Booking rules for your public page
What this covers
The settings that decide what guests can book online, all on the Booking tab of Property Settings → Public Pages Design. Needs the manage-settings permission.
The settings on this tab
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable Public Booking | The master switch. |
| Default Duration | How long an online booking is assumed to last. This is what frees the table for the next guest, so be realistic rather than optimistic. |
| Advance Notice Required + Notice Type | How far ahead guests must book — a number, plus hours or days. |
| Public Booking Default Status | Whether online bookings arrive as Pending or Confirmed. |
| Auto-assign a table | Whether Tabledoo picks the table now, or you do later. |
Advance notice — the one that costs you covers
Online notice is separate from, and usually stricter than, the notice your own staff need. Two hours is a common setting.
It is also the setting most likely to be quietly losing you business. A four-hour notice period means the guest looking for a table at seven o'clock this evening is told nothing is available, even with an empty room. If you can accept a booking an hour out, say so.
Pending or Confirmed?
- Pending — you check every booking before it counts. Safer, but the guest is left uncertain, and it only works if somebody actually checks promptly.
- Confirmed — the guest gets an instant answer, which is why they booked online instead of phoning. Availability has already been checked, so you are not agreeing to anything impossible.
Most restaurants are better off with Confirmed, and reviewing the day's bookings once each morning.
Auto-assign a table
Off by default, and Tabledoo recommends leaving it off: "When on, online bookings are put on the best-fit free table straight away. When off (recommended), they arrive unassigned in the timeline so staff choose the table — availability is still checked either way."
The important half is the last clause. Off does not mean overbooking — capacity is checked regardless. It only means a human decides who sits where, which is usually a better decision than a computer's at three in the morning. See Unassigned bookings and the assignment tray.
The rules that live elsewhere
These also shape what guests are offered, and are set in Property Settings → Restaurant:
- Operating hours — nothing outside them.
- Minimum and maximum party size — the page shows these to guests.
- How far ahead bookings may be made.
- Pacing, if you cap covers per slot.
- Seatings, if that weekday uses them.
All listed with recommended values in Booking rules reference.
If guests say nothing is available
Work down No times are available. Nine times in ten it is the advance notice, the party-size limits, or a day marked closed.