The table offer and how a guest confirms it

When a table frees up for a guest on the waitlist, the reservation is not always created there and then. On some services the table is offered to them first: it is held for them, and they have to say they are still coming before a deadline. This page covers what they receive, what they see, and what happens if they decline or never answer.

What they are asked for depends on the settings you chose for that service — the card imprint in the booking rules, guest confirmation in the waitlist:

The service	What the guest does to hold the table
Takes no card imprint, and Ask the guest to confirm is ticked	They confirm, with no card. See the waitlist.
Takes a card imprint	They save a card, which counts as the confirmation. See booking rules.
Requires neither	Nothing: the reservation is created outright, with no offer and no deadline.

If you set the imprint to apply only from a given party size upwards, both rows coexist on the same service and the size of the request settles it: above your threshold a card is asked for, below it a plain confirmation. So the Promote… window shows the Ask the guest to confirm box only on the requests that fall under that threshold.

When an offer goes out

A table frees up, it matches a request in the queue, the service asks for a confirmation: the next guest in line gets the offer. Four cases produce none.

On a service with no imprint and no guest confirmation there is nothing to confirm: the reservation is created directly.

Within the hour before the sitting, nothing goes out automatically, whatever the setting. You are told a match exists and you decide.

When the service is closed to bookings, nothing goes out and you are not told. On a service already under way, the Allow bookings during service and Cutoff before service settings decide, in booking rules. This is the only one of the four you set yourself: if a table frees up mid-service and nobody is promoted, look there.

When the guest left no email address, no offer goes out: the match is flagged to you in the queue, the request keeps its place and no table is held. Calling them is yours to do.

The deadline for accepting the table

On Automatic (recommended), the deadline depends on how long is left before the meal: a quarter of that time, with a floor of 45 minutes and a ceiling of 24 hours.

Table frees up	Time to confirm
Two hours before the meal	45 minutes
In the morning for that evening	2 hr 30
Several days ahead	24 hours at most

On Fixed deadline, it is the value you entered, whenever the table frees up.

Two bounds apply either way. A deadline never falls after the meal time. And a deadline that would fall between 22:00 and 08:00, venue time, is moved to the morning: the table stays held overnight.

On a service that takes a card, the time to confirm and the time to save the card are the same instant.

What the guest receives

An email, and a text message if you have turned that channel on for this type of message. The two offers are two separate message types, Table offer to confirm and Table offer with card — see notifications.

A third type exists for the promotion you make yourself on a service that asks for an imprint: Card requested after promotion. It says something else, because the guest is in a different situation — nobody offered them a table and they did not book one: you assigned them one. The subject reads a table is yours, to confirm before…, and it is the only message they receive: the usual confirmation is not sent, since it would claim the opposite.

With no imprint, the subject carries your venue’s name, then a table is available, to confirm before 25 December at 19:45. The Confirm my table button opens the request’s page, which recalls the offered time under Table offered at 20:15 and carries the Confirm this table button.

With an imprint, the subject and the message name the deadline: To confirm this table, save a payment card before 25 December at 19:45. No amount is charged now. The link opens the self-service payment page, which recalls the table and carries the same Confirm this table button.

Either way, confirming creates the reservation and the guest receives the A table has become available — your reservation is confirmed email in place of the ordinary confirmation.

What you see meanwhile

The table is held for that guest: the reservation exists and occupies its table, with the status Awaiting guest on a service with no imprint, Awaiting guarantee on a service that takes a card — see reservation statuses.

On Awaiting guest, the badge opens the Confirm for the guest action: use it when the guest calls you to accept, rather than withdrawing the offer. What it does is covered in the statuses of a waitlist request.

In the queue, the request carries Offer sent with its deadline, covered in the statuses of a waitlist request.

If the guest declines, or lets the deadline pass

Both pages also carry No thanks — withdraw my waitlist request. A decline closes the request; a missed deadline returns it to the queue, behind the requests that have never had an offer. Either way the table becomes available again straight away and the next request is handled.

On the second missed deadline the request is closed: a guest can let one offer pass and get another, never a third.

Once the deadline has passed, the page with no imprint shows The deadline has passed and says the table has been offered to another guest. The page with an imprint sends the guest to their request’s own link without saying what became of it: that link is what shows the real state.

You can also withdraw a live offer from the queue, covered in the statuses of a waitlist request.