How do I set up and seat walk-ins?

Switch on walk-ins, tune the defaults, and seat walk-up guests manually or with Smart Walk-In auto-placement.

Walk-ins are off by default — switch on Enable walk-ins in Settings → Bookings → How people book, and a walk-in button joins the creation options across the dashboard. Owners, Admins and Managers can open the Bookings settings pages (Hosts can't see Settings by default).

The settings

Each walk-in rule sits beside the same rule for every other way of booking:

• Enable walk-ins (off by default) — Settings → Bookings → How people book, under Ways people can book.
• Standard booking length for Walk-ins (default 90 minutes, 15–480) — Settings → Bookings → How long a booking lasts. Under Length by party size, Who else gets these lengths has a Walk-ins switch to give walk-ins your party-size lengths instead (off by default; the lengths are Available on Plus plan and above).
• The last walk-in before you close (default 60 minutes before closing, 0–180) — the Walk-ins line of Last booking before you close, on Settings → Bookings → When people can book. Walk-ins are blocked once fewer minutes remain, and a walk-in that would run past closing is shortened to fit.
• Joining tables for a big walk-in — the Walk-ins and Smart walk-in switches of Join neighbouring tables automatically, on Settings → Bookings → Tables and seating (both off by default; Available on Plus plan and above). The same page's Which rooms each one uses has a Smart walk-in switch per room, controlling which rooms Smart walk-in looks in.

Settings → Bookings → Walk-ins itself is just the walk-in form, in one section, The walk-in form:

• Enable smart walk-ins (off by default; Available on Complete) — puts a Smart Walk-In button on the walk-in form, which finds the best free tables for the party instead of your team choosing by hand.
• Default party size (default 2, range 1–10) — what the form starts with; staff can change it.
• Require customer name on manual walk-ins (off by default) — smart walk-ins stay anonymous either way.

While walk-ins are switched off, the page says nothing on it is used, with a link to switch them on.

Seating a walk-in manually

• Click Add walk-in in the Bookings page header (on a phone it's an icon button with the same name), or click a free table on the floor plan and choose New walk-in.
• Fill in Customer name (optional unless you've required it), Table (via Add Table, which opens a Select a Table floor-plan picker — a table that already has a booking at that time asks "Book it anyway?", and Book it anyway seats the walk-in there on purpose), and Guests — on a phone a tap on Guests opens a row of number chips with no keyboard (Type a number brings it).
• Optionally add Email (optional) and Phone (optional) — with tick boxes to Send confirmation email / Send confirmation SMS — plus Occasion, Allergies, Dietary, Notes and Staff notes.
• Click Confirm Walk-In. The form greys out with "Adding walk-in…" until the walk-in is in — a second tap does nothing.

Table availability respects your turnaround (cleaning) time — a just-cleared table isn't offered until the gap has passed.

While you're closed, on your break or past your last walk-in, Add walk-in is greyed out and says why — and the server refuses a walk-in then too, so an old tab can't slip one through. A time you've blocked for online bookings asks first whether to seat the walk-in anyway.

With the Walk-ins switch of Join neighbouring tables automatically on, a party bigger than any one table can be saved without picking tables — neighbouring tables are joined for it. A smaller party still picks its table.

Smart Walk-In

Click Smart Walk-In, answer How many guests?, then Find Tables. The system picks the best available table(s) and shows Ready to confirm — click Confirm & Return. If things aren't perfect it asks first: Tables split required (the only option is separate tables — Proceed Anyway or Cancel Walk-In), Oversized table (Assign Anyway, Try Waitlist Instead or Cancel Walk-In), or No tables currently available, which suggests the next workable time and offers Create Reservation Instead or Add to Waitlist.

Smart walk-in finds a table for the length the walk-in will actually be given, looks only in the rooms switched on for it, never hands out an ask-first seating type (like outside) unless the walk-in asks for it, and its next-free time follows the day's real hours — special dates and seasons included.

Related: How do I choose how people can book? · How do I run service from the floor plan? · How long does a booking last? · How do I manage the waitlist during service?