For pubs
Table booking for pubs
Tablez was built by people who run a pub, so it handles the things pubs actually deal with: Sunday lunch rushes, a dining room and a bar with different rules, walk-ins who still need a table, and staff who are too busy to check a diary.
Free for up to 60 bookings a month. No per cover fees, ever.
The pub problem with booking systems
Most booking systems were designed for restaurants with a host stand and someone whose job is to answer the phone. Pubs do not work like that. The person taking the booking is also pulling pints, changing a barrel and telling the kitchen table six wants the bill. A diary behind the bar gets scribbled on, spilt on and, on a good Saturday, forgotten entirely.
The other problem is cost. Systems priced for restaurants charge a monthly fee that makes sense if you do 80 covers every night, and some add a fee per diner on top. For a village pub doing 30 Sunday lunches and a handful of midweek tables, that is money for nothing. Tablez is free for up to 60 bookings a month and £5 a month, paid yearly, after that, with no per cover fees at any level.
What Tablez does for a pub
Keeps tables for people who want to eat
Set up your dining room tables and leave the bar out of it. Customers who want to eat book a table; drinkers walk in as they always have. If you have a snug or a garden you take bookings for, add those as named tables with their own capacity.
Handles Sunday lunch properly
Sunday is the day pubs live or die by. Set a separate Sunday service with its own hours, longer turn times for roasts, and a cap on covers per 15 minutes so the kitchen is not plating 40 dinners at 1pm. When Sunday is full, the calendar shows red and customers pick another day instead of ringing to be told no.
Alerts on the bar phone
Install the staff app on the bar phone or the manager's mobile. When a request comes in, it beeps and shows two big buttons: accept or decline. On the Starter plan and above it sends a push notification even if the phone is in a pocket. That means the person who knows whether table four is free can answer in seconds, without leaving the bar.
Live check for busy nights
Turn on live check when it is heaving. The customer sees "we are checking now" with a short countdown while your staff get an alert. If nobody answers in time, you decide whether it becomes a request to deal with later or a polite "sorry, try another time". Customers get an honest answer and nobody promises a table that does not exist.
Walk-ins and phone bookings too
Staff can add a walk-in or a phone booking in a few taps, so the online diary and the real world stay in sync. Mark arrivals and no-shows so you build up a picture of who turns up and who does not.
Where to put your booking link
- Your Google Business Profile, as the reservation link. This is where most pub bookings start.
- Your Facebook page and Instagram bio. See booking link for Instagram and Facebook.
- A QR code on the menus, the blackboard and the window.
- Your website, if you have one, using the embed. If your website is a Facebook page, that is fine too.
Pubs with rooms and food
If you are a pub with rooms, Tablez handles restaurant bookings for both residents and non-residents. Residents can book their dinner table when they check in, or you can add it for them. Our hotel restaurant page covers that in more detail.
Honest limits
Tablez does not do table plans with drag and drop floor layouts, and it does not manage your rooms or your EPOS. It takes bookings, tells your staff, and confirms to the customer, and it does those well. Deposits for big groups are coming soon, and until then staff approved mode lets you phone a party of 14 before you confirm them.
FAQ
Questions from pubs
We only take bookings for Sunday lunch. Is it worth it?
Yes, and it is free at that volume. Set Sunday as your only bookable service and the calendar will show every other day as closed for bookings. Customers still walk in as usual the rest of the week.
Can I keep some tables for walk-ins?
Yes. Only add the tables you want to be bookable. Anything you leave out stays first come, first served. You can also cap bookings per service so you never book out the whole room.
What about the bar phone being busy or on charge?
Every request also goes by email, and you choose what happens if nobody answers a live check in time. Most pubs leave instant confirmation on for small parties and use staff approved mode for larger ones.
Can staff decline a booking?
Yes, with a reason that goes to the customer in a polite email. For example "sorry, the kitchen is closed for a private party on that date".
Does it handle dogs, high chairs and the garden?
Customers can add a note with their booking, and you can set your own wording on the booking page to say what you can and cannot do. Bookable garden tables can be added as their own group.