Reservations
Table reservations — the day view, the floor plan, the rules for online booking and what happens to a booking from request to finish.
Reservations is an add-on for a venue with a dining room: guests book a table from the shop page or phone you, and you see the whole day on one timeline.
When it is available
The Reservations module works only when:
- your plan includes it (the reservations entitlement in Settings → Billing) or Delieta support granted it to you,
- you have it switched on in Settings → Modules,
- you have the Shop switched on — add-ons work only together with it.
A module that is off is not hidden: each of the three tabs shows the message "Reservations are off" and a Go to modules button. The rules for plans and modules are in Modules and billing.
In the panel menu the module sits in the Add-ons group. It has three tabs: Day, Floor and Settings.
Day
The Day tab is a timeline of tables for the chosen day, with the list of bookings below it.
- You switch days with the arrows, the Today button or the date picker.
- The page refreshes itself every 10 seconds, so a new web booking appears without a click.
- The Turn on sound button turns on a chime for new bookings. The setting applies to this browser.
- The timeline needs tables. Until you have some, you see the hint "Add tables in the Floor tab".
The New reservation button records a phone booking or a walk-in guest. You give the day, time, party size, name and phone, and optionally an e-mail and notes. You can pick a table yourself or leave "Pick automatically".
A manual booking is not limited by opening hours, lead time or the online party limit. Only two things count: the chosen table fits the party, and it is free at that time.
Booking statuses
| Status | Meaning | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| To confirm | The guest asked online and waits for you | Confirm or Decline |
| Confirmed | The slot is confirmed | Seat, Cancel or No-show |
| Seated | The guests are at the table | Finish |
| Completed | After the visit | nothing — the status is final |
| Cancelled | Declined or called off | nothing — the status is final |
| No-show | The guest did not come | nothing — the status is final |
Where a booking starts:
- Online (from the shop page) — "To confirm", unless you switch on Confirm automatically. Then it is "Confirmed" at once.
- Phone and Walk-in (entered in the panel) — always "Confirmed" at once.
- Partner system — a booking saved from your own system through the Partner API; also "Confirmed" at once.
Every booking has a short reference number that the guest sees.
Floor plan
The Floor tab is the plan of the venue. Guests book specific places, so the plan has to match what is in the room.
- Add table puts a table on the plan. Drag it with the mouse, or select it and move it with the arrow keys.
- For a table you set: number, zone, fewest and most people, size, shape (rectangular or round) and rotation.
- The Can be booked online switch hides the table from guests — then only you assign it, in the panel.
- Zones are parts of the venue, for example main room, garden, mezzanine. You cannot delete a zone that has tables — move the tables first.
- You save changes with the Save changes button.
- Do not delete a table that has upcoming bookings without moving or cancelling those bookings first.
If the shop has several languages, you translate zone names in the Floor tab or in Translations.
Online booking rules
The Settings tab holds the rules guests book by online. Until you save settings, these defaults apply:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Interval between times | 15 minutes | How many minutes apart the guest sees free times |
| Booking length | 120 minutes (2 hours) | How long a table is blocked |
| Earliest before the visit | 60 minutes | How late before the visit a guest can still book |
| Furthest ahead | 30 days | How far into the future booking is open |
| Max. people online | 8 | Larger parties phone the venue |
| Confirm automatically | off | When on, online bookings are confirmed at once |
The booking length is one value for the whole venue: from 15 minutes to 8 hours.
Notifications
In the Staff e-mail field enter the mailbox that should get a message about every new online booking. Bookings entered in the panel notify nobody. The guest gets a confirmation message when their booking is confirmed automatically.
The Staff phone (SMS) field saves, but SMS messages do not go out yet — we are waiting for an SMS operator.
Opening hours and closed days
The free times guests see come from opening hours (description) and from the Closed days section. You set both in Settings → Company.
- A day marked closed in the opening hours has no free times.
- A day entered in Closed days has none either. The same list closes days for shop orders.
- Without opening hours set, a guest sees no free time at all.
- A booking has to fit before closing: the start time plus the booking length cannot pass the closing time.
One table, one booking
Delieta will not let the same table be booked in overlapping times. The safeguard lives in the database, so it works even when two people click in the same second: the first wins, the second gets the message "This table is already taken at this time" or "This slot is already taken" and picks another time.
A taken table blocks the slot also when staff enter the booking in the panel.
The shop page and the API
Online bookings are taken by the shop page. The shop reads the floor plan and free times and saves the booking through the Partner API. When the module is off, the API answers 403 with the code module_disabled.