Restaurant table booking online via your own website and Instagram profile only cuts down phone calls when the calendar knows how many guests fit at each table, how long they stay and when the kitchen takes orders. Without that, the form sells the same table twice or blocks it for an empty hour. This guide is for venues taking bookings themselves, without a marketplace.
The examples use a fictional bistro with fourteen tables. The times and buffers are illustrations, not industry standards, so measure them in your own dining room. Floor plans, deposits and waiting lists are out of scope.
Restaurant table booking online: tables or a seat pool
First decide what you are selling: specific tables or seats in the room. The table model treats two-seat and four-seat tables as separate types, each with a number of units and a number of people per table. Guests choose how many tables of each type they need, and the system checks that the party does not exceed their capacity. A seat pool only counts people: with 40 seats it will accept ten bookings of four without checking whether you can actually seat them.
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| Model | When it fits | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Tables with capacity | Fixed layout with tables of different sizes | Guests must understand which table type to pick |
| Seat pool | Communal tables, a bar, tables that are easy to join | Total seats do not guarantee one table for a group |
The fictional bistro has eight two-seat and six four-seat tables, so it chooses the table model. A venue with communal tables in the garden can stay with a seat pool. Booking a whole private room is a different model, covered in the guide to meeting room bookings.
Table time depends on party size
A couple at dinner frees a table sooner than six people staying for dessert and coffee. Duration is an offer setting, so instead of one "Table" offer, create several that differ in length and description. A buffer after each booking leaves time to clear and reset the table. Guests do not see it, but the table stays occupied.
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| Offer | Table time | Buffer after | Approval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table for 1 to 4 | 90 min | 15 min | Automatic |
| Table for 5 to 8 | 120 min | 15 min | Automatic |
| Group of 9 or more | 180 min | 30 min | Manual |
Measure your own values over two weeks of seating and clearing times. The system will not enforce a minimum party size for an offer, so put the range in the name and description. All three offers must use the same table pool, otherwise a large group booking will not reduce availability for couples. The guide to avoiding double bookings shows how to test this.
Lunch, dinner and holidays on one shared pool
Lunch and dinner differ in hours, table time and often prices, but they use the same tables. Set each service up as its own offer with its own schedule, linked to the same pool. A lunch that runs until 15:30 then still blocks the table for an early dinner.
- Set the kitchen windows.Enter the hours when guests can start a meal, not your opening hours. If the kitchen takes last orders at 21:30, set the last dinner start earlier.
- Choose the start interval.A 15 or 30-minute interval decides how many start times guests see. Shorter intervals offer more choice but leave more small, unsold gaps.
- Link the offers to the pool.Create the lunch and dinner offers on the pool of the existing table offer, with the same table types and number of units.
- Add exceptions for special days.Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve or a private event closure are schedule exceptions. Add them to every offer on the pool, because each exception belongs to one offer.
The last step is the easiest to miss: closing dinner on 24 December does not close lunch that day. Prepare the list of dates before the season with the guide to booking calendar exceptions, and test it as a guest.
Large groups and office Christmas parties through manual approval
A party of twelve on a Friday in December takes several tables, needs an agreed menu and often extra staff. Do not confirm such a request automatically. A "Group of 9 or more" offer with manual approval accepts it as pending, and your team decides after checking the room and the kitchen. A pending request already uses capacity, and it expires if nobody decides before the set deadline or before the booking starts. See the guide to manual booking approval.
- Date and start time, plus whether the time is flexible
- Number of guests and a contact person with phone and email
- Company name, if a company is booking the event
- Chosen set menu, or ordering from the menu
- Number of vegetarian, vegan and ingredient-free portions
The form has fixed fields (name, email, phone, company, notes), each hidden, optional or required. The set menu and diets have no separate fields, so make notes required for the group offer and give an example in the description: "Menu B, 12 guests, including 2 vegetarian and 1 gluten-free". Describe the menus in the offer with an indicative price; you agree payment with the guest outside the form.
The visitBerlin request form for company Christmas parties asks for the date, start time, number of guests, a catering choice and comments. It shows what another service collects, not what every venue needs.
Diets and allergies: ask about portions, not health
The kitchen needs to know how many portions to prepare without a given ingredient, not which guest has which condition. Ask the organiser for numbers next to the set menu, without guest names. If an allergy is serious, settle the details in a conversation with the kitchen before you confirm, instead of collecting them in the notes field.
The GDPR, applicable since 25 May 2018, requires data to be limited to what is necessary for the purpose (Article 5(1)(c)) and lists data concerning health among the special categories (Article 9(1)). The regulation does not decide whether a particular dietary note counts as health data. This article is not legal advice.
Phone, website and Instagram in one calendar
Phone bookings must take the same tables as bookings from the form. If a waiter writes them in a notebook, the form keeps showing the table as free. In the panel you add the booking by hand, in the same calendar and on the same pool. For the order of questions, see the guide to phone bookings in the calendar.
On Instagram you do not need a middleman: place the public form link in your profile's link section, and the guide to sharing your booking link helps you label it. When someone sends a direct message about the terrace for fifteen people, point them to the group offer. If your workspace has access to Instagram Direct, you can answer it from the shared inbox.
A confirmation template and the limits of the system
In Meetlead Bookings you set separate messages for a received request, a confirmation, a rejection, a cancellation and an expiry. For a group, the first message must say clearly that this is a request, not a confirmed table. In the confirmation, state when the table needs to be free, so guests are not surprised.
Hello, we confirm a table for 12 guests on Friday from 19:00 to 22:00. We will prepare Menu B, including 2 vegetarian portions and 1 gluten-free. Please call us at least two days ahead if the number of guests changes. We also take cancellations by phone.
Know the limits as well: the system takes no deposits, keeps no floor plan or waiting list and does not connect to your till. Guests cannot cancel through a link themselves; they contact the venue, and your team updates the status in the panel. For the full message structure, see the booking confirmation template.
Questions about online table bookings
Can I take bookings without a booking platform? Yes. A form on your own website or a public link in your profile is enough if the calendar knows your tables, times and exceptions. Add phone bookings by hand to the same pool. A marketplace adds visibility, but it is not required.
From what size should a group wait for approval? From the size at which you have to join tables, agree a menu or add staff. In the fictional bistro that is nine guests; in a smaller venue it might be six. Put the threshold in the offer name and apply it to phone bookings too.
