Orders section In Orders section, you can choose if: Allow pre-ordering during reservation: you can let the customer send an order for a specific menu when booking the table. Click here to read the article to learn more about how to manage online orders. Allow ordering via the table QR code: when enabled, the customer can order directly from their phone by scanning the QR code associated with their table. Automatically send customer orders to the kitchen Require mandatory fields that the customer must complete to proceed with the order. 🔷 The Booking deposit section In the Booking deposit section, decide whether to require a deposit. More specifically, you can choose: The number of guests per reservation above which the deposit is required. The amount to be paid immediately. Whether the amount is per person or total. The description: use this box to enter the message you want the customer to see when asked for a deposit. 🔷 The Credit card in guarantee section In the Credit card in guarantee box, decide whether to enable this feature. Specifically, set: The number of guests per booking above which the credit card is required. The penalty amount to be charged. The description: use this box to enter the message you want the customer to see when asked for a card guarantee. For more information about the Credit card in guarantee option, read the article 👇 📌 Please note To use the Deposit and Credit card in guarantee features, remember to activate online payments in Advanced Settings > Deposits/Payments and connect your PayPal and/or Stripe account. 🔷 The Service images section Before saving your service, you can add Service images. The images will be displayed on the booking page in a carousel of photos showcasing your services. 🔷 The Service background section You can further customize your services by adding a background image for the specific service; you can add one image for the light theme and one for the dark theme. When clicking the service on the booking page, the background will change: instead of the one set in Configuration > Booking page, it will use the image uploaded in the Service Background section. For more information on how to associate a service with a specific room, read the article 👇 Thanks for visiting the OctoTable Community! 😊 00How does the waiting list work?
This article explains how the Octotable Waiting List works, which allows you to manage booking requests without automatically confirming them until the restaurant approves them, or to collect requests when the dining room is full. When activated, the function sends notifications via email, SMS or WhatsApp, so customers always know if their booking is pending or confirmed. Everything is easily managed from the dashboard or app. ⚠️ If you want to include the Waiting List function in your subscription, you will need to purchase an EVO plan in Subscription > Version ⚠️ With OctoTable you can activate two types of Waiting List: Waiting List for booking requests: ensure that received bookings are not automatically confirmed, but are placed on a Waiting List. You will confirm the booking. You can also choose to apply the Waiting List only to bookings that exceed a certain number of people. Waiting List for sold out availability: you can decide to activate the Waiting List only when the dining room is full. As soon as you have a table available again, the customer will be informed and can confirm or cancel the booking. Let's see in detail how these two options work! 🕐 Waiting List for booking requests If you don't want to receive immediately confirmed bookings, you can change the confirmation type for each service. Go to Configuration > Services hours, click on the green edit pencil ✏️ corresponding to the service you want to update, and change the confirmation type from Immediate Confirmation to Waiting List. 📌 Please note: You can decide to automatically confirm only bookings for few people and accept only after your verification bookings starting from a certain number of covers. In this case, the Confirmation Type must remain on Immediate Confirmation to enable the Automatic Waiting List for groups option and set the value How many guests do you need to activate the Waiting List?. For example, by setting 4 as the value, if a group of 4 or more people books, you can automatically put them on the Waiting List; only after your acceptance will the booking be confirmed (to avoid no-shows of many tables at your restaurant). A booking for 3 people or less will be directly confirmed. The customer, after sending the booking request, will read a notice on the booking page that will inform them that the restaurant will confirm via email or SMS to the provided contacts. As soon as you receive the booking on Octotable, you will find the notification next to the clock icon 🕑, clicking on it you will find the list of bookings on the Waiting List. Or alternatively you can manage the Waiting List directly from the Dashboard or the OctoTable App, clicking on the purple button ⌛ Manage: At this point you can check and confirm only when you are sure you have availability. 