Table requests

Table requests are on for every claimed venue. There is nothing to buy and no cut of the meal, ever.

THREE ANSWERS. ACCEPT, and the table is theirs with a reference and a code. SEND NEW TIME, with a thirty minute nudge either way so a different hour is two taps, and the guest says yes or no. DECLINE, with four one-tap reasons if you want to give one: no empty tables, kitchen closure, private event, party too large.

SEND NEW TIME IS THE ANSWER THAT EARNS YOU MONEY. It is for the booking you would happily take at a different hour, and most people say yes. A straight decline on a table you could have filled at eight is a table you gave away.

YOU HAVE ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES, and the system helps. Halfway through your window your phone is pushed. Later it will spend money on an SMS to reach you. If nothing reaches you, the request expires and the guest is shown somewhere else, with the wording careful not to blame you when the fault was ours.

A HOLD NEVER OUTLIVES THE SITTING. The request dies before the meal rather than after it, so you are never asked about a table for last night.

YOU ARE TOLD WHICH DOOR THE ANSWER WENT THROUGH. If the guest has the app, you are told it is on their phone and in their email. If they do not, you are told it went by email only and that nothing pinged a phone. That matters when you are expecting somebody to react quickly.

YOU CAN MESSAGE THE GUEST in the thread on the request itself, so a question about a pushchair or a birthday cake does not need a phone call.