Reservation Availability

Skip To:

• Getting Started
  
• Creating a New Reservation Type
• Rolling Cut-off
• Creating Reservation Time Slots
• Deleting Reservation Time Slots
• Duplicating Reservation Time Slots
• Blocking Reservation Time Slots
• Scheduling
• Scheduling Conflicts
• Creating Paid Reservations
• FAQ/Troubleshooting

🔺 Before getting started - please note that to BULK update slots in the inventory tool you'll need to use the 'Ctrl' or 'Shift' key + click on  the next box (like how you select multiple cells in Excel). 

NOTE: Engage Support will not edit any inventory slots on your behalf. All changes to inventory slots (adding, deleting, blocking) must be done by someone on your team to prevent any issues with under or overbooking.

The Availability Tool gives you full control of your inventory and pacing. This article will show how you can create your own reservation types, configure the party/cover limits, and block your own inventory in real-time.

Getting Started

To access the Reservation Availability tool In the Engage Dashboard, use the left-hand navigation menu. Under Host, select Availability. Use the following steps to build out your inventory:

Creating a New Reservation Type

NOTE: For those intending to leverage our reservation integration with Google, please refer to THIS article to ensure you are appropriately naming your Reservation Types.

Before creating a new reservation type, you'll want to decide if this reservation type should use a pacing or a table-based approach.

Pacing-Based

With pacing-based reservations, availability is based on the number of parties or covers who can make reservations per 15-minute time slot - this also includes a max party size that is bookable online. Once a time slot has reached its maximum capacity for the number of parties OR number of covers, that time slot will no longer be available for your guests to book a reservation. 

• Example: You've set your pacing to 3 parties or 15 covers every 15 minutes with a max party size of 10.
• Scenario 1: If one party of 10, and one party of 5 books at 6:15 pm, there will be no additional reservations available during that time because you've reached your cover limit of 15. 
• Scenario 2: If 3 parties of 2 book, even though there are only 6 covers, reservations during that 15-minute time slot will be unavailable because you've reached your party limit of 3.

Table-Based

With table-based reservations, availability is based on the pacing model with an additional layer of automatic table assignments. With this model, availability is determined based on whether specific tables are available to be booked (ex. did you set them up as reservable? Have they already been booked?).

In the Floorplan Builder article, we walk through how to set table capacities and assign them to the rooms of your restaurant. With the table based option in the Availability tool, you'll be able to select which rooms have reservable tables and you'll be able to exclude tables from being reservable, depending on your preference.

Here's how it works:

Click the Create new reservation type under the "parties, covers" label. If this is your very first type, you will also see a an additional Create reservation type button in the center of the screen:

You will see a popup with the customization settings for that reservation type:

1. Add the reservation type name you would like
2. Create a description that will appear on the reservation booking form. This field accepts HTML is needed:
   
3. Next you will see options to configure cancellation policies and paid reservations:
   
   
   
   
4. All payment related features require integration with Stripe. To learn more, check out How to set up Paid Reservations.
5. Lastly, you will choose wether your reservation type will have parties automatically assigned to tables, or will be pacing based:
   
6. Choose "None" for pacing-based or "Automatic" for table-based. 

If selecting None (Pacing Based), please move on to the "Create Reservation Time Slots" Section.

If selecting Automatic (Table Based), please continue below:

The "Automatic" selection controls the Table Based reservation option. Upon booking, the Engage system will add another filter layer on top of the availability configured to ensure the floorplan has an available table that will accommodate that party size at the time selected. The table capacities, as well as common table combinations are set up within the floorplan builder.

By default, your tables turn time is set at 90min. To change it, please submit a ticket to Engage Support and let us know what you would like your turn time to be. Turn times can be configured based on party size.

Next, toggle the rooms of your floorplan on or off, depending on the needs of your restaurant.

• Under the "Excluded Tables" section, click into the search bar to see a list of all of the tables you previously set up in the Floorplan Builder.
  • To exclude a table from being bookable online, simply click it and watch the table number appear in the gray box below. Continue doing this until all tables and combinations that should not be reservable have been excluded. 

 

Once these actions have been taken, please continue with setting up your available inventory.

NOTE: If using Google sync capabilities, your reservation inventory will only sync if you have the "Sync Availability to Google" enabled in the Reservation Type

Rolling Cutoff

Apply a rolling cut-off time to your online guest-facing reservation form to prevent guests from being able to book last-minute reservations. This setting can be found in the Reservation Availability tab in the Web Dashboard by clicking the gear icon on the top right on your screen, right next to the blue Schedule button. Here is how to use it:

1. Check the box to enable the rolling reservation cut-off time
2. Enter the number of minutes you would like to apply (from 1min to 720min)
3. Select the locations you would like to apply the cut-off
4. Click Save to submit
   

Once submitted, the cut-off is applied immediately to your online guest-facing form and will stay in place until manually turned off.

