When can customers book? (online times, last bookings, notice and how far ahead)

Set your online booking times, the last booking before you close for every way of booking, minimum notice, how far ahead, special dates open early, blocked dates and the cancellation deadline.

Everything about WHEN people can book is on Settings → Bookings → When people can book (/dashboard/settings/when-people-can-book). Owners, Admins and Managers can open it. Your opening hours themselves are set on Settings → Venue → Hours — this page decides which parts of them customers can book.

Online booking times

For each day, Online booking times sets the first and the last time a booking can start online. Tick Same as opening hours to follow your opening hours, or untick it and type a first start and a last start. The copy button beside a day applies that day's times to every day.

A booking also has to finish by closing time. On a day that follows your opening hours, the page shows the real result — for example "First start 12:00 · last start 20:30 (a 90-minute booking finishes by 22:00)". Which wins: "Online booking times can only narrow your opening hours — never widen them."

• Drinks-only online booking times appear under them when you offer food and drinks-only bookings separately (*Available on Plus plan and above*). Tick Same as food hours to follow the food times, or set a drinks-only first and last start.
• Special dates use their own hours online. A special date with its own opening hours (set on Settings → Bookings → Special dates) uses those hours for online bookings that day, not the weekday's online booking times — the page lists any upcoming date where the two differ. A special date can also have online booking times or set sittings of its own, on the same page.

Last booking before you close

One row shows the last booking for every way of booking side by side, in minutes before closing time, with today's real last times ("Today (Friday) you close at 23:00: online last start 21:30 · your team until 21:30 · walk-ins until 22:00 · waitlist until 22:00"):

• Online — set by your online booking times above.
• Your team — new bookings your team adds (0–180 minutes; 0 = no cut-off). The cut-off includes its last minute: with 60 minutes before a 22:00 close, your team can add a booking starting at 21:00 but not one at 21:15 — the same as walk-ins and the waitlist. A booking your team adds still has to finish by closing time.
• Walk-ins — 0–180 minutes; a walk-in that would run past closing is shortened to fit. Only used while Enable walk-ins is on.
• Waitlist (*Available on Complete*) — 0–600 minutes; joining the waitlist closes, and a party added late is shortened to fit. Only used while Turn on the waitlist is on.

Which wins: "Online, the last start is the earlier of your online booking times and the latest time a booking can start and still finish by closing time." If your team stops earlier than online customers can book, the page says so ("a customer on the phone can be refused a time they could book online") and offers to line your team's cut-off up with online.

Notice and how far ahead

• Maximum advance booking — how far ahead customers can book online. The default is 30 days; your plan caps it at 30 days on Free and 365 days on Plus, Pro and Complete. Set it to 0 and customers can only book for today (the row then reads "Today only").
• Minimum advance booking — the least notice you'll accept online, in hours. The default is 0 (customers can book for right now). Available on Plus plan and above.

Your team is only warned by these two limits and can still book. Beside each one, an Also stop your team switch (off to begin with) holds your team to the same limit — the row's Applies to: line then reads "Online · Your team".

If the minimum notice is longer than how far ahead customers can book, nobody can book online at all — the page warns you and says which number to change.

Special dates open early

Want to take Christmas Day bookings in September while everyday bookings stay 30 days ahead? Give the date an early opening on Settings → Bookings → Special dates: add the date (or open it), then set its When it opens for booking to Custom — Open to book now, or From a day and time ("1 November at 10:00"; leave the time empty and it opens first thing that day). A date can be one day or several days in a row, and switching the date off pauses it without removing it — bookings already made for it stay, and their customers can still change them online (a new size, a different time that day); only moving to a date that is closed online is refused.

On When people can book, Special dates open early lists those dates and what customers can book today — open now, open up to a certain day, or the day it opens — with a link to add or change them on Special dates.

Customers then see a ★ pill for each open special date beside the date pills on your booking page, and the date is marked in the calendar with its name — even when everyday dates that far ahead are closed. On When people can book, switch on Show a "Now booking" line on your booking page to add a short line under the date heading; leave Your own words (optional) blank and it names your nearest open special date by itself ("Now booking: Christmas Day — 25 Dec").

