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Why does the widget not show availability on day X at time Z?

Do you wonder why guests can't place reservations in the widget on certain days? We frequently get the question of why there is no availability in the widget for certain days at certain times. 

In Formitable it is possible to limit the number of guests and reservations for your restaurant in multiple ways. Some old settings might interfere with what you currently want to achieve in your restaurant.

If your restaurant is not available for reservations on a certain day, but you think it should be, please check the following settings:

  • Pacing limits - timeslots may be capped or closed

  • Shift seating limits - the max. number of guests or reservations for a shift or product might be reached

  • Overall restaurant settings - the max. total number of guests or reservations for your restaurant might be reached

  • Area limits - the max. number of guests for a particular area may be reached

  • Tables - some tables might be offline, or there are only tables for bigger groups available

These five limits can all be applied at the same time and the lowest setting overrides the other ones. They can limit the number of reservations that are allowed and might make your restaurant appear as 'fully booked' already even though you want to accept reservations. Here's where to find your settings and fix them.

Pacing limits might make timeslots appear as full or closed

Pacing limits determine the maximum number of guests you want to accept for a specific timeslot. You can limit timeslots by capping them or disable reservations altogether by closing them. Pacing limits can be applied to a specific day or every day.

  • To check the pacing limits of a specific day, click on the icon with the little switches in the overview.

  • To check all pacing limits, go to Settings > Shifts > Pacing.

Shift seating limits might make a ticket or shifts appear as full

For each shift, you can decide how many guests and reservations you want to accept on a given day. The total number of guests for a ticket is determined by the combination of all its shifts.

  • To check the seating limits of your shift, go to Settings > Shifts > Select the shift > Seating > Seating Limits.

Overall restaurant settings limit the total number of reservations & guests

To control the overall flow of guests you can define a maximum number of guests and reservations per timeslot for your restaurant. This applies to all tickets, all shifts, and on all days.

  • To check the maximum number of guests and reservations per timeslot for your restaurant, go to Settings > Setup > Reservations.

Area limits make an area appear as fully booked

Especially with legislation around corona, many restaurants limited the number of guests in certain areas of the restaurant. If the number of guests has been reached in the area, no more reservations will be accepted in that particular area.

Tables might be available offline, but not for online reservations

Many restaurant want to reserve a number of tables for walk-ins, that is the reason why you can choose for each table if it should be available online or offline.

  • To check if a table is available online, go to the overview in the 'table view' mode. The green dots show you which tables are online.

  • To check all tables and set them to online, go to Settings > Tables. You can find more information on adjusting tables here.

  • Please note that if you only have tables available for 4+ guests, it is no longer possible to make reservations for 2 guests. To allow for reservations of fewer guests you need to reduce the minimum guest size of that table.

External partners like Google might show less available timeslots. Read more about the features and limitations for the Formitable integration with Reserve with Google here.

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