🚫Reject booking: clicking this button you will reject the customer's booking ✅Confirm booking: clicking the green button, you automatically confirm the booking without the customer having to give you reconfirmation. ⏰Accept booking: clicking this button the customer will receive an automatic message and will have to confirm the booking within the time limit set in Configuration > General settings > Waiting List Having included in the EVO subscription the customizable Template packages for email and SMS and automatic WhatsApp, every time you receive a booking request you can decide to activate or deactivate email, SMS or WhatsApp messages to inform the customer about the booking status. Go to Configuration > Emails/Instant SMS and, after selecting the template of your interest, set the template as in the photo. If you want more information about automatic templates 👇 👥 Waiting List for sold out The second option of the waiting list allows you to activate this feature only when the dining room is full but you still want to receive booking requests from customers. As soon as one or more tables become available, you can then manage these requests manually according to your availability. Access the Configuration > Seating Areas/Tables section and click on the pencil corresponding to the room where you want to activate the Waiting List. Under In case of No availability choose Waiting List and click save at the bottom of the page. ⚠️ Perform this operation in all rooms where you want the Waiting List for sold out to be active. You will find the booking in the bookings list or by clicking on the clock symbol at the top right. When you have a table available again, you can Accept the customer's booking by clicking on the blue button, who will have time to confirm or not the booking. ⚠️Remember to set a time limit within which the customer must let you know if they intend to confirm or not the booking in Configuration > General settings > Waiting List. When the booking appears expired, you can set another automatic email/SMS sending and then manually delete the expired bookings. This communication flow will be possible through the automatic messages available in the Configuration > Emails/Instant SMS section. Finally, remember that even bookings you take manually can be placed on the Waiting List. Click on the quick button New booking at the top right and after entering the customer's data, select Waiting list, at the bottom right. Once you click on Walk-in, the booking will follow the same procedure we showed you before. Do you want to activate the Waiting List function also for Reserve with Google? Read the complete article 👇 Thank you for consulting the Octotable Community! 😊 00Do you want to close the restaurant or prevent reservations for a room or table? Use Out of Service!
You have an event scheduled at your venue, a logistical problem or a table is out of order and need to close the availability? Then this fonction is for you! Access your planning (Calendar > Availability) and click on OUT OF SERVICE. A window where you can select the period will pop up, together with any service, dining room or table that you intend to close: Choose YES to close the rooms Choose the date or period you intend to close Select the Service/s to be closed Choose which rooms to close By clicking on the arrow next to the small square, you can select the individual tables you want to block in each room. Don't forget to Save before you leave the page! It is also possible to activate the Out-of-Service for certain time slots. You can decide which time slot you want to activate the Out-of-Service for by first clicking on the service and then on the specific time slot: a single click turns the time slot red and thus determines the Out-of-Service, double-clicking turns the time slot green and thus allows bookings in that time slot. Rooms or specific tables can be closed for a day or for a specific period of time and for specific time slots. The time slots that appear are those set under Services/Opening Hours > Which time slots do you want to show on your booking form? IMPORTANT: If you notice that all times are shown in green and do not change colour when you click on them, it means that you need to delete the image cache. To do this, follow these instructions in the browser you are using (Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc.): go to settings and look for the "Cache" option. Click on " Clear browsing data" and select the option "Images and stored files". ATTENTION: The orange icon only appears if you select a room associated with a certain service. As long as you do not select a service or room previously associated in Services/Opening Hours, the Out-of-Service button will not be available. When you click on the Out of Service button, the same screen will appear in Planning from your Dashboard. Thanks for visiting the Octotable Community! 👨🏻🍳 See you soon! 😊 00🇬🇧 Video Tutorial - How to set up the shifts? How to enable takeaway and delivery services?
In this tutorial we'll see together: How to set up the shifts in your restaurant How to enable the Takeaway and Delivery service Please do not hesitate to write us for requesting further support or a Live Demo! 00How can I stop receiving last minute reservations?
This article explains how to set up a time limit to avoid last-minute bookings, defining how many hours before arrival customers can make reservations. This way you guarantee a more organized service management and improve the experience for both you and your guests. ⚠️ If you want to include the advanced features (Smart User) in your subscription, you will need to purchase a DigiMenu, Premium or EVO plan in Subscription > Upgrade ⚠️ Access the Configuration > Service Hours section and click on the pencil icon next to the service where you want to apply the limitation. In the Booking Settings section, enter until what time you want to receive bookings before the customer's arrival: Example: if your service starts at 12:00 PM and you want to receive bookings no later than 10:00 AM, you should enter the value 2, to tell the system that bookings can be made within the two preceding hours and not beyond. The customer who tries to make a booking after 10:00 AM will find availability for the next time slot (e.g., 12:30 PM). Do you want to know how to block availability on the booking page? Read the complete article 👇 Thank you for visiting the OctoTable community! 😊 00
