In this article we explain how you can work with two shifts, but with a spread in the reservation times. This way you prevent everyone from standing at the door at the start of the shift. It also pleasant for guests that they have multiple time slots to make a reservation.
Note: Do not forget to set your Timeslot size in Setting > Setup under the heading Reservations. In this example we work with a timeslot size of 15 minutes. This means that available times are shown every 15 minutes.
In this example we work with two shifts
A shift that guests can book from 17:30 to 18:30 and always ends at 20:00
A shift that guests can book from 20:15 to 21:00 till closing time
Go to Product > Tickets and click on the shift associated with the ticket
Go to Settings > Shifts and click on the shift associated with the ticket
Go to Time & days and set the first and last time guests can reserve per shift.
To ensure that everyone leaves the first shift at 20:00, click on Seating
Here you set Squeeze to fixed end time at 20:00. This way you ensure that no one stays longer than 20:00. It does not matter whether guests have reserved at 17:30 or 18:30.
It is of course possible that despite the multiple times to make a reservation, everyone still makes a reservation at 6:00 PM. You can prevent this by setting Pacing limits.
Click Pacing Limits and click the Blue + icon
Click on the three dots on the right: All your bookable times are on Capped and you can indicate the maximum number of guests per time. This way you can be sure that not everyone makes the reservation at the same time.
Go to Settings > Widgets and click on Configuration page at Embed widget to see how your settings are displayed in your widget at any time.