Understanding the Table Hold Feature for Online Reservations
To prevent accidental double-bookings and ensure a seamless experience for your guests, the system utilizes an automatic Table Hold feature (Status Prebooked). When a customer begins the checkout process on your online reservation widget, the system temporarily locks their assigned table, making it unavailable to other online bookers or staff members.
How It Works
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The 3-Minute Hold: As soon as a guest selects a time slot and begins entering their contact details on your website widget, the system locks that table for 3 minutes. On your dashboard floor plan and reservation list, this hold will appear as a blank, yellow reservation block with no guest information.
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Reservation Completed: The guest has exactly 3 minutes to finish inputting their details. Once they complete the booking, the white block will instantly update into a standard, fully detailed reservation.
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Hold Expired: If the guest closes the widget or fails to complete the booking within the 3-minute countdown, the hold automatically expires. The blank yellow block disappears, and the table instantly becomes available for other bookings again.
⚠️ Important Guidelines for Restaurant Staff
Because these holds represent live checkout sessions happening on your website, please ensure your hosting and reservations team follow this rule:
Do not attempt to move, edit, or manually book over a blank white reservation block.
A blank white slot indicates that a customer is actively filling out their details at that very moment. Attempting to overwrite it will cause booking conflicts. If the guest abandons the booking, the system will automatically clear the space and reopen the table within 3 minutes.
