Which table does a booking get? (auto-assign, joining tables and rooms)

Let ResoFlow give each new booking a table or place them by hand, join neighbouring tables for big parties, and choose which rooms walk-ins and the waitlist use.

Which table a booking gets is set on Settings → Bookings → Tables and seating (/dashboard/settings/tables-seating). Owners, Admins and Managers can open it. The page also holds seating preferences and table rules and pairings — see the related guides below. Your rooms and tables themselves are drawn on Settings → Venue → Tables and layout.

Which wins: "A customer's seating choice comes first, then your table rules, then the smallest free table that fits."

Giving a booking a table

• Auto-assign tables (on by default; every plan) — gives every new booking the best free table the moment it arrives: online bookings, and bookings your team adds without picking a table. Switched off, those bookings land in the Unassigned tab for your team to place. Walk-ins always pick their own table.
• Under More options: Don't auto-assign parties larger than (0 by default, 0–100 guests; Available on Plus plan and above) — parties bigger than this aren't given a table automatically; they land in the Unassigned tab for your team to place by hand, because big-party table plans usually need a human eye. Leave it at 0 to auto-assign every size. It is separate from Maximum party size (the largest party that can book online at all, on How many at once).

Tables online customers can book

Three things decide which tables an online booking can ever be given. They're for online bookings only — your team can still seat anyone at any table. Which wins: "A table kept back online is never given to an online booking, whatever a seating choice or table rule says — your team can still seat anyone there."

• Which tables can be booked online — each table has its own Allow in Online bookings switch, and a table can be blocked for a time, both on the Floor plan page.
• Rooms online bookings can use — one switch per room (every plan; on to begin with). Switch a room off — a terrace, a private room — and no table in it is given to an online booking: your booking page never offers its tables, and a customer's own change never moves them there. While a room is off, each of its tables' Allow in Online bookings switches shows off and can't be changed, and the floor-plan editor shows the room as "Online bookings off" under its name.
• Keep a table for bigger parties or walk-ins (every plan) — pick a table with Add a table… and give it a Smallest party online (so a couple never takes your six-seater on a Saturday night) and/or Online from a number of hours before the booking time (1 to 72): until then the table is kept for walk-ins and your team, then online customers can book it. Each table reads its rule back in one line, for example "Online only for parties of 4 or more; kept for walk-ins and your team until 3 hours before, then offered online". The page warns when a rule can never work — a smallest party above the table's seats or your largest online party, or a hold your minimum notice makes unbookable — with a fix.

When your team seats a smaller party at a table kept for bigger parties, the booking form warns ("Table 6 is kept for parties of 4 or more online. Your team can still seat a party of 2 there.") and lets them go ahead.

Joining tables for a big party

Available on Plus plan and above. When a party is bigger than any single free table, Join neighbouring tables automatically joins neighbouring tables for them. Each way of booking has its own switch:

• Online — bookings from your booking page (off by default).
• Your team — bookings your team adds without picking tables (on by default on the plans that include joining tables).
• Walk-ins — walk-ins your team adds by hand, when the party is bigger than any one table (off by default). Only used while Enable walk-ins is on.
• Smart walk-in — when Smart walk-in picks the tables (off by default; needs Smart walk-in, Available on Complete).

With joining off for online bookings, a party bigger than any single free table can't be seated online; your venue phone number (from Venue profile) is shown on the booking page for large-party enquiries. Your team can always join tables by hand for any party with the Join tables switch in the table picker.

If a plan change leaves joining switched on for a way of booking your plan no longer includes, a Joining tables is still on row at the top of the section lists it with a Switch off.

Rooms for walk-ins and the waitlist

Which rooms each one uses lists your rooms with two switches each: Smart walk-in (Smart walk-in only looks for tables in the rooms switched on here) and Waitlist (the waitlist only seats people in its rooms). Both need Smart walk-in or the waitlist, Available on Complete. Add, rename or remove a room on Tables and layout.

What this means in practice

Bookings waiting in Unassigned still count. Online bookings leave room for them, so the same table is never sold twice, and a big party is only taken online when your tables can actually seat it. Online bookings (and customers' own changes) also never take a table your team is holding for a waitlist guest, a table a seated waitlist party is at, or a table set aside for an event while the event runs. When a customer changes their booking online, a table your team placed by hand stays where you put it, and joined tables stay together.

If the table your team picked is only waiting out its cleaning gap, another table is chosen and the message says so; if another booking has taken it, you're asked to pick again.

With auto-assign off, online bookings still go through — they land in the Unassigned tab (and the Home page's needs-attention list) for your team to place. You can place them from that tab, or straight from the timeline: its Unassigned toolbar button (with a live count) turns on a tap-tap assign mode — tap the booking, tap a table row — with the usual availability checks (see How do I use the timeline?). The unassigned large-party notification's Assign tables button does the same from any page — it opens the floor plan with table selection started.

Click Save changes when you're done.

Related: How do I let customers choose where they sit? · How do I make sure certain bookings always get a certain table? · How do I build my floor plan and add tables? · How many guests can book at once? · Where are my booking rules? (Booking rules at a glance)