Time slots

SeatOn Web - Time slots

On this page you can define time slots list available when creating reservations. Moreover, you can set limits for online reservations, in terms of capping a number of created reservations, or the maximum number of persons.

Access this page by selecting Settings/Time slots from the menu of SeatOn Web application. You can set up different time slots list for online reservations (created by customers), or offline reservations (created by employees in the SeatOn application).

When setting up time slots, you have two setup modes available:

• Generated time slots - specify only the step between time slots, and the system automatically generates all time slots
• Predefined time slots - explicitly define each time slot which you want to have available

1. Generated time slots

If you choose generated time slots, you only have to select time difference (i.e. step) between two adjacent time slots, and the system will automatically generate all time slots, taking into account business hours defined on Business hours page.

The step is selected from the drop down menu "Time slot definition":

When you are finished with your setup, you must click the button "Save offline settings" in order to apply changes.

Example 1:

Your business hours are from 3PM - 10 PM, and your time step is set to 30 minutes. Time slots offered would be: 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30,...,9:00, 9:30, 10:00:

2. Predefined time slots

For pre-defined time slots, instead of the system generating time slots automatically (which is the default setup), you can define each time slot which you want to be shown when creating reservations. When creating reservations, the system will show only the time slots you explicitly specify.

In order to set up pre-defined timeslots, you have to do the following:

• Enable pre-defined time slots -
• Create a time slot list -
• Select a time-slot definition and the last time slot -

Enable pre-defined time slots

Enable pre-defined time slots by checking the checkbox "Pre-defined time slots":

Creating a time slot list

Create a new time slot list by clicking on the button "Create time slot list" on the panel "Predefined time slots", on the bottom of the page:

 

A dialog will open where you will be able to define time slot list, i.e. a specific combination of allowed time slots. Each time slot combination can be saved in a separate list, which can then later be selected from the drop down menu:

 

 

In this dialog you enter general information about this combination, as well as the limitation policy, and a scope of limitation. Please note that scope of this limitation can be applied by considering online reservations only (at the moment). Exact time slots are managed in the following step.

 

After you created a few time slot sets, Predefined time slots list might look something like this:

 

At any time you can Edit, Delete or Manage time slots list by clicking on their appropriate buttons. Click the button "Manage time slots" in order to specify exact time slots, and a dialog will open where you can add or remove time slots in this combination:

 

 

In order to define one time slot, click one of the number buttons in the row "Hours", one of the number buttons in the row "Minutes", and select AM or PM. Then click the button "Add time slot" to add this specific time slot.

When you are finished with specifying all time slots, click the button "Close", and the dialog will close. You have now created and defined a time slot list.

 

 

Select a time-slot definition

 

After you have created a time slot list (i.e. definition), select a time slot definition from the drop down menu:

 

Finally, when you are finished with your setup, you must click the button "Save offline settings" in order to apply changes.

3. Offline and online reservations

As mentioned, offline reservations are entered by employees using the SeatOn application, while online reservations are entered by guests visiting restaurant's website.

Both offline and online reservations can have different specifications of their time slots, however if you want them to be the same, you don't have to create specification for both of them. In this case, you create specification for offline reservations, and for online reservations you just select the option "Use offline time slots definition":

On the other hand, if you want to have different time slot settings for online reservations, select either "Generated time slots" or "Pre-defined time slots" on the "Online reservations - created by guests through online channels" panel. The specification procedure is the same as for offline reservations, described above, for Generated time slots and Pre-defined time slots.

When you are finished with your setup, you must click the button "Save online settings" in order to apply changes.