Playbook, restaurant
A table is a slot, not an evening
The guest asking to push their table back half an hour thinks they are asking for nothing. On a full Saturday the same table is booked again at nine fifteen, which means half an hour at the front eats the whole cushion at the back, and the request is really a question about whether the second sitting exists that night. None of that is visible from outside, and none of it can be settled in a chat window, but the rules behind it can be published so the guest asks the right person the right thing.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for rescheduling and cancelling holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Bookings here are sold in sittings rather than in open ended slots, so moving forward by half an hour and moving back by half an hour are completely different requests and only one of them is usually possible.
- The change a guest most often wants is not the time at all but the number of covers, and adding two people to a booked table is a harder change than moving the hour, because a four top and a six top are different pieces of furniture in a fixed floor plan.
- Where a set menu applies there is a pre order deadline attached to the original date, and moving the date does not automatically move the deadline, which is the detail that produces an argument on the night.
- The worst moment to phone a restaurant to change a booking is exactly when the guest thinks of it, which is mid service, so the material has to name a channel that works when nobody can pick up the handset.
How it arrives
- can we move our table to 8 instead of 7
- how do i change my booking to another day
- we booked for 4 can we make it 6
- is it too late to change the pre order
- can we push it back half an hour
- how much notice do you need to move a table
What has to be indexed for this to work
| How your sittings are structured | Whether tables are turned, at what times, and how long a table is held for at each sitting. If a seven o clock table has to be back by nine, say so, because that single fact explains every answer you give about moving a time and stops the request being read as unhelpfulness. |
|---|---|
| The change channel that actually works | The link in the confirmation message, the address that is read between services, and the hours the phone is genuinely answered. Naming a phone number without saying when somebody is beside it sends the guest to ring during a service and conclude you are ignoring them. |
| Party size changes and where the thresholds are | How much notice you need to grow a table, the number above which the booking becomes a group with its own terms, and what happens to a deposit or a pre order when the party shrinks. Growing and shrinking are governed by different rules and both get asked here. |
| Pre order and set menu deadlines tied to the date | When choices are due for a set menu, whether a moved date resets that deadline, and whether a menu that applies on the original date applies on the new one. Special dates often carry their own menu, so a move from a Friday to a Sunday can change what is being eaten. |
The reply
Tables are turned on a Friday and Saturday, so a seven o clock booking runs until nine and there is a second sitting after it [1]. That means moving later on those nights depends on what is behind you and is not something I can see or change. Changes go through the link in your confirmation message, or by phone before five when somebody is at the desk rather than on the floor [2]. If you are also adding people, say so in the same message, because going from four to six is a different table rather than the same table with chairs added.
It explains the constraint before refusing, so the refusal reads as a floor plan rather than as a policy. The channel is given with an hour attached, since a phone number alone sends the guest to ring mid service. The party size point is volunteered because it is the change most likely to be buried at the end of a message and it is the one that actually needs a decision.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest names a booking and asks for it to be moved, or asks whether a different time exists, or is trying to change a date that carries a deposit or a pre order.
I cannot see the diary and I cannot move a booking, so nothing said here changes your table. Use the link in your confirmation, or leave me your name, the email you booked with and the change you want and I will send it to the team to action and confirm back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never tell a guest their booking has been moved, because the assistant writes into nothing and the guest will arrive at the new time to find the old one still standing.
- Never say a later time is probably fine, since on a turned table the later time is the one that does not exist and a probably here becomes a party standing in the doorway.
- Never treat adding covers as a small amendment, because it changes the table allocation and on a full night it is closer to a new booking than a change.
- Never imply a moved date carries the original pre order across, when the new date may run a different menu entirely.
Questions
- Can it move a booking if we connect our diary?
- No. It does not write into any system, so even where you could give it something to read it would still not be able to change a reservation. The useful job it does here is explaining the rules and collecting the request in a form somebody can action in one go.
- What stops it inventing an alternative time?
- Below the match threshold you set, the question never reaches an answer at all and the guest gets the wording you wrote. For anything that sounds like a specific date and time, that wording should point at the confirmation link and say plainly that the diary is not visible from here.
- Guests message us at nine on a Saturday to change tomorrow. Does this help?
- That is the exact case it earns its keep on. Nobody is going to pick up mid service, and a message that sits unread until Sunday lunchtime is a table lost either way. Taking the name, the booking email and the change in one structured note means it can be actioned in a minute the next morning.
Keep reading
- Everything for a restaurantHours, last orders, deposits and dietary options are safe ground. Confirming a dish is free of an allergen never is.
- Handling rescheduling and cancelling in generalNotice periods and charges are answerable. A specific booking is not. Hiding the policy produces complaints, not fewer cancellations.
- The wait time is an estimate made by somebody standing in the roomHow the list actually works: a number left with the host, a wait that is a guess, and a table for two seated ahead of a six.
- The guest is not asking for informationA cold main, a forty minute gap between courses, a table by the door. What to record, and why the answer is never a policy paragraph.
- The menu price is not the line at the bottom of the billThe set lunch runs on certain days, the fish is market price, the steak carries a supplement, and service goes on at the end.
Try it on your own material
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