How many guests can book at once? (party sizes, guests at once and pacing rules)

Set the largest party that can book online, the most guests seated at once, the most guests arriving every 15 minutes, and pacing rules — so many bookings or covers of a kind in a window, on the days you choose.

How many people can book is set on Settings → Bookings → How many at once (/dashboard/settings/how-many-at-once). Owners, Admins and Managers can open it. Which wins: "Every limit applies at once — a time is only offered online if it fits all of them."

Why can't people book a time when tables look free?

Usually because a limit on this page is full at that time — most often Most guests seated at once. A booking is counted for its whole length: with 90-minute bookings and a limit of 40, the 40 guests booked for 7:00pm are still seated at 7:15pm, so 7:15pm is full too — and so is every time until the 7:00pm tables are expected to leave. Most guests arriving every 15 minutes and pacing rules can fill a time the same way. Every rule you have is listed on Booking rules at a glance; for the full checklist, see Why does my booking page show no available times?

Party sizes

• Maximum party size — the largest party customers can book online (default 6; 1–100 guests). A bigger party is shown your venue phone number (from Venue profile) to call you. It applies to online bookings and to customers joining your waitlist. If the number is bigger than your largest table, a note explains what that means for your floor plan — for example that bigger parties arrive without a table unless neighbouring tables can be joined, and that a party bigger than your total seating can never book online.
• Apply max party size to staff bookings too (off by default) — when on, the limit also applies to bookings your team adds and to walk-ins. When off, your team can book any party size.
• Smallest party online (default 1; every plan) — the smallest party customers can book online, for example 2 so a table is never booked online for one person. Smaller parties are asked to contact you. Walk-ins and the waitlist are never judged by it. Your team sees a warning and can still add a smaller party, unless you switch on Also stop your team beside it. If it's bigger than your maximum, nobody could book online — the page says so, with Set the smallest party to … to fix it. A special date, or a day-and-time rule (for example 2 or more at dinner), can set its own party sizes on Settings → Bookings → Special dates.

Most guests seated at once

Available on Pro plan and above. Most guests seated at once is the most guests you want sitting down at the same time, even if tables are free (default 0 — no limit). The page shows how many tables and seats you have, for context.

A booking is counted for its whole length, so a time stays full until the guests seated at it are expected to leave (see the question above). Guests at an event that uses your dining room (no tables set aside) count too.

It turns away online bookings. Beside it, of which online at most keeps part of it for your team, walk-ins and the waitlist: online customers stop being offered a time once that many guests booked online are seated (*Available on Pro plan and above*, like the limit itself). Bookings your team adds and walk-ins count towards the total too: when your team adds or moves a booking past it, they are warned — with the limit named — and can still go ahead, and walk-ins are never turned away by it. To hold your team and walk-ins to it as well, switch on Also stop your team beside it (off to begin with); the row's Applies to: line then reads "Online · Your team · Walk-ins". Guests at an event that uses your dining room (no tables set aside for it) count towards it as well — and towards Most food guests seated at once — but not towards arrivals or pacing rules. (This setting used to be called "Maximum covers per time slot" — it has always worked this way; only the name and wording changed.)

Most guests arriving every 15 minutes

Available on Pro plan and above. Most guests arriving every 15 minutes paces the kitchen: no more than this many guests can arrive in any 15-minute stretch, however many tables are free (default 0 — no limit). Use it with, or instead of, the seated limit — for example, "at most 20 guests arriving every 15 minutes" spreads a Saturday's arrivals without capping how many you seat.

It is a pacing rule (it counts covers, over any 15 minutes, every day), so it also appears in the Pacing rules list below, where you can narrow it to certain days or times. It has an of which online at most box too: online customers stop being offered a time once that many online guests arrive in it.

An online share only counts bookings made online and only stops online bookings — your team, walk-ins and the waitlist never count towards it and are never stopped by it. If it isn't smaller than its total, it never limits anything — the page says so, with a Remove the online share button.

