Setting the app language
What this covers
The two places a language is chosen, which one wins, and what each actually changes. Anyone can set
their own; changing the restaurant's default needs the manage-settings permission.
Two levels
| Your own language | The restaurant's language | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Property Settings → Profile
(/settings/profile) | Property Settings → Restaurant
(/settings/restaurant) |
| Who can change it | You, for yourself | Owner or Manager |
| Affects | What you see in the app | What your guests receive, and colleagues who have not chosen |
They are genuinely independent. A Spanish-speaking host can work in Spanish at an English restaurant without a single guest email changing language.
Which one applies
For the app interface, in order:
- Your own choice, if you have made one.
- The restaurant's language, if you have not.
- English, if neither is set.
Each step is checked against the list of languages currently available — so if a language is ever withdrawn, anyone using it quietly moves to the next option rather than seeing something broken (link Which languages are available).
What your personal choice changes
Only what you see. Menus, buttons, labels, headings, messages and validation text across the app.
It does not change:
- What your colleagues see
- What your guests receive — see below
- Your data. Guest names, notes, table names, special requests and your menu text stay exactly as typed. Nothing is translated behind your back
- Date and time formats, which are set for the whole restaurant so that your team all read a booking the same way (link Timezone, currency and formats)
What the restaurant's language changes
This is the one that reaches guests, and it is worth being precise because people assume their own choice does it.
- Guest emails — confirmations, reminders, updates, cancellations, review requests
- Guest text messages
- Your public pages — booking, events and menu
- The interface for colleagues who have not picked a language of their own
A guest message always goes in the restaurant's language, whoever created the booking. A French-speaking host taking a booking at an English restaurant does not send a French confirmation — the message switches to the restaurant's language as it is composed, then switches back.
That is deliberate. Your guests should get a consistent voice from your restaurant, not one that varies with whoever happened to answer the phone.
It is your language, not the guest's
Tabledoo does not detect what language a guest speaks. Everyone receives messages in your restaurant's language. If most of your guests are visitors, choose the language most of them will understand rather than the one your team speaks.
Changing your own language
- Go to Property Settings → Profile.
- Pick a language.
- Save. The interface changes immediately.
Leaving it unset is a legitimate choice — you then follow the restaurant's language, which is usually what you want if everyone at the restaurant works in the same one.
Changing the restaurant's language
- Go to Property Settings → Restaurant.
- Pick a language.
- Save.
Think before you do: it changes what every future guest receives. Existing bookings are not affected retrospectively, but the next reminder that goes out uses the new language.
If you are switching, send yourself a test booking afterwards and read the confirmation. It is the fastest way to see what your guests will actually get (link What Tabledoo sends, and when).
Good to know
Times in text messages are always 24-hour, in every language, whatever your time format says. A text has no context to disambiguate "7:30" (link SMS: what's different).
Your menu content is separate. Setting a language does not translate the dishes you have typed — that is a different tool and it works on your content rather than the interface (link Languages your guests see).
Some wording may still appear in English. A language is available as soon as it is useful, and anything not yet translated falls back to English rather than showing a blank (link Which languages are available).
Nothing needs installing. Languages are part of the app.