Requests and the reservation waitlist

Two kinds of entries wait for your decision in the Host Panel:

• requests — online bookings in the Pending status. The guest picked a time, and the restaurant approves the booking manually;
• reservation waitlist requests — the guest wanted to come at a certain time, but there was no room. If a table frees up, the request can be turned into a booking.

They look alike but work differently. The main difference: a rejected booking can be reopened, while a rejected waitlist request is gone for good.

Bookings waiting for approval

Where you see them:

• on the Reservations tab, the Requests sub-tab — for all dates at once, not just the selected period. Grouped by day;
• in the side list: Reservations → Requests;
• in the statistics on the Reservations tab — the Approval required line;
• on the Reservations item in the menu on the left — in the number next to the icon. It adds up everything that needs attention: requests, new online bookings, reservation waitlist requests and late bookings.

A new request arrives by itself, without reloading the page, and is highlighted in the list for a couple of seconds.

What to do with it:

A rejected booking gets the Canceled status and moves to the Closed sub-tab. If you rejected it by mistake, open it there and tap Reopen — the booking comes back.

Reservation waitlist

The reservation waitlist holds requests from guests who wanted to book a table, but there was no room at the time they wanted. A request has no table and no status — only a Requested badge.

Requests come in two ways:

• the guest leaves one when booking online;
• you create one with + → Reservation Waitlist, for example when a guest calls and there’s no room — see Creating and editing a booking.

The waitlist is turned on in the Admin — see Booking rules. If it’s off, there’s no Reservation Waitlist item in +.

Where you see them:

• on the Reservations tab, the Reservation Waitlist sub-tab — it appears only when there’s something in it;
• in the side list: Reservations → Waitlist, and also All. The card shows a Reservation Waitlist badge, the time and the date.

How to confirm a request

1. Tap Confirm on the request — in the list or in its card. Confirm request opens.
2. Check the date and time — you can change them. The map moves to that time so you can see which tables are free.
3. Pick a table: Pick a table for request. If the guest asked for a particular area, the panel reminds you: “Preferred zone: …”.
4. If the restaurant keeps a staff history, pick the Responsible person. When the restaurant requires it, you can’t confirm without one.
5. Tap Confirm. You’ll see “Reservation created”, and the request disappears from the waitlist — it’s a regular booking now.

The Confirm button can’t be tapped until a table is picked, or if the selected time has already passed.

Rejecting or changing a request

• Reject — the request is deleted at once, with no “are you sure?”.
• Edit — opens the request in the “Edit request” form: you can change the date, time, party size, contacts and requests. A request has no table — it’s picked when you confirm.
• Replace guest — if the request was made for the wrong guest.

Reservation waitlist and waitlist

These two lists are easy to mix up — the names are similar, but the guests are different:

More about the waitlist in Waitlist.