Food and drinks-only limits

Under More options in the same section: Most food guests seated at once and Most drinks-only guests seated at once. Each counts only bookings of its own kind, on top of Most guests seated at once (which still counts everyone). Set either to 0 for no separate limit. They only do anything while you offer food and drinks-only bookings separately (Settings → Bookings → How people book), and they are Available on Pro plan and above.

If a limit is smaller than one booking of your largest party size, the page warns that parties of that size can never book online, and says which number to change.

Pacing rules

Available on Pro plan and above. Pacing rules let you write as many specific limits as you need, each in everyday words: "no more than 2 bookings of 8 or more guests between 18:00 and 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays", "no more than 4 bookings arriving within any 30 minutes", "no drinks-only bookings on 25 December". Every rule reads itself back as one sentence at the top of its card, so you can check it says what you meant before you save.

Click Add rule, then set:

• Name — optional, only for your own list. Customers never see it.
• What the rule counts — Bookings counts each party once; Covers counts every guest, so a table of 6 uses 6 of the limit.
• Which bookings — only shown when you offer food and drinks-only bookings: All, Food, or your drinks option. A food or drinks rule counts only that kind of booking and only limits that kind.
• Only parties of — leave at 0 to count every party. Set 8 and it becomes a large-party rule: only parties of 8 or more count towards it, and only they are limited by it. This is how you stop more than two big parties in one service while small tables book freely.
• Limit — the most the rule allows in its window. 0 means none at all.
• Counted over — Seated at once counts whatever is at a table at the same time as the new booking (the way Most guests seated at once works); Any stretch of minutes means no more than the limit can arrive within any stretch of that length, for a kitchen that can only plate so many starters at once; The whole day counts everything across the day (or just between the times below, when set).
• When it applies — Every day, or Chosen days (tick the weekdays). A limit for one exact date — an event day, a big match, Christmas Eve — is set on Settings → Bookings → Special dates, as that date's How many at once; it shows in this list read-only ("A limit for particular dates — added and changed on Special dates") with a link there.
• Between these times — leave both blank for all day. Only bookings starting between the two times count and are limited. An end time after midnight, like 02:00, means the early hours after service.
• Your team's bookings — Warn staff, let them proceed (the default), Block staff too, or Online bookings only: only bookings made online count towards the rule and only online customers are stopped by it — the way to keep part of a total for your team, walk-ins and the waitlist.

Then click Save changes. Switch a rule off with its Rule on toggle to keep it without applying it; the bin icon removes it.

What a pacing rule does once saved

Online customers are simply never offered a time a rule would fill — the time drops out of the list, and the alternative times ResoFlow suggests skip it too. Your team, booking by phone or in person (walk-ins too), sees a warning like "This would take the 7pm slot to 9 bookings; the limit is 8. Book anyway?" and can go ahead when the rule is set to Warn staff, let them proceed (the Activity log notes that they did); a rule set to Block staff too refuses the booking for everyone, and the form shows the rule's own sentence.

What counts towards a rule: every booking on that day that is still booked, arrived or at a table, however it arrived — online, your team, walk-ins — plus waitlist parties once they have been offered a table, and bookings marked a no-show automatically (they keep their table until their time would have ended). What never counts: event tickets, cancelled bookings, bookings already cleared, a no-show your team marked by hand, and people still waiting in the waitlist queue.

If your plan changes to one without pacing rules, the rules stop applying and stay listed, with a Remove all rules button that works on any plan.

What customers see

A party above your maximum can't book online at that size — your venue phone number is shown on the booking page for large-party enquiries. Once a time is full under Most guests seated at once, Most guests arriving every 15 minutes or a pacing rule, customers can no longer book that time online. None of these limits refuse your team's bookings, except a pacing rule set to Block staff too, Most guests seated at once with Also stop your team switched on, and the maximum party size when you apply it to staff bookings.

Related: Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance) · How long does a booking last? · When can customers book? · Which table does a booking get? · Why does my booking page show no available times?