NOTE: At this time, only a single rolling cut-off condition can be applied for all reservation types.

Creating Reservation Time Slots

To create reservation time slots:

Click the “+” under the time you want to add reservation slots:

NOTE: You can also edit en masse by using Ctrl or Shift + clicking on a second box (like how you select multiple cells in Excel).

NOTE: If the "+" button is disabled, that means your current hours of operation do not cover that timeslot. To adjust your hours of operation, submit a ticket to Engage Support with your current hours for each day of the week. 

If necessary, adjust the time using the dropdown: 

Create a minimum and maximum party size. 
Select the number of copies you'd like to fill in the 15-minute time slot.

• Time slots = Parties
• Minimum/Maximum = cover count.

Repeat this process until you have included every reservation slot necessary.

Deleting Reservation Time Slots

To delete reservation time slots:

1. Select the reservation slot you wish to delete
2. Click the trash can icon located in the bottom middle of the slot editor

To delete multiple reservation slots (bulk update), hold down “Shift” while clicking all the reservations you wish to delete:

Duplicating Reservation Time Slots

To duplicate parts of your inventory:

1. Select the multiple slots you wish to duplicate.
2. Click “Duplicate” in the bottom middle of the page (first icon).
   
   
   

NOTE: The duplicates fill in the current time slot and do not translate across time slots.  

Blocking Reservation Time Slots

Blocking reservations gives you the power to turn reservations on and off.

To block a reservation:

1. Click the reservation time slot you wish to block a guest from selecting. You can block multiple reservation slots at once.
2. Once selected, click "Block" in the bottom middle of the screen (second icon).
   
   
   

• Blocking only applies to the time slots selected and is not a permanent solution for removing available reservations in the future. If you would like to permanently remove inventory (bookable time slots), we recommend deleting (see Deleting Reservation Time Slots above).

Scheduling

Once you have created all reservation slots you desire for that specific day, you can now schedule the inventory to be reflected on future dates:

1. Click the “Schedule” button in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Under "Apply", either select “Forever” if you want the reservations to reoccur forever or “Within date range” if you only want the reservations to occur for a limited time. If selecting Within a date range", a calendar will appear to prompt which specific time frame you wish the reservations to be available for.
3. Select which days of the week you would like the inventory to be scheduled for.
4. Click “Apply” so your guests can start booking!

Scheduling Conflicts

When scheduling, if a date in the future has an existing inventory that differs from what you're scheduling, you will be prompted with a "conflict." The date(s) of the conflicts will be listed so you can review them. From there, you can decide to "exclude" the conflict or "override" it.

Creating Paid Reservations

To learn how to create Paid Reservations, check out How to set up Paid Reservations.
 

FAQ and Troubleshooting

1. Can we block out specific dates (ex: holidays)?  

Yes, you can block dates. See the "Blocking reservation time slots" section above.

2. Can we delete a reservation type?

No, but you can edit a reservation type. If there is no inventory for a certain reservation type, that reservation type will not show in the online Reservation Booking Form - it will only show on the dates where inventory exists for that reservation type. 

3. Do we have to “Schedule” in order to apply inventory?

No. You can manually create inventory every day, but we recommend setting your ideal shift for days of the week that are the same and then scheduling those out for the future. The app will prompt you if there are conflicts (see "Scheduling Conflicts" section above). Scheduling is the only way to apply the inventory across days. Current day changes save automatically.

4. How does the inventory tool affect Google / Web reservations?

Setting up your inventory in the tool applies to Google and your Reservation Booking Form. Please note that if you have multiple reservation types, one must be selected as the “Default" because Google can only show one. Through the tool, your first Res Type is your “Default.” If you need to change that, submit a ticket to Engage Support.

NOTE: If using Google sync capabilities, your reservation inventory will only sync if you have the "Sync Availability to Google" enabled in the Reservation Type

5. When I try to create a reservation on the Dashboard I get a "no inventory" message. What do I do?

You won't be able to add a reservation on the Dashboard if you don't have any reservation inventory. If you need to add reservations on the web but don't want to open up inventory you can try the following: 

1 - Create a reservation availability slot (just one)
2 - Immediately block that reservation availability you just created.
3 - Once that reservation spot exists on the day you want to book a reservation, creating other reservations on the desktop will work.

6. When I try to create a reservation on the Dashboard I can't click on the "create reservation" button. What do I do?

You won't be able to add a reservation on the Dashboard if you don't have any reservation inventory. If you need to add reservations on the web but don't want to open up inventory you can try the following: 

1 - Create a reservation availability slot (just one)
2 - Immediately block that reservation availability you just created.
3 - Once that reservation spot exists on the day you want to book a reservation, creating other reservations on the desktop will work.