How to plan which tables each booking will use

Deciding which table each booking will use, often called table allocation, shapes how many guests you can seat in an evening and how calm that evening feels. It is easiest to do when you take the booking, not when the guests are at the door.

Match the party to the table

Give each party the smallest table that seats them comfortably. If you seat a party of two at your only table for six at 18:00, you may have nowhere to put a party of six who arrive at 19:00. Keep your larger tables for larger parties for as long as you can, and give them to smaller parties only when the evening is clearly quiet.

Decide how long a sitting lasts

Pick a usual sitting length for your restaurant, then add the time it takes to clear and reset a table. Allow longer for larger parties, tasting menus and Sunday lunch, and shorter for an early, set-menu sitting.

For example, with a sitting of an hour and a half and five minutes to reset, an 18:00 booking holds its table until 19:35. That table can take another booking from 19:35, not from 19:30.

Plan for groups

• Work out in advance which tables can be pushed together, and write the combinations down. Round tables usually can't be joined.
• Joining tables takes them away from everyone else for the whole sitting, so place group bookings first and fit smaller parties around them.
• Check that a joined group makes sense in the room: tables close together, with space for chairs and for staff to get past.

Keep room to move

• Decide how many tables to keep back for walk-ins, and keep them out of your bookings.
• Don't book a table back to back for the whole evening if one late party would knock every booking after it.
• Expect to move upcoming bookings as the evening fills up. A plan that is easy to change is worth more than a perfect one.

Look at the plan before service

Before you open, go through the evening table by table rather than time by time. Look for tables that are booked too tightly, gaps you could fill with a walk-in, and groups whose tables need setting up in advance.

During service

When a party stays longer or arrives early, look at the next booking on that table before you decide anything. Our guide to stopping double bookings covers keeping everyone working from the same plan.

How Tables & Floors does it

• Type a party size and choose a time, and the table that fits best is chosen for you. You can always choose tables by hand instead.
• When no single table fits, two or three tables are joined, never a round one, and the floor plan draws them together, so you can check the group before you save.
• Each booking starts with your usual sitting length, which you can change for that booking, and holds its tables for the sitting plus clearing time.
• Tables you keep for walk-ins are left out when tables are chosen for you and when guests book online.
• Drag an upcoming booking onto another table, and the floor plan shows whether the party fits and whether that table is already booked at that time.

See tables assigned for you and moving a party with one drag on the features page.