With that line switched on, the same open dates also appear as a Now booking card on your venue page and, if you have a ResoFlow website, as a card under its booking card; the website's Now booking card switch (Your website → Sections) turns that one off on its own. Each card takes the customer straight to that date on your booking page.

• Your plan's own limit still applies. Free plans take online bookings up to 30 days ahead, so a Free venue's Christmas date stays closed online until it is within 30 days — the list says the day it opens by itself, and shows the plan that would open it now. Plus, Pro and Complete reach 365 days ahead.
• Special dates open early only change online bookings. Your team can book any date from the dashboard, as always.

Times offered

• Time between booking times — the gap between the times customers are offered on your booking page: 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes (default 15). Your team's booking form uses the same steps. To offer only set start times at certain times of the week — say Friday and Saturday dinner at 18:00 and 20:30 — add a day-and-time rule on Settings → Bookings → Special dates (see What's different about Christmas Day? (Special dates)).
• Under More options: Allow staff to book slightly in the past — when your team creates a booking, a start time up to this many minutes ago is allowed, handy when a customer has just sat down (default 5, range 0–60). Very small values round up to your time between booking times.

Days online bookings are closed

Online booking blocked dates closes online bookings for a whole day or part of one — a private hire, a staff party. Works on every plan. They're added and changed on Settings → Bookings → Special dates, as a date's Online bookings closed (All day, or Between times); this page lists the ones coming up, with a link there. Your team and walk-ins see a warning on a blocked date and can still book — to stop your team too, switch on Also stop your team on blocked dates on Special dates. A blocked date needs both a start and an end time to close part of a day: one saved with only one of the two closes nothing, and the list says so ("no full times — closes nothing").

Cancelling and changing online

Available on Plus plan and above. Cancellation deadline (in hours; default 0, which is off) does three things at once:

• inside it, customers can't cancel their booking online — they have to contact you;
• inside it, customers can't change their booking online either;
• if you charge a late-cancellation fee (Settings → Payments and deposits → What guests pay → Cancellations and refunds → Also charge for late cancellations), this is the window it applies in — a customer inside the window with a chargeable saved card can still cancel online, but only after their manage-booking page names the exact fee and they confirm it.

At 0, customers can cancel or change online right up to their booking time. Once the booking time has passed, a booking can't be cancelled online at all — the manage page says so and asks the customer to contact you.

A customer's own change is checked like a new booking: your opening hours (opening time as well as closing), how far ahead, your minimum notice (though making the party smaller inside your notice is allowed), and — if you ask larger parties to call at short notice (Pre-orders) — the same rule. When online bookings need your approval, a customer's change comes back to your team for approval if the booking needed approval when it was made, or if the changed booking would need it now; decline the change and their original booking stands (see How do I approve or decline online booking requests?).

The deadline counts back from the booking time on your venue's clock — "24 hours before" always means the same time on the clock the day before, even on the nights the clocks change. A booking keeps the cancellation terms it was made under, so a change to the deadline applies to bookings made after you save it (bookings made before 8 September 2026 follow your current setting). Saving a change also updates your customer cancellation policy — you'll see "Saved — this also updated your customer cancellation policy" with a Preview link.

When you take booking payments, the deadline sits beside your refund cut-off (Settings → Payments and deposits → What guests pay → Cancellations and refunds → Refund cut-off), which shows the deadline too, with a Change link back here. If online cancelling closes before refunds stop — for example a 48-hour deadline with a 24-hour refund cut-off — a customer who cancels between the two is due their money back but can't cancel online to get it. The page says so in one sentence and offers to bring the deadline in to match. (A deadline shorter than the refund cut-off is fine: your emails and terms only promise a refund while there is one.)

Click Save changes when you're done.

Related: Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance) · How do I set my opening hours? · What's different about Christmas Day? (Special dates) · When do customers get their deposit back? · How do I charge no-show fees? · Why can't customers book a certain date?