There are a multiple methods of creating reservations using Eat App. To better understand these methods it is important to make a distinction between the types of reservations that your table management system can handle.
Reservations fall into two categories:
- Online
- In House
Online Reservations
Online reservations are reservations that are created by your guests through your booking widget or from our reservation network. These reservations automatically appear in your table management system where you can view, manage, and edit them with ease.
In House Reservations
"In House" reservations is the term we use to define all reservations that are manually created by you or your restaurant staff using Eat App. Whether that be a walk-in, an email request received by a staff member, or a phone call that comes in during the day. The process to add an in house reservation is unified across Eat App but can be triggered in a number of ways.
Let's first dive into the process of creating an in house reservation. The image below highlights what that process looks like.
Guest Name
The following options are available for the guest name field:
- Assign a pre-existing restaurant guest to a reservation
- Add a new guest and assign them to this reservation
- Leave the guest name blank
When searching for a guest you have two options for displaying the results. Either list view or card view. List view is a standard list of guests with their contact details, whereas card view also provides you with some basic information about the guest and their reservation history.
You can also toggle "Guest search" which will allow you to search for guests from another one of your restaurants. (Only possible if you are using Eat App to manage multiple restaurants).
Reservation Type
- Walk-In: If the guest did not make a reservation online or over the phone, select walk-in to be able to track later on the breakdown of how many of your reservations come from walk-ins vs reservations
- Wait list: If you want to add a guest to a waitlist. To learn more about adding guests to a waitlist click here.
Date
- The date of this reservation, use the date toggle to select dates in the future
Time
- The time of this reservation, use the time toggle to select the exact time of the reservation. Alternatively, you can enter a value for this right from your keyboard.
Covers
- Use the cover toggle to set the number of guests assigned to this reservation. Alternatively, you can enter a value for this right from your keyboard.
Duration
- Durations are automatically set based on the party size based on our best estimates
- Durations can be manually increased or decreased using the toggles (Alternatively, you can enter a value for this right from your keyboard.)
- Durations can be predefined based on the shift. Click here to learn more about shifts.
Table
- Click on one or more tables from the floor view on the right to assign a table/s to this reservation
- You can also switch between rooms using the room toggles on the top right of the page
Status
- By default, reservations are set to "Not confirmed" but you can manually change the status of this reservation through the status toggle.
Send Message
- When creating a reservation that you've tagged as either "Not Confirmed" or "Confirmed, you can use the "Send Message" toggle to trigger an SMS to send along with creating the reservation.
Comments
- The private comments section is where you'll be able to have a live chat with your staff about this particular reservation. This is a great way to stay up to date on any changes.
Tags
- Assign tags to a reservation such as "Anniversary" or "Birthday". Click here to learn how to create custom reservation tags.
Reservation Notes
- Add any reservation notes that you feel are important to remember. These notes are also included in any messaging that goes out to the guest.
When creating a reservation, if the reservation details match any other details for a reservation on the same day, you will be alerted of a potential duplicate reservation.
In addition to the following fields, the add reservation process also features tools that may help you make better decisions.
Creating In House Reservations from Each View
Regardless of which view you are in while using Eat App, there will always be an orange "Reserve" button on the top left to take you right into the reservation process. Or alternatively you can use keyboard shortcuts to hop right into the reservation process. But each view also has alternative methods of creating reservations that make the process easier.
Floor View
There are three methods to create a reservation through floor view
Clicking any table
Clicking any table on your floor opens up the table details where you can see a list of the reservations scheduled for the day for that specific table along with the server assigned to that table.
Clicking the "Create a Reservation" button will take you right into the reservation process with that table already assigned to the reservation.
Walk Ins
Use the walk in selector at the bottom of floor view to select a party size, then tap on any table to instantly create a walk in reservation for that table at the current time. You can edit this reservation at any time to add more details if needed.
Waitlist
Waitlists created through the waitlist tab can be converted to in house reservations once a table is ready for your guest. Read more about using waitlist here.
Grid
When in grid view, selecting a party size from the selector on the bottom of the page and clicking on the green reservation button on any time slot will automatically take you into the reservation process with the party size and time selected.
Timeline
When in timeline, clicking on any empty cell will take you right into the reservation process with a table number and reservation time automatically selected.
Guests
You can use your guest book to create a reservation for any of your existing guests. Use the search bar to find a guest that you are looking for and then click the "Create Reservation" button on the top right to jump right into the reservation process with a guest already assigned to the reservation.
