In the previous article, we began adding availability to your tables and demonstrated the difference between Instant Availability and Request Mode from the perspective of a customer (and your own). It is important to understand the difference here and to explain this a little further, you can watch the explanation below.

This time, we will make a few bookings to demonstrate how the widget will change and adapt based on your customers' bookings.

The Setup

Tables and Sections - we have one table of two for one hour and thirty minutes and one table of five for two hours.

Availability - both tables are completely available, seven days a week.

Making the First Booking

1. As a customer, we arrive at our booking widget and make a reservation for 5 people for tonight.
2. Take note that all time slots are green based on the availability we provided the system. If we quickly change this to 3 pax, the system will revert to Request Mode. (Note that in this configuration, if a booking of 4 occurs, it will also be instantly approved because the system knows it can put a table of 4 onto a table of 5).
3. We proceed with the booking of 5 for 6 pm.
4. The booking confirmation is sent to both the vendor and the customer.

Making the Second Booking

If we proceed to make another booking of 5 for the same time as before, we will begin to see different results. This is due to the fact that we used the table 'stock/availability in the previous booking. You will notice that the times in and around the 6 pm time slot are back in Request Mode. This is due to the fact that there is no immediate availability between...

• 5 pm-6 pm, as previously stated, a table of 5 requires 2 hours before it becomes available. As a result, we cannot make a reservation at 5 pm-6 pm and have the customers leave before 6 pm.
• 6 pm-8 pm, as the table is booked for two hours.

What’s Next?

Step 9 - Stopping the system going back to Request Mode.