A service is what a guest books — for example "Lunch", "Terrace reservation", or "Pasta workshop". A schedule defines when that service is available to book and how capacity is managed.
Create a service
Services are the experiences a guest can book online. Examples: Terrace Reservation, 3-Course Lunch Menu, Pasta Workshop, High table reservation.
In the Back Office, go to Reservations > Settings > Availability
Click Create service.
Enter a name (e.g. Lunch or Snacks & Drinks).
Optionally add a description and image. These are shown to guests in the reservation widget.
Choose a colour for the service. Reservations are highlighted with this colour in the timeline and reservations list, so you can see at a glance which service each reservation belongs to.
Configure payment, display, and any other options (see below).
Save the service.
Payment confirmation
You can require a payment confirmation for reservations in this service:
Prepayment deposit — guests pay upfront to secure their reservation. Set the prepayment amount, whether it is charged per guest or per reservation, and the cancellation notice period for a free cancellation.
Credit card guarantee — guests provide credit card details. The card is charged if they cancel at the last minute or do not show up.
Display in the widget
Display of a Service
Services appear in the widget based on their availability for the selected date.
Sort order
Services cannot be manually reordered. They are sorted automatically:
- Services linked to a date-specific schedule are ordered by event start date — earlier dates appear first.
- Recurring services without an event date follow the order they were created in the Back Office.
Tip: Adding numbers or letters to a service name (e.g. "1. Long Seating") does not change its position — the widget does not sort alphabetically. If you need a specific order, recreate the services under Reservations > Services in the sequence you want them to appear. Highlighting a service (see below) also moves it to the front, if it's available at the selected time.
Highlight in widget
Enable this to always show the service in the widget, even when it has no available time slots on the selected date. Use this to promote special events or less popular services.
Note: Highlighting even one service changes how the widget behaves on load. If any service is highlighted, the widget shows only the highlighted service(s) first, with a prompt to select a date and time — other services stay hidden until a date and time is chosen. Once selected, all services available for that slot are shown.
If no services are highlighted, the widget automatically preselects the next available date and time slot and shows all available services for that slot straight away.
Show in widget (private service)
Disable this to hide the service from the widget entirely. Use this for internal services that should only be booked by staff in the Back Office.
Note: Highlighting is not necessary for your regular services. The custom message in the widget is a global setting — it is not possible to show different text per date or service. If you need to communicate date-specific information, add it to the service description instead.
Create a schedule
Schedules define when a service is available to book. You can apply one schedule to multiple services, and use multiple schedules to manage capacity across different time windows.
Go to Reservations > Settings > Availability.
Click Create schedule underneath a service.
Select the services this schedule applies to.
Configure the options below.
Save the schedule.
Seating
Turn on Allocate guests to tables to automatically assign guests to tables.
Select the seating areas this schedule applies to.
Note: If Allocate guests to tables is off, the table capacity set in your Floor plan is not used to calculate availability.
Time, days, and dates
Choose between Recurring weekly or Fixed dates.
Select at least one weekday the schedule applies to.
Set the start and end times for reservations.
Use Suspend availability to close reservations for specific dates or date ranges.
Reservation duration
Set the duration — the average length of a reservation for this service.
Turn on Display reservation end time if you want guests to see the end time.
Squeezing
Squeezing lets guests book shorter reservations when regular availability is limited.
If the service duration is normally 2 hours, squeezing might offer 1 hour 30 minutes instead.
The widget shows a squeezed slot when no regular duration is available for the group size at the requested time.
Shorter end times are highlighted in the reservation widget, in confirmation emails, and at check-in.
Booking window
Maximum advance — how far ahead of time guests can book (e.g. up to 60 days in advance).
Minimum notice — how close to the start of service guests can still book (e.g. at least 2 hours before).
Same-day reservation cutoff — stops new same-day reservations after a specific time.
Advanced guest limits
Maximum number of guests — defaults to the total number of seats in the area. Reduce this to save capacity for walk-ins.
Maximum number of groups — defaults to the total number of reservable tables. Reduce this to cap the total number of bookings allowed under this schedule.
Minimum and maximum group size — limits the number of guests per booking. Useful for capping large groups.
Note: Guest limits and pacing are separate. The limits set here cap the total capacity for the schedule. To control how reservations are spread across time slots (e.g. max bookings per 15 minutes), configure pacing under Pacing.
Need help?
If you have questions, contact Tebi Support.