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Configure your booking system
Configure your booking system

Get set up to receive bookings online

Steve Jennings avatar
Written by Steve Jennings
Updated over a year ago

With Fresto you can configure your booking system to match the way you work. The booking settings are divided into 5 sections, namely: Seating, Online Booking, Deposit, Booking Branding, and Queue Management. The most important of these to get you up and running is Seating, where you indicate how long your guests typically occupy a location, such as a table.

Seating

Define how long you expect your guests to stay.

Basic setup:

Navigation bar: Administration > Settings

Page: Configuration

  1. Click Booking.

  2. Click Seating to open the section.

  3. Set the Seating duration. This determines how long you expect a party to occupy a table, including turnaround time.

  4. Click Save to save your changes.

Additional features:

In the Seating section, there are several additional settings you can use to customize seating timings.

Setting

What it does

Shorten seating duration for small party sizes

When a party is small, they may occupy a Location for less time. You can set a special seating duration for small parties. Set the party size for which this applies by setting a number in the field called Shorten seating duration for party size lower than. Zero means that seating duration is never shortened.

Buffer

Use this field to set the Buffer time for how long it takes for a table to be prepared for the next seating. Note that this time is taken out of the Seating duration time.

Delay

This is the time in minutes that you allow for guests to be delayed, before the system displays them as late.

Online booking

Manage how guests can use online booking.

Navigation bar: Administration > Settings

Page: Configuration

  1. Click Booking.

  2. Click Online Booking to open the section.

  3. Choose and fill in the options that are relevant for you:

Setting

What it does

Online booking

Open or close online booking. Note that this is set to Closed by default, so in order to start receiving bookings you need to change this setting.

Disable waiting list

When checked, the waiting lists for booking are disabled. Guests can no longer ask to be put on the waitlist.

Booking reminder SMS

When checked, guests will receive a text message reminding them of their booking.

Food preferences

When checked, online booking guests are asked about their food preferences.

Child seat

When checked, guests can ask for a child seat to be provided.

Floor Plan choice

Allow guests to choose a Floor Plan when they book. For example 'Inside' or 'Outside'.

Max guests per booking

Set the maximum number of guests per online booking.

Custom message

Set a message that will be shown to online bookers right before they confirm their reservation with you.

Fully booked message

Set a message when fully booked to let guests know that you still accept walk-ins.

Large groups confirmation message and menu

Set the number of guests above which a confirmation message and checkbox is displayed.

Deposit

Define how and when to ask for a deposit.

Navigation bar: Administration > Settings

Page: Configuration

  1. Click Booking.

  2. Open Deposit to open the section.

  3. Check the Ask for deposit checkbox to enable the rest of the settings.

For more information, see the article entitled 'Booking Deposit' in the 'Advanced Settings' section.

Booking branding

Set up the branding for all Floor Plans. This determines what customers will see when they book online in the booking form.

Navigation bar: Administration > Settings

Page: Configuration

  1. Click Booking.

  2. Click Booking branding to open the section.

  3. Choose and fill in the options that are relevant for you:

Setting

What it does

Title

Set the title. Often as simple as 'Reserve a table'.

Description

Set the description or tagline for the booking page.

Image

Upload your company image or logo.

Queue management

Automate the way you manage your walk-in guests by letting them sign themselves up, so they can receive an SMS when a table becomes free.

Navigation bar: Administration > Settings

Page: Configuration

  1. Click Booking.

  2. Click Queue management to open the section.

  3. Choose and fill in the options that are relevant for you:

Setting

What it does

Venue capacity

Define the maximum capacity of your venue.

Queue SMS

When checked, the guests in the waitlist will receive an SMS for manual sign-up.

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