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Notifications and guarantees

What we send the guest, and what we ask of them to secure the table.

Notifications and guarantees

You approve them​

Bookings come in as requests and you accept or decline them from Today. The table is held while you decide.

The "Only from" field lets you do this for large parties only: put 6 and small tables come in by themselves.

How to answer requests →

Reminder​

How many hours before the booking they're reminded. Default is 24.

If you switch off "Send reminder", none is sent. Then they aren't asked to confirm and no table is freed either: both options go with the reminder, and with the switch off you don't even see them.

The reminder is the single biggest thing that cuts no-shows. Worth having on.

Ask them to confirm​

We email them a button to confirm the booking. It goes out with the reminder, and also when the reminder reaches them by WhatsApp, once that service is available: the WhatsApp template can't carry buttons (WhatsApp reminder, very soon). The button opens their booking page, which confirms it as it loads, and in Today you'll see the Confirmed label.

Guests who left no email (say, a booking you took by phone) can't be asked, and their booking is never released.

Release the table if they don't answer​

Turn this on and the email tells them the time by which they need to confirm: the hours you set, counted from the reminder. If that time passes without a confirmation, the booking is cancelled, the table goes back on sale and we email them to say so.

  • The deadline is never at night: if it falls between 23:00 and 9:00, it moves to 9:00.
  • There has to be at least an hour left before the booking. If there isn't, they're asked to confirm but the table isn't released.
  • Only bookings asked with this option on are released: if you switch it on today, bookings that already had their reminder are left alone.
warning

Cancelling on silence burns guests too. Plenty of people never reply and turn up anyway. Only switch this on if you're really short of tables.

Deposit​

You can ask for an amount per person above a given party size. The money goes to your Stripe account, not ours: you need to register to take payments once, using the button on the same card.

Setting it to 0 turns it off.

Booking form questions​

What we ask the guest when they book: allergies, whether they're bringing a pushchair, whether they're celebrating something. The answer arrives with the booking and shows in the diary.