What the Events module is for
What this covers
When to use an event instead of ordinary bookings, and the one decision that shapes everything else.
Events need the Events feature on your plan. Creating and managing them needs the manage-events permission (Owner or Manager); taking and running bookings on the night needs only the normal reservation permissions, so your hosts and servers can work an event without being given event-management rights.
What an event is
Anything that is not a normal booking: a wine tasting, a set menu, live music, a quiz night, a private hire, a Christmas sitting. Tabledoo describes them as "Wine tastings, set menus, and other ticketed nights."
An event does two things at once:
- It takes tables out of normal circulation for its window, so nobody books a table you have promised to the tasting menu.
- It sells places of its own, with its own capacity, its own party-size rules and its own page guests can book from.
The decision that shapes everything: seated or communal
| Seated (table-assigned) | Communal (headcount pool) | |
|---|---|---|
| How guests sit | Each booking gets its own table, as normal. | Everyone shares — one long table, or a standing room. |
| Capacity comes from | The tables you selected. | A single number: the seats in those tables added up, or a figure you set yourself. |
| Good for | A set menu where parties stay separate. | A chef's table, a tasting, a standing party. |
Choose before you start. It changes how bookings are taken, how capacity is counted, and what happens to existing bookings that clash.
The life of an event
Draft → Published → (Cancelled)
- Draft — you are still building it. Nothing is blocked, nothing is public. New events are saved as drafts on purpose.
- Published — the dates are live, the tables are blocked, and guests can book. Getting here means resolving any clashes first: see Publishing and resolving conflicts.
- Cancelled — called off. Guests are told and the tables come back.
Event or just a big booking?
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| A party of 12 for someone's birthday, ordering off the menu | A normal booking, maybe with merged tables |
| A tasting menu you are selling places at | An event |
| A private hire of the whole room | An event — it blocks every table cleanly |
| A quiz every Tuesday | A recurring event |
The test is simple: are you selling places at a thing, or taking a booking? The first is an event.
A note on money
An event's price is display only — it is shown to guests in your currency and payable on site. Tabledoo does not take deposits or card payments for events. If you need prepayment, collect it yourself and treat the Tabledoo booking as the record.
Where to start
- Creating an event — the form, field by field.
- Recurrence and event dates — if it repeats.
- Publishing and resolving conflicts — the step that catches people out.