How do I let customers choose where they sit?

Switch on seating preferences and edit the list of seating types customers can request when booking online.

You let customers request a seating type (Booth, Window, Outside…) with one toggle on Settings → Bookings → Tables and seating, in the Seating preferences section. (It used to be on Tables and layout, which is now just your rooms and tables.)

The toggle is plan-gated: Available on Plus plan and above. Owners, Admins and Managers can open the page.

• Switch on Allow customers to choose seating preference. It's off by default.
• Edit the list of seating types below. Click Add to append a new chip (it starts as "New type" — type over it), or click a chip's ✕ to remove it. You can't add another chip while one is still blank or unedited.
• Click Save changes. Blank and duplicate types are tidied away automatically when you save. If a removed or renamed type still has tables or future bookings using it, you'll be asked to confirm first — renaming doesn't update them.

When the toggle is on, the public booking page shows your seating types as a picker, and the customer's choice is recorded on the booking. It's a preference, not a guarantee — your team sees it and seats accordingly where possible. It applies to online bookings and customers joining the waitlist. Which wins: "A customer's seating choice comes first, then your table rules, then the smallest free table that fits."

Ask-first seating types

Each type has an Ask-first switch: an ask-first table is never given out automatically — not to an online booking, not by Smart walk-in, and not when tables are joined for a big booking your team adds — only when the booking asks for that type. It's ideal for outdoor tables, so a customer booking inside is never seated outside. Outdoor-sounding types (Outside, Outdoors, Terrace, Garden, Patio…) start switched on for you, and "Outside" is always ask-first.

What customers are told

If a customer's chosen time is free but their preferred seating isn't, the booking page tells them honestly and offers a choice: book anyway (we'll note the request — your team still sees it and the mismatch warning) or pick another time. Their confirmation screen and email echo the request as "Seating request: X (we'll do our best)", so nobody arrives believing something was guaranteed.

Waitlist joins

Customers can also state a seating preference when joining your waitlist — on the public waitlist page and at the TV kiosk (only while this toggle is on). The estimated wait they're shown is for their choice, and your team can capture a preference too when adding or editing a waitlist entry. The queue engines then hold the right kind of table for them where the wait allows.

If you switch the toggle off, your seating types are saved and come back if you re-enable it later. While it's off, an online booking or a customer's change never asks for a seating type.

Related: Which table does a booking get? · How do I make sure certain bookings always get a certain table? · How do I build my floor plan and add tables? · How do I share my online booking page?