For bars
Bookings for bars
Bars book differently. It is booths and tables for groups, not covers for dinner. It is a Friday night rush of requests at 6pm from people already on the way. Tablez lets you reserve the tables you want to reserve, keep the rest for walk-ins, and answer requests from the bar phone in seconds.
Free for up to 60 bookings a month. Then £9.99 a month. Never per cover.
Watch: Waitlist and guest notes
Fill the tables that come free, and help your whole team remember your regulars. 2 min
Read the transcript
Two small things that make a big difference a wait list So a full night doesn't mean turning people away for good and guest notes. So your whole team remembers your regulars Here's how both work in Tablez First the wait list under booking rules tick offer a wait list when a day or time is full Now when a customer tries to book in your full they can join the wait list instead with their name number party size, and the time they'd like. Someone rings or walks in, open waitlist, press, add a walk-in to the waitlist, put in their name, party and mobile, and press add. When a booking is cancelled or declined, or you free a table on the floor plan, everyone waiting that day is told a table may have come free. by email and by text if you've switched waitlist texts on. Nothing is booked automatically. It's first come, first served, and when your walk-in comes back, seat them straight from the floor plan. Now guest notes, open guests, and you'll see everyone who's ever booked with how many times they've booked, turned up, cancelled, or not shown. Regulars are marked after three visits. Filter by regulars, people you haven't seen in 90 days, no shows or anyone with notes and you can download the whole list as a spreadsheet. Open a guest and you'll see their history, their usual party size and every visit. Then write notes for your team. Like's the window side, her husband needs gluten free, birthday in March, press save notes. Those notes now appear on every booking they make so whoever's on shift knows before they even walk in. Bookings attack too, regular and new customer are added for you and allergies, birthdays, anniversaries and high chairs are picked up from what the customer writes so nothing gets missed. The waitlist and guest profiles both come with standard at £9.99 a month with no fee per diner.
What a bar needs from a booking system
Not a restaurant diary. A bar wants to take reservations for a few booths and the bigger tables, particularly for groups on Friday and Saturday, and leave everything else first come, first served. It wants to know a group of twelve is coming at nine so the corner is cleared. And it wants requests answered fast, because someone booking a table at 6pm for 8pm will go elsewhere if they hear nothing by half past.
Restaurant systems charge you for all the things you will not use, and some charge per person on top. Tablez charges a flat price, free at first, and never per cover, so a Saturday with a hundred people through the door costs the same as a wet Tuesday.
How bars set up Tablez
Reserve the booths, not the bar
Add only the tables you want bookable: four booths of 6, two big tables of 10, the mezzanine as a named area. Everything else stays walk-in. Customers pick a group size and see what is available for it.
Longer slots, later hours
Turn times are up to you. Give a booth two or three hours, or make it the whole evening. Services can run past midnight, so a Friday service from 5pm to 1am works without any fiddling, and the calendar shows the right day for a booking at half past midnight.
Live check at peak
Switch on live check on busy nights. The customer sees "we are checking now" with a countdown while the phone behind the bar beeps. A staff member taps accept and the customer gets a confirmation with a reference to show on the door. If nobody answers in a couple of minutes, you choose whether the customer is told to try another time or the request is parked to deal with later.
Vet big groups first
Set groups over a certain size to staff approved so you can ring them, check it is not a stag do you would rather not have, and confirm on your terms. Decline with a reason and the customer gets a polite email rather than silence.
Push alerts to whoever is on
On the Standard plan and above, every staff phone gets a push notification when a request lands, even with the app closed. Unlimited staff logins mean the bar manager, the door and the owner all see the same list.
Getting the link in front of people
Bars get found on Instagram and Google Maps. Put the booking link in your bio and as the reservation link on your Google Business Profile, and use it in stories on a Thursday when people are planning the weekend. Our Instagram and Facebook page has the details. If you have a website, the "Book a table" button opens the booking page in an overlay without you rebuilding anything.
Cocktail bars, wine bars, sports bars
A cocktail bar with table service can run instant confirmation for pairs and staff approved for groups. A wine bar with food can set up lunch and evening services like a restaurant. A sports bar can close bookings on match days, or open extra tables for them, by editing that one date without touching the weekly hours.
Honest limits
Tablez is not a ticketing platform or a guest list app. What it does do for bars on the Pro plan: events with their own capacity and price, deposits and card holds through your own Stripe account for big groups, and a waitlist that texts people when a table frees up. Staff approved mode and a phone call are still your friends for anything unusual.
FAQ
Questions from bars
Can bookings run past midnight?
Yes. A service can start in the evening and end in the early hours, and everything is shown against the night it belongs to.
Can I take reservations for some areas only?
Yes. Add the booths and tables you want bookable and leave the rest. You can name areas, for example "Mezzanine" or "Garden", and customers can request them in the notes.
How do I stop people booking a table and not turning up?
The reminder email and text cut no-shows a lot on their own, and the "still coming?" text a few hours before catches the rest. For groups, take a deposit or a card hold (Pro), or use staff approved mode and phone them. Our no-shows guide goes through what works.
Can I close bookings on a big match night?
Yes. Close that date, or just one service on it, in two taps. Regular hours are untouched.
Do I need a website?
No. The booking link works on its own from Instagram, Google or a QR code. If you have a site, embedding takes a minute.