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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 👇
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 👇
⚠️ 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.
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.
